The National Tally of Moratorium Endorsers has surpassed 2,500 groups calling for a halt to executions. The list includes faith communities, civil rights groups, businesses, unions, professional associations, 78 city, county, and town councils, and more. Some of the more recent additions include the New Jersey chapter of the National Organization of Women, 75 Texas…
During its 2001-02 term, the United States Supreme Court issued two landmark rulings: one barring the execution of the mentally retarded and another which requires such fundamental changes in how some states impose death sentences that it has led to special legislative sessions. Thus far this year, no death row appeal taken on by the…
“You know, they’d come back from war, it might be three months, it might be two years, it might be five years, all of a sudden they relive it again, and all that has to come out.” – Fred Allen, Witness to an Execution radio documentary Before police finally caught sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad,…
On April 8, 2002, Ray Krone walked out of the Arizona State Prison in Yuma after spending 10 years behind bars, nearly three of them on death row, for a crime he did not commit. Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said at a press conference on the day of Krone’s release that an injustice was…
Moratorium bills passed the Nevada Senate and the Maryland House of Delegates. A moratorium amendment lost by only 3 votes in the Connecticut House, while Texas bills passed committees in both legislative houses. Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Missouri, and North Carolina enacted legislation banning the execution of the mentally retarded. 17 states improved access to post-conviction…
Plagued with campaign trail questions about the moratorium in Illinois, and the likelihood that the innocent will be executed, Governor George Bush keeps insisting on the guilt of everyone he has executed. No wonder. Already this year, Texas has sent 13 people to its execution chamber, including 62-year old domestic violence victim Bettie Lou Beets….
It is 6:00 pm, January 24, 2000, and I am walking across the open space between the “Justice” Building and the Walls Unit, Huntsville, Texas. Thirty State Troopers, in full uniform, stand at attention to my left. I have come to witness the execution of my friend, Billy Hughes, convicted of killing a police officer…