Death Penalty

Robin Lovitt, who made international news when he was scheduled to be the 1,000th execution, was granted clemency yesterday:

"Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia granted clemency Tuesday to a convicted killer, declaring that the loss of a crucial piece of evidence had persuaded him that the man should not be put to death as scheduled on Wednesday.

"Mr. Warner's decision, in the case of Robin Lovitt, blocked what would have been the 1,000th execution in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976."

AIUSA makes national news for its calls to end the death penalty:

"Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), along with a broad spectrum of human rights organizations and social justice groups, is calling on state and federal authorities to immediately end all executions. Since 1976, more than 120 of 194 countries are abolitionists in law or practice.

"'One hundred and twenty two individuals have been exonerated from death row since 1973, meaning that one wrongfully convicted person has been released for every eight that have been executed,' said Dr. William F. Schulz, executive director, AIUSA. 'Where else has the government been allowed to make this many serious mistakes before the public demanded change? Public officials should take note of both the gruesome nature of this milestone and the failures of a system that is allowed to function with such a high error rate. If they do, they will clearly see that the time to abolish the death penalty is long overdue.'"

Shujaa Graham, once a death-row prisoner, joins with others to protest the death penalty:

"Graham and other death penalty opponents, including a Florida woman who was nearly stabbed to death by the same man convicted of murdering her father, spoke Tuesday night at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Calhoun Street. Earlier, they met with media on the front steps of the nearby Charleston County Library.They were part of the "Voices of Experience" tour, sponsored by the Center for Capital Litigation, which represents indigent inmates sentenced to death.They weren't arguing that South Carolina and other states should open the doors to death row and turn everyone out, but they said the death penalty is problematic because it's often imposed unfairly and arbitrarily.Like many opponents, [they] argued that who ends up on death row has less to do with the crime and more to do with the wealth of the defendant and his ability to hire competent counsel, the location of the crime and the races of the defendant and victim."

See "Clemency Stops an Execution in Virginia," and "U.S. Executed 1,000, As 70 Nations Abolished Death Penalty; AIUSA Says System Too Plagued with Error and Bias to be Fair, Just or Necessary," and "Death Penalty Debated."

Gov. Mark R. Warner has granted clemency to Robin Lovitt, who was scheduled to be executed in Virginia on November 30. Mr. Lovitt's sentence has been commuted to life in prison. AIUSA would like to thank the thousands of people in the U.S. and worldwide that wrote appeals on Mr. Lovitt's behalf.

Read The New York Times article Virginia Governor Commutes Death Sentence

The 1000th execution in the U.S. is now scheduled to be in North Carolina early on Friday, Dec. 2.  Urge Governor Easley to follow Governor Warner's lead by granting clemency to Kenneth Boyd. 

On Wednesday, the United States is due to execute the 1,000th prisoner since the country reinstated the death penalty. Robin Lovitt, convicted of stabbing a man to death with a pair of scissors, has become a poster child for this debate:

"Dicks was stabbed to death during a robbery and witnesses pointed the finger at Lovitt, who was found with the dead man's cash tin. But DNA tests on the scissors proved inconclusive and they were later thrown away by a court clerk during a clear-out[...]'Because the evidence was destroyed, even before he completed his direct appeal to the US Supreme Court, Mr Lovitt has not been afforded the right afforded every other death-row inmate to establish his innocence in the post-conviction process by testing the DNA evidence,' his lawyers wrote in their clemency petition.

"'I don't think many jurors feel comfortable playing Russian roulette with people's lives,' said Kathleen Hawk Norman - a juror in the trial of Dan Bright, a Louisiana man sentenced to death in 1996 but cleared last year."

See "Death penalty debate rages as 1000th execution looms."

The Rocky Mountain Collegian ran an article this morning titled 'Death Penalty Still Racist.' In it, staff reporter Ben Bleckley writes on the statistical racial inequalities in the United States death penalty:

"While national statistics comparing Caucasian to minority death sentences are only proportionally unequal, in some states there are drastically more minority inmates on death row than Caucasians.

"According to the 2004 Capital Punishment bulletin issued by the Department of Justice, 1,851 whites were on death row nationally compared to 1,390 African Americans. In Louisiana, however, the number of white to African American is 30 to 59, in Pennsylvania it is 77 to 134 and for Federal inmates it is 12 to 20.

"This would suggest some state and federal systems still hand down capital sentences based partially on the color of a defendant's skin."

David Berger, attorney with the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers and Amnesty International’s researcher for the report, The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States, addresses the racial disparities in the sentencing of children:

"Children can and sometimes do commit terrible crimes[...]But life in prison without any possibility or even consideration of parole does not hold children accountable, it holds them disposable. [There are] 2,225 child offenders in the United States, a whopping 317 of which are here in Louisiana, who have been locked up for life without any possibility of parole[...]Also striking are the racial disparities, which we find in every area of the criminal justice system but which are perhaps even more pronounced in the sentencing of children to life without parole. Black children in the United States are 10 times more likely to receive life without parole than white children are - and 5 times more likely in Louisiana. Sixty percent of the current population of child offenders serving life without parole in the U.S. is black.

"As the Supreme Court said in a landmark decision on the juvenile death penalty last spring: 'any parent knows' and 'scientific and sociological studies . . . tend to confirm' that children possess a 'lack of maturity . . . an underdeveloped sense of responsibility . . . [and take] impetuous and ill-considered actions and decisions.'"

See "Death Penalty Still Racist," and "Don't Discard Youthful Offenders."

New evidence compiled by the Houston Chronicle casts extreme doubt on an execution carried out in 1993, as The Independent reported:

"George Bush's home state of Texas suffered the rare indignity yesterday of being accused by one of its own most prominent newspapers of putting an innocent man to death.

"[...]There is nothing new about doubts arising from death penalty cases in the United States, and especially not in Texas, which leads the nation in both executions and the vehemence of the anti-capital punishment movement. Even Texan voters, who are broadly supportive of their state's tough approach to criminal justice ­ including the controversial execution of defendants who were minors at the time of the offence ­ have told opinion pollsters they believe some innocent people have been put to death."

See "Case of Ruben Cantu highlights flaws in Texas death penalty."

TalkLeft.com is featuring a petition, fact sheet, and more today on the case of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, who has been sentenced to be executed in California.

Richard A. Sarrano of the Los Angeles Times speculates that Samuel A. Alito, Mr. Bush's supreme court nominee, might shift the court's stance on the death penalty:

"With no fanfare, the Supreme Court granted a last-minute reprieve this past summer to a man who has spent 17 years on death row in Pennsylvania. Convicted of fatally stabbing a tavern owner and setting him on fire, Ronald Rompilla had run out of appeals when the Supreme Court stepped in. By the narrowest of margins - 5-4 - the court vacated his death penalty and returned the case for resentencing. It marked the third time since 2000 that a loose coalition of liberal and swing-vote justices has struck down death-penalty cases because of poor work by defense lawyers.

"Of broader importance, the court in the Rompilla case overturned a lower ruling written by Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - the same man who might replace one of those swing votes on the Supreme Court early next year."

From the Daily Times on Saturday, November 19:

"The race for Governor of Virginia is over. The critics have had their say. The proponent of the death penalty was soundly defeated. The irony is that the death penalty issue was a political red herring to begin with. There was not, nor was there meant to be, any serious discussion of this most serious issue[...]We do have a lot of factual data. We know for sure the death penalty is not a deterrent. We know that the system has unfixable flaws that put innocent people to death. And we know that killing prisoners demeans the sanctity of life. We say that we are delivering justice and sometimes we are. But sometimes we are not and that is intolerable."

An article in the Huntsville Times suggests that Alabama's death penalty is coming under reconsideration:

"Alabama continues to have one of the largest death rows, according to a new report by the federal government, but some experts say national support for the death penalty is waning. For years, the state has had the most inmates on death row per capita than any other state.

"'The death penalty in Alabama has been used to kind of create an identity without regard to what the law requires, and you see that in the data,' said Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, which represents death row inmates on appeal. 'Alabama's death penalty is largely, in my mind, mistakes.'

"'We make mistake after mistake after mistake. The illegality of most of these convictions speaks volumes in my mind why there's a need for reform.'"

See "New Data Stir Old Debate."

High-profile figures join the crowds protesting Stanley 'Tookie' Williams:

Former street gangster and rapper Snoop Dogg will attend a rally outside San Quentin State Prison to support a former gang leader scheduled to be executed next month for murdering four people in robberies.

During his years on death row, Williams has earned international acclaim for his children's books urging kids to stay out of gangs, among other peace-preaching efforts.

More than a dozen other rallies around California are scheduled in the next few weeks supporting Williams, whose prison teachings have earned him several Nobel Peace Prize nominations[...]The rallies will include the screening of a documentary film about Williams in San Francisco, hosted by actor Danny Glover; a discussion led by the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael; and a round-the-clock vigil outside the prison from December 4 until the execution, when people from across the United States are expected to demonstrate.

See "Snoop Dog in death row rally."

Ekklesia of Britain reports today on a Catholic campaign to end the death penalty in the United States:

"Catholic bishops in the US have emphatically endorsed a campaign to end the use of the death penalty in America, saying that the country cannot "teach that killing is wrong by killing those who kill."

"At their meeting in Washington this week, bishops debated an 11-page statement on capital punishment, which won overwhelming approval from the conference members[...]In it the bishops say that it is "time for our nation to abandon the illusion that we can protect life by taking life."

See "Catholic bishops back campaign to end U.S. death penalty."

Harold Wilson was sentenced to death over 16 years ago in Pennsylvania.  New DNA evidence helped lead to his acquittal, making him the 122nd person freed from death row.  Wilson is the second person to be exonerated this year, and the sixth in Pennsylvania since 1982. Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director, Dick Dieter said, "This case is further evidence that the death penalty risks executing innocent people."

Read the DPIC Press Release.

Learn more about how the death penalty makes mistakes.

“I cannot support a system which, in its administration, has proven so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare, the state’s taking of innocent life… Until I can be sure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty, until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate.”
-- Governor George Ryan of Illinois, January 2000, in declaring a moratorium on executions in his state, after the 13th Illinois death row inmate had been released from prison due to wrongful conviction. In the same time period, 12 others had been executed.

Charles A. Radin, staff of The Boston Globe writes this morning:

"The US Conference of Catholic Bishops yesterday overwhelmingly approved a new statement of opposition to capital punishment, asserting that it contributes to a culture of death and violence in the United States.

"It was the bishops' first comprehensive statement on the death penalty in 25 years, and coincided with the debate in the Massachusetts House of Representatives on a proposal to reinstate capital punishment in the Bay State."

See "Catholic bishops denounce capital punishment--Draw distinction with abortion."

Jason Kubin has publicly opposed the death penalty for the accused murderer of his son. From the Daily News Record, November 15:

"A man facing the death penalty in connection with the killing of a 17-month-old boy has an unlikely person lobbying for his life — the victim’s father.

"Since Ikarius Layden Chandler Kubin was found dead in his home in Harrisonburg’s Deer Run apartment complex in April, Jason Kubin says he has been haunted by the memory of his son and thoughts of revenge.

"But soon after police charged Clifford Donald Lamb, 23, with murder, Kubin said he forgave him. And with the grand jury’s indictment of Lamb on a capital murder charge last month, Kubin says that Lamb doesn’t deserve to die."

See "Prosecutors Seek Death Penaly, but Victim's Father Opposed."

According to US Newswire:

"There were 3,315 state and federal death row inmates on December 31, 2004, -- 63 fewer than on the same date in 2003, the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. The 2004 decline represents the fourth year in which the number of prisoners under death sentences decreased -- 3,601 were on death row at the end of 2000; 3,577 at the end of 2001; 3,562 in 2002 and 3,378 at the end of 2003.

"During 2004, 12 states executed 59 prisoners, six fewer than in 2003. The inmates executed had been under a death sentence for an average of 11 years, which was one month longer than the period for inmates executed in 2003. The new BJS report also noted that: All 59 persons executed during 2004 were men. Thirty-nine were white (three of whom were Hispanic), 19 were black and one was Asian. Fifty-eight were given lethal injection and one was electrocuted.
During 2004, Texas executed 23 inmates; Ohio seven; Oklahoma six; Virginia five; North and South Carolina four each; Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Nevada two each and Arkansas and Maryland one each."

See "U.S. Department of Justice: Number of Death Row Inmates Declined for Fourth Year During 2004."

From the News-Times, Sunday, November 13:

"Western Connecticut State University professor Harold Schramm thinks the death penalty is on its way out.
 
"Schramm, a professor of justice and law administration, spent this summer with 19 other scholars at the University of Maryland. They researched the death penalty as part of a program with the National Endowment of the Humanities Institute.

"'It was life-changing, literally,' said Schramm, who has been a teacher for 37 years. 'The court has shown a movement to a rejection of capital punishment[...] My sense is we are going away from the 'retaliatory' way,' of thinking, Schramm said.

"Schramm is against capital punishment. 'A civilized society can't take a life,' he said. 'There is no way to do it that isn't cruel and unusual.'"

See "Death penalty losing favor with public, says WestConn professor."

Stanley 'Tookie' Williams, cofounder of the Crips, the U.S.'s most notorious street gang, has lived on death row for 24 years. He is slated to be exectued on December 13. During his time in prison, Williams devoted himself to fighting gangs, and the extraordinary effects of his labors have become apparent, inspiring people of all walks to support clemency. Williams wrote  books to steer children away from gang-banging, one of which has received an award from the American Library Association.

He met with young people from at-risk communities to counsel them to avoid gangs, and to describe the horrors of prison. Williams drafted “Protocol for Peace,” a model agreement to end gang feuds; last year, the Crips and the Bloods in Newark, N.J., signed it, ushering in a truce that has remained in effect. Daniel Sokatch, the executive director of the Progressive Jewish Alliance, writes on Williams:

"Even death-penalty supporters are speaking up to save Williams. They, too, recognize that something is terribly wrong when a state can execute a man who is literally saving the lives of others every day that he lives.

"Innocent or guilty, victim of a flawed trial or not, Williams is set to die in one month’s time: a young criminal who evolved into something more, someone more than even the sum of some truly horrible crimes."

See "Should Tookie Die? Williams’ jailhouse rehabilitation should spare him from the death penalty." 

Sister Helen Prejean of New Orleans is one of the most outspoken opponents of capital punishment, and the subject of the book and Academy Award winning movie, "Dead Man Walking." Prejean has witnessed five executions as spiritual advisor to condemned inmates in Louisiana. She spoke in Newport last week:

"We can't say we legalize hatred, which is what the death penalty is [...] you can't call the death penalty an act of love. It's not loving them it is killing them and it is killing them legally because the Supreme Court says it is okay and our state statutes say it is okay to kill these people."

See "Prejean details reasons to oppose the death penalty."

From The Kansas City Star, November 9:

"The negative ads Republican Jerry Kilgore ran calling Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine soft on the death penalty apparently backfired. Virginia voters chose Kaine, a Democrat, for governor."

The Associated Press expands on the issue:

 "A Kilgore ad alleged that Kaine's opposition to the death penalty meant he would not have executed Adolf Hilter. Kaine, a Roman Catholic, pledged to enforce the death penalty but said he would not apologize for his religious beliefs."

See "Voters weigh in across the United States" and "Newsview: Bush Gambles, Loses Campaigning."

From this morning's Rocky Mountain News:

"A possible decision regarding the extradition of suspected cop killer Raul Gomez-Garcia from Mexico to Denver could be made by the end of the month. Gomez-Garcia fled to Mexico, where he was arrested[...]Mexico will not extradite suspects if they could face the death penalty or life without possibility of parole in the United States.

"[A] news conference was called by the consul general to address a measure approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last week that threatens to cut foreign aid to Mexico and other countries that refuse to extradite suspected[...] killers with no strings attached."

See: "Extradition process grinds on."

Anthony Asadullah Samad files the first of a three-part series on the impending execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, a convicted murder and gang member who has written extensively against violence and gang life from within the prison system, and who has been nominated for a Nobel Prize in Peace and Literature:

"Many nations refuse to extradite those 'fleeing from justice,' accused of a crime back to the United States if the death penalty can be imposed. It is universally recognized as unusually cruel and inhumane.

"Even those in the United States are conflicted over it. The debate over whether the United States of America is truly a 'Christian Nation' (versus a Capitalist Nation that allows for religious expression, or non-expression) pits Christians against Christians on this very issue. 'Old Testament' Christians espouse an 'eye for an eye' philosophy while 'New Testament' Christian espouse forgiveness in a 'turn the other cheek' philosophy.

"Clemency is the legal exemption from the highest questionable practice in the nation. It is allowed because the state isn't always sure that death is appropriate, nor are they sure whether it is deserved. The case of Stanley 'Tookie' Williams is surely the test case of whether clemency is merited or political.

"Though his trial was flawed, and his conviction suspect, forget all the technical reasons why he should not be put to death-reprieves usually being based on 'technicalities'-and tell us whether redemption is truly a justified reason for clemency, Governor? Can God take one of society's most notorious monsters, who created a tsunami of death and destruction over the past three decades, and soften his heart, change his mindset to where he, from behind the deepest of America's dungeons, is able to change the hearts and minds of young men out on the streets."

See: "Between the Lines: Death and Redemption; What Is 'The Exception?' Clemency Countdown For Stanley 'Tookie' Williams."

Father Ponnet of St. Camillus Pastoral Care Center in Los Angeles, campaigns to stop the execution of Stanley Williams:

"In an effort to save the life of Stanley 'Tookie' Williams from being executed Dec. 13, lawyers and religious leaders launched what the Los Angeles Times called a 'vigorous battle' Oct. 24 in front of the Criminal Courts building downtown.

" 'I think our role as church people is every time an execution comes up, we need to be there opposing it. Because each of those people is significant. But this is a political world. Do we use this moment where Mr. Williams is known around the world to not only argue for his life but also for others? I think that's the reality for our American democracy,' [Ponnet said]."

See "It's not just about saving 'Tookie,' says priest."

Dan Malone of the Fort Worth Weekly weighs in on the United States death sentence:

"Several years ago, news stories documenting shoddy legal work in death row cases in many states — particularly in Texas — raised questions in the public mind about the system of providing inmates with attorneys. And the efforts of prisoner advocates, death penalty foes, and college-age researchers have produced a growing list of once-condemned prisoners who have been cleared of the charges that had sent them to death row[...] While the backgrounds of accused persons might have little to do with their guilt, they can play enormous roles in the punishment phase of trials, when so-called mitigating evidence tips the scale to life or death.

" 'The more you execute people, the easier it becomes to execute more people,' said David Dow, a University of Houston law professor who has represented about 50 death row inmates on appeal."

See "(Not) So Easy to Kill."

Dan Malone is the author of the recent article "Cruel and Inhumane--Executing the Mentally Ill", published in Amnesty International's Fall 2005 magazine.

From Reuters, October 31, 2005:

"Speculation that Japan, one of the few developed nations to maintain the death penalty, may review its policy grew on Tuesday after the country's new justice minister said he would not sign execution warrants. Japan, alongside its close ally the United States, is among a small group of developed nations retaining the death penalty."

Mary Sanchez of the Kansas City Star, editorializes on a proposed bill put forth by John Carter (R-TX), which would increase the instances in which federal death penalties could be applied: 

"Carter’s illogical proposal would alter federal use of the death penalty, tripling the types of cases where it could be used, even in cases without the intent to kill. This could include a death sentence for someone who donated money to a terrorist organization.

"Since 1973, 121 persons have been taken off death row due to evidence of their innocence. The possibility that so many people have been wrongly convicted is thankfully causing people to rethink the death penalty."

See "America doesn't need more death-penalty cases," and "Japan minister sparks speculation on death penalty."

Australian national Van Tuong Nguyen, who has been condemned to death in Singapore, had his appeal for clemency rejected by the President on October 21, and is now facing imminent execution. A date has not yet been announced, although the hanging is likely to be carried out within weeks.

Act Now: Stop the Execution of Van Tuong Nguyen in Singapore