Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for setting the house fire that killed his three daughters, but a spate of forensic fire experts have said (both before and after the execution) there is no credible evidence that it was arson. The Texas Forensic Science Commission, which was charged with examining the forensic practices in…
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New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NYADP) could have closed up shop years ago – when New York effectively ended the death penalty. But they are still in business and the recent case involving Frank Sterling is a good reminder why. Frank Sterling had been awake for 36 hours when he confessed to…
Read MoreFor every execution, there is a team of executioners. They are the ones who watch the inmate in his or her final days, who strap the inmate to the gurney, who insert and reinsert the needles, and who remove the inmate from the gurney following the execution. They are the ones who deal with botched…
Read MoreNew Hampshire’s death penalty study commission, which started its investigation in October 2009, just concluded its final hearing. The Commission has heard from over a hundred witnesses on issues such as innocence, fairness, public safety, and alternatives. The review has been a showcase of the death penalty’s litany of problems. Ray Krone and Juan Melendez…
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“There may be other reasons to support the death penalty, but the belief that it deters murder should not be one of them,” said Tomislav Kovandzic a University of Texas (UT) criminologist who testified at the most recent hearing of the New Hampshire Commission to Study the Death Penalty. Kovandzic’s UT study found no support…
Read MoreThe American Law Institute (ALI), one of the most respected institutions in American jurisprudence, recently got rid of the capital punishment section from its Model Penal Code. If that sounds dry to you, consider this: the Model Penal Code serves as a blueprint for state laws. Their capital punishment section was the framework on which…
Read MoreA bill that would end the death penalty in Kansas passed the senate judiciary committee by a vote of 7 to 4! The ‘yeses’ included five Republicans and two Democrats and this bi-partisan endorsement moves the bill on to the full state senate, which will debate the issue as early as next week. The committee’s…
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For every execution, there is an executioner. Actually there is a whole team of people required to follow the multitude of procedures associated with carrying out a death sentence. These women and men may have had nothing to do with the crime, but they still suffer consequences. Former prison warden, Dr. Allen Ault, recently opened…
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“The Execution of Solomon Harris” is a new short film featured at Sundance this year and continuing on the film festival circuit. While the story (fictional, but based on an old news account) is meant to take place about thirty years ago, the questions it raises couldn’t be more relevant to today. In the film,…
Read MoreNew Jersey Sen. Robert Martin is mindful of history.
“One hundred years from now I hope we will be remembered for having had the courage to be leaders in advancing this cause for a more civilized society,” said Martin, R-Morris.
The cause: Abolishing the death penalty.
The New Jersey is poised to give final legislative approval on Thursday to abolishing the death penalty, becoming the first state to do so since 1965 when Iowa and West Virginia abolished it.
The state Senate approved the bill Monday; The Assembly will vote Thursday and is expected to pass it. Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said he’ll sign the bill.
Death penalty foes are hoping New Jersey will inspire others to follow suit.
“I hope New Jersey will give encouragement to other legislators and public officials to have the courage to face this issue squarely,” said Joshua Rubenstein, Amnesty International USA’s northeast director.
Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said New Jersey reflects a growing national trend against the death penalty, with executions in decline and more states weighing abolition.
“We have learned a lot about the death penalty in the past 30 years,” Rust-Tierney said. “When you look closely at the facts, it just doesn’t add up to sound policy.”
She noted New Jersey’s votes come a week after Michael L. McCormick of Tennessee was acquitted in a retrial after spending 15 years on death row.
The nation has executed 1,099 people since the U.S. Supreme Court reauthorized the death penalty in 1976. In 1999, 98 people were executed, the most since 1976; last year 53 people were executed, the lowest since 1996.
“The United States is one of the few countries in the world that has a death penalty, keeping company with the likes of Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya and Afghanistan,” said New Jersey Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union.
Other states have considered abolishing the death penalty, but none have advanced as far as New Jersey. According to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, 37 states have the death penalty.
“Some people deserve to die and we have an obligation to execute them,” said New York Law School professor Robert Blecker, a national death penalty supporter who has been lobbying New Jersey lawmakers against abolition.
But death penalty foes point to recent success:
_ The Massachusetts House in November rejected reinstating the death penalty.
_ A 2004 appeals court decision found New York’s death penalty law unconstitutional.
_ The American Bar Association recently said problems in state death penalty procedures justify a nationwide execution freeze.
_ Tennessee lawmakers are analyzing that state’s death penalty.
_ Then-Gov. George Ryan of Illinois declared a moratorium on executions in 2000 after 13 people who were found to have been wrongfully convicted were released.
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