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Entries tagged with “Editorials”

Policy Issues

Race

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May 09, 2024

Articles of Interest: Los Angeles Times Editorial Board Says Systemic Racism in California Death Penalty Is Just One of Many Reasons for Abolition

In a May 7, 2024 edi­to­r­i­al, the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board cites the deeply engrained racial dis­par­i­ties in the California death penal­ty sys­tem and how those facts led them to con­clude that ​“even if the state could per­form pain­less and anx­i­ety-free exe­cu­tions and racial bias­es were elim­i­nat­ed, the death penal­ty would still be wrong.” ​“Black defen­dants were 4.6 to 8.7 times more like­ly to be sen­tenced to death than oth­er defen­dants fac­ing sim­i­lar charges” the Board notes, and ​“Latinos were 3.2 to 6.2 times more like­ly to be sentenced…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Jun 07, 2021

California Supreme Court Hears Case That Could Undo Hundreds of State Death Sentences

The California Supreme Court heard oral argu­ment on June 2, 2021 in a cap­i­tal case whose out­come could affect the fate of hun­dreds of pris­on­ers on the state’s death row. Supported by friend-of-the-court briefs by California Governor Gavin Newsom and an alliance of pro­gres­sive California dis­trict attor­neys, lawyers for death row pris­on­er Don’te McDaniel argued to the court that California’s cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing scheme is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al because it fails to require that cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing juries reach a unan­i­mous deter­mi­na­tion of each of the aggra­vat­ing fac­tors in a case that jus­ti­fy imposing…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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New Voices

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Mar 26, 2007

Chicago Tribune Changes Position and Calls for Abolition of Death Penalty

After decades of main­tain­ing a posi­tion that the gov­ern­ment should have the legal right to impose cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the Chicago Tribune is now call­ing for abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. Noting con­cerns about inno­cence, the arbi­trary nature of the pun­ish­ment, and the pub­lic’s shift away from the death penal­ty, the Tribune announced on March 25 that, ​“The evi­dence of mis­takes, the evi­dence of arbi­trary deci­sions, the sober­ing knowl­edge that gov­ern­ment can’t pro­vide cer­tain­ty that the inno­cent will not be put to death – all that prompts this call for an end to…

State & Federal Info

Federal Death Penalty

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Jul 13, 2021

Editorial Boards Say Moratorium to Study Execution Practices is Not Enough, Biden Should Commute Federal Death Row

Major U.S. edi­to­r­i­al writ­ers have crit­i­cized the Biden administration’s June 30, 2021 announce­ment of a tem­po­rary mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions while the Department of Justice reviews Trump admin­is­tra­tion changes to U.S. exe­cu­tion prac­tices, say­ing that the pause for a lim­it­ed pol­i­cy review fails to ful­fill the President’s cam­paign pledge to work to end the fed­er­al death penalty.

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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Recent Legislative Activity

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Apr 10, 2023

Editorial: Texas Should Bar the Death Penalty for Severely Mentally Ill Defendants

An edi­to­r­i­al in the Dallas Morning News urges the Texas leg­is­la­ture to pass a bill to ban the death penal­ty for peo­ple with severe men­tal ill­ness, stat­ing, it ​“seems like an obvi­ous deci­sion in a decent soci­ety.” House Bill 727, spon­sored by Rep. Toni Rose (D‑Dallas), passed the Texas House on April 5, 2023, by a vote of 97 – 48 and is pend­ing before the Texas Senate.

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Feb 06, 2008

EDITORIALS: ​“Don’t expand cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, abol­ish it”

In a recent edi­to­r­i­al, the Concord Monitor advo­cat­ed against expand­ing New Hampshire’s death penal­ty law to include mul­ti­ple-mur­der offens­es, as some law­mak­ers have pro­posed. Instead, they say, ​“the death penal­ty should be elim­i­nat­ed, not expand­ed.” The edi­to­r­i­al cites prob­lems in the death penal­ty process, such as wrong­ful con­vic­tions, high costs, and its arbi­trari­ness, as rea­sons for abo­li­tion. The Monitor also writes that the death penal­ty is coun­ter­pro­duc­tive, not­ing, ​“It does noth­ing to deter peo­ple from com­mit­ting mur­der, but it simul­ta­ne­ous­ly sends the mes­sage that, under cir­cum­stances oth­er than war or…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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New Voices

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Oct 16, 2008

EDITORIALS: A Call for Examination of Death Penalty in Tennessee

The Tennessean called for a more just legal sys­tem as a state leg­isla­tive study com­mit­tee on the death penal­ty con­tin­ues to meet. The com­mit­tee began its work this year after a series of embar­rass­ing mis­takes in apply­ing the death penal­ty in Tennessee. Executions cur­rent­ly are on hold due to a lethal injec­tion chal­lenge brought last year by a death row inmate. The edi­to­r­i­al called the com­mit­tee’s work a ​“sliv­er of hope for improve­ment” after ​“cost­ly con­fu­sion and prob­a­ble mis­car­riages of jus­tice in cap­i­tal mur­der cas­es.” The edi­to­r­i­al notes, ​“This is…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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New Voices

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Apr 16, 2007

EDITORIALS: Dallas Morning News Issues Historic Call to End Death Penalty

Noting that they ​“can­not rec­on­cile the fact that [the death penal­ty] is both imper­fect and irre­versible,” the Dallas Morning News has called on Texas to aban­don cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The paper, which has long sup­port­ed the death penal­ty, changed its posi­tion after care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion of mount­ing evi­dence that the state has wrong­ly con­vict­ed a num­ber of defen­dants in cap­i­tal tri­als and has like­ly exe­cut­ed at least one man who was inno­cent. The edi­to­r­i­al announc­ing the paper’s pol­i­cy shift stat­ed, ​“This board has lost con­fi­dence that the state of Texas can guarantee…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Dec 30, 2008

EDITORIALS: Death Penalty Moratorium Needed in Texas

The Dallas Morning News renewed its call for a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in Texas because of the numer­ous errors in the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem. The paper high­light­ed the cas­es of Michael Blair and Charles Hood as exam­ples of how the sys­tem has bro­ken down. Blair was exon­er­at­ed in 2008 after 14 years on death row. DNA evi­dence revealed that he had not been the mur­der­er of 7‑year-old Ashley Estel in 1993, despite the fact that the jury had tak­en only 27 min­utes to con­vict him, and that he may…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Innocence

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New Voices

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Nov 27, 2019

Editorials: Departing From Prior Position, Orlando Sentinel Calls for Abolition of Death Penalty

In a depar­ture from its pri­or edi­to­r­i­al stand, the Orlando Sentinel pub­lished an edi­to­r­i­al on November 22, 2019 call­ing for Florida to abol­ish the death penal­ty. Describing the state’s cap­i­tal-pun­ish­ment sys­tem as a ​“hope­less quag­mire of inequities,” the Sentinel said “[t]oo many ques­tions can­not be ade­quate­ly answered for us to con­tin­ue sup­port­ing the death penal­ty, and for Florida to con­tin­ue admin­is­ter­ing it.”

Policy Issues

Costs

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Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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Mar 08, 2016

EDITORIALS: Kentucky Newspaper Reverses Position on the Death Penalty

The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky’s sec­ond-largest news­pa­per, announced it was end­ing its long-held sup­port for the death penal­ty, and now believes the state leg­is­la­ture should abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Describing its pre­vi­ous posi­tion as ​“keep it but fix it,” the edi­tors stat­ed, ​“we must now con­cede that the death penal­ty is not going to be fixed and, in fact, prob­a­bly can­not be fixed at any defen­si­ble cost to tax­pay­ers.” Citing the 2011 American Bar Association assess­ment of Kentucky’s death penal­ty, the Herald-Leader said the sys­tem was ​“rife with injus­tices and the potential…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Jan 22, 2008

EDITORIALS: Key Virginia Paper Shifts Position on Death Penalty

The Richmond Times-Dispatch, a key paper in the Virginia state cap­i­tal, has long sup­port­ed the death penal­ty. But their recent edi­to­r­i­al takes the posi­tion that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment ​“achieves no legit­i­mate goals that can­not be achieved by a life sen­tence with no pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole.” The paper equates the death penal­ty with the state ​“play­ing God.” The full text of the edi­to­r­i­al fol­lows: Del. Frank Hargrove, one of the General Assembly’s Don Quixotes, hopes the umpteenth time will be the charm. He wants to end exe­cu­tions in Virginia, which stands second…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Feb 07, 2017

EDITORIALS: New York Times Hails Prosecutors’ Changing Views on Death Penalty

In a February 6 edi­to­r­i­al, The New York TImes hails the reform efforts of the ​“new gen­er­a­tion” of state and local pros­e­cu­tors who are work­ing to change the United States’ crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, and espe­cial­ly the use of the death penal­ty. The Times high­lights the com­ments of two new­ly elect­ed local pros­e­cu­tors, Beth McCann, the new pros­e­cu­tor in Denver, Colorado, and Kim Ogg, the new dis­trict attor­ney in Harris County, Texas. McCann has said her office will not seek the death penal­ty because she does not think ​“that the state…

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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Apr 28, 2008

EDITORIALS: Proposed Law Would Harm Younger Victims

The gov­er­nor of Missouri, Matt Blunt, has pro­posed that his state expand the death penal­ty to include cas­es of sex­u­al assault against chil­dren where the vic­tim is not killed. However, accord­ing to an edi­to­r­i­al in the Springfield News-Leader, such a law would not pro­tect chil­dren. Instead, it could make it less like­ly that these offens­es would be report­ed, would put the child in dan­ger of even worse crimes, and would involve the child and the fam­i­ly in years of death penal­ty lit­i­ga­tion. The edi­to­r­i­al cites the opin­ions of a leading…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Executions Overview

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Nov 02, 2020

Florida Supreme Court Abandons 50-Year-Old Proportionality Safeguard for Capital Defendants

In a con­tin­u­ing diminu­tion of pro­ce­dur­al safe­guards in cap­i­tal cas­es, the Florida Supreme Court has end­ed its long-stand­ing prac­tice of inde­pen­dent­ly review­ing death penal­ty cas­es on appeal to ensure that they are not dis­pro­por­tion­ate to sen­tences imposed in sim­i­lar cases.

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Intellectual Disability

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United States Supreme Court

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May 27, 2020

Florida Supreme Court Limits Enforcement of Supreme Court Decision Barring Execution of Intellectually Disabled Prisoners

For the third time in 2020, the Florida Supreme Court has reduced the con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­tec­tions afford­ed to death-row pris­on­ers. In a May 21 deci­sion in Phillips v. State, the court over­turned its own case prece­dent and lim­it­ed enforce­ment of a U.S. Supreme Court case that bars exe­cu­tion of intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled prisoners.

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Race

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New Voices

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Oct 24, 2018

Following Washington Death Penalty Abolition, Op-eds Encourage Other States to Follow Suit

Following the Washington Supreme Court’s October 11, 2018 deci­sion declar­ing the state’s death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, news out­lets have ques­tioned what comes next. Op-ed writ­ers in North Carolina, Texas, and California have respond­ed, urg­ing their states to recon­sid­er their cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment laws. The Washington court cit­ed racial bias, ​“arbi­trary deci­sion-mak­ing, ran­dom impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty, unre­li­a­bil­i­ty, geo­graph­ic rar­i­ty, and exces­sive delays” as rea­sons why it struck down the death penal­ty. In a guest col­umn in the Sacramento Bee, University of California Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky wrote, ​“California’s…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Costs

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Innocence

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Apr 07, 2021

In a Wide-Ranging Series of Editorials, the South Florida Sun Sentinel Argues for Abolition of Capital Punishment in Florida

In a wide-rang­ing six-part edi­to­r­i­al series ana­lyz­ing sys­temic flaws in the admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty, the edi­to­r­i­al board of the South Florida Sun Sentinel has called for the abo­li­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. “[I]t is past time to repeal it, here in Florida and nation­wide,” the edi­tors wrote.

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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Sentencing Data

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New Voices

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Executions Overview

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Jan 27, 2016

Missouri Likely to See Change After Historic High in Executions

A decline in exe­cu­tions is like­ly in Missouri after two years of unusu­al­ly high num­bers. In 2014, Missouri tied with Texas for the most exe­cu­tions in the U.S., and it was sec­ond to Texas in 2015. However, chang­ing atti­tudes about the death penal­ty – sim­i­lar to nation­al shifts – are evi­dent in Missouri’s sen­tenc­ing trends: no one was sen­tenced to death in Missouri in 2014 or 2015, and less than one per­son per year has been sen­tenced to death in the past sev­en years. Moreover, a bill with bi-par­ti­san sup­port has been intro­duced to…

Apr 22, 2011

NEBRASKA EDITORIAL: Instead of a new means of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the Legislature should get rid of it

Days after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the elec­tric chair was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, a Lincoln Journal Star edi­to­r­i­al urged the state to recon­sid­er the death penal­ty: ​“Instead of rush­ing to pass a new means of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the Legislature should take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to final­ly get rid of the death penal­ty.” Nebraska was the only state to retain the elec­tric chair as its sole means of exe­cu­tion. The paper not­ed that it was the right time to take a broad­er look at the death penal­ty. ​“With the advent of more…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Executions Overview

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Feb 11, 2008

NEBRASKA EDITORIAL: Instead of a new means of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the Legislature should get rid of it

Days after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the elec­tric chair was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, a Lincoln Journal Star edi­to­r­i­al urged the state to recon­sid­er the death penal­ty: ​“Instead of rush­ing to pass a new means of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the Legislature should take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to final­ly get rid of the death penal­ty.” Nebraska was the only state to retain the elec­tric chair as its sole means of exe­cu­tion. The paper not­ed that it was the right time to take a broad­er look at the death penal­ty. ​“With the advent of more…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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New Voices

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Jan 23, 2006

NEW SOURCE: Scientific American Looks at Flaws in the Death Penalty

Philip Yam is the News Editor of Scientific American Magazine. He recent­ly post­ed an item on the mag­a­zine’s Web site about the death penal­ty. Some excerpts from the post­ing, enti­tled ​“Science ver­sus the Death Penalty,” are below:

Dec 21, 2004

NEW VOICES — Palm Beach Post Editorial: Plea Bargain Underscores the Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty

While applaud­ing a life-sen­tence plea bar­gain arranged by Palm Beach County’s State Attorney in an espe­cial­ly heinous mur­der, the Palm Beach Post said the state had ​“forfeit[ed] the moral stand­ing to exe­cute any­one else.” The State Attorney said that he agreed to let the defen­dant plead guilty to killing 5 peo­ple because the life-with­out-parole sent­nece will bring final­i­ty. The Post not­ed: ​“The state saves not only the cost of a tri­al; the vic­tims’ rel­a­tives — who sup­port­ed the deal — do not have to relive the hor­ror. The state…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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New Voices

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Jul 10, 2006

NEW VOICES: ​“The Failed Experiment”

Anna Quindlen, writ­ing in the June 26, 2006 issue of Newsweek, reflect­ed on the under­ly­ing ques­tions sur­round­ing the death penalty:

Jun 26, 2003

NEW VOICES: Akron Beacon Journal Calls for Death Penalty Review in Ohio

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Beacon Journal notes that Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer, who played a lead­ing role in writ­ing Ohio’s death penal­ty statute 22 years ago when he was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is now call­ing for pas­sage of leg­is­la­tion to ana­lyze the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem. The review, which also has the endorse­ment of the Ohio State Bar Association, would cre­ate a Capital Case Commission to study the state’s death penal­ty and make reform rec­om­men­da­tions to ensure accu­ra­cy and fair­ness. The edi­to­r­i­al concludes:

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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New Voices

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Jun 01, 2006

NEW VOICES: Another Major Newspaper Calls for End to Capital Punishment

Reversing its long-stand­ing sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the Spokane Spokesman-Review recent­ly pub­lished an edi­to­r­i­al call­ing for an end to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the United States. The paper not­ed that the deci­sion to change its stance on the death penal­ty came after care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion of grow­ing evi­dence that the news­pa­per’s ​“expec­ta­tions of fair­ness and jus­tice” are not being met and that the death penal­ty’s ​“draw­backs now out­weigh its mer­its.” The edi­to­r­i­al in full: It took Jermaine Herron sev­en min­utes to die, but it took Texas sev­en years to kill him. ​“I’ll…

Dec 27, 2004

NEW VOICES: Bill Kurtis Describes His Shift on the Death Penalty

A&E tele­vi­sion host and well-known inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ist Bill Kurtis chron­i­cles his jour­ney from death penal­ty sup­port­er to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment oppo­nent in his new­ly released book, The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice. In an inter­view with the Kansas City Star, Kurtis stat­ed, ​“Look, I was for the death penal­ty, but look­ing at these cas­es and the rapid­ly increas­ing num­ber of exon­er­a­tions, there are just too many pos­si­bil­i­ties for error.” He went on to observe, ​“You have a sys­tem with too many work­ing parts. We have mal­prac­tice in medicine.…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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New Voices

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Jan 15, 2007

NEW VOICES: Dallas Morning News Calls for Halt to Executions

In a recent Dallas Morning News edi­to­r­i­al, the paper not­ed the incon­gruity between the state apol­o­giz­ing to a prison inmate who was freed fol­low­ing DNA test­ing, and its aggres­sive pur­suit of irrev­o­ca­ble exe­cu­tions. The paper stat­ed that ​“human error is an inher­ent part” of the jus­tice sys­tem and called on leg­is­la­tors to enact a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions until the state can review the accu­ra­cy and fair­ness of its cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment process, because ​“For the con­demned, evi­dence of an error could come too late.” The paper wrote: The prison door has…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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New Voices

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Jul 05, 2006

NEW VOICES: Former Publisher of the Chicago Tribune Calls for End to Executions

In a recent op-ed, Jack Fuller, for­mer edi­tor and pub­lish­er of the Chicago Tribune, called for an end to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Citing a series of mis­takes by eye­wit­ness­es, police and foren­sic experts, he stat­ed that the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem is too deeply flawed to entrust with car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions. Pointing to the like­ly inno­cence of Carlos DeLuna, a Texas man who was exe­cut­ed in 1989, Fuller con­clud­ed that the death penal­ty should be abol­ished because ​“no gov­er­ment is good enough to entrust with the absolute pow­er that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment entails.”…

Oct 12, 2004

NEW VOICES: Major Texas Newspapers Call for a Halt to Executions in Cases from Houston

Following a call from the Houston Police Chief and from state leg­is­la­tors to halt exe­cu­tions in cas­es from Harris County, four of the state’s largest news­pa­pers pub­lished edi­to­ri­als in sup­port of a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. The Houston police crime lab has been plagued with errors in DNA test­ing and preser­va­tion of evi­dence. There have been far more exe­cu­tions from Harris County (Houston) than from any oth­er coun­ty in the coun­try. AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN (N)othing can jus­ti­fy an exe­cu­tion if there is any good rea­son to ques­tion the evi­dence upon which the…

Policy Issues

Costs

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Sentencing Alternatives

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New Voices

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May 19, 2006

NEW VOICES: Newspaper Changes Its Position-‘Commonsense Finding is that Death Penalty Has Failed and Should be Abolished’

An edi­to­r­i­al in the Asbury Park Press, a news­pa­per that for­mer­ly sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, called on New Jersey pol­i­cy­mak­ers to aban­don the state’s cost­ly death penal­ty and replace it with the ​“sure and swift” sen­tence of life with­out parole. Stating that New Jersey has wast­ed mil­lions of dol­lars on the death penal­ty, but has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since it was rein­stat­ed in1982, the edi­to­r­i­al not­ed: Can it real­ly be 22 years since Robert O. Marshall cow­ard­ly hired hit men to shoot and kill his wife and the mother…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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New Voices

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Dec 12, 2006

NEW VOICES: Oregon Paper Calls Death Penalty a ​“Pointless Law”

The Albany Democrat-Herald in Oregon recent­ly edi­to­ri­al­ized that the ​“death penal­ty isn’t work­ing,” and con­clud­ed ​“that the death penal­ty here is a point­less law. If we’re not going to apply this law, then get­ting rid of it would be the less expen­sive course.” The edi­to­r­i­al cit­ed the pos­si­bil­i­ty of error, the arbi­trari­ness of apply­ing the pun­ish­ment to some dan­ger­ous offend­ers but not oth­ers, and the dif­fi­cul­ty of ever get­ting to an exe­cu­tion as rea­sons for end­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The edi­to­r­i­al follows:

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Jan 19, 2006

NEW VOICES: Texas Paper Calls for Halt to Executions

The San Antonio Express-News, which sup­ports the death penal­ty, recent­ly called for a halt to exe­cu­tions in Texas because of con­cerns about the ongo­ing prob­lems at the Houston Crime Lab. The Express-News stated:This month, New Jersey law­mak­ers vot­ed to halt exe­cu­tions while a task force reviews the fair­ness and costs of impos­ing the death penalty.Texas should con­sid­er doing the same but for slight­ly dif­fer­ent reasons.The dis­turb­ing facts com­ing out of an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into cas­es han­dled by the Houston Police Department lab beg for a tem­po­rary sus­pen­sion of exe­cu­tions, at…

Aug 30, 2004

NEW VOICES: Time to Re-Think the Death Penalty

An op-ed in Oregon’s Albany Democrat Herald called on the state to re-think its reliance on the death penal­ty: 20 years after vot­ers in Oregon rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty, it is time to take a dis­pas­sion­ate look and con­clude that it has­n’t done much good. In the gen­er­al elec­tion of 1984, Oregon vot­ers over­whelm­ing­ly called for the death penal­ty to be resumed. 2 ini­tia­tives were on the bal­lot that year. One, call­ing for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment or manda­to­ry life sen­tences for aggra­vat­ed mur­der, passed by 893,818 to 296,988. A companion…

Aug 09, 2004

NEW VOICES: Time to Review the Costs of the Death Penalty

A recent San Jose Mercury News edi­to­r­i­al rec­om­mend­ed includ­ing the death penal­ty in the California Performance Review pre­pared for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to reduce pub­lic spend­ing. The paper stat­ed that the aban­don­ment of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment would save valu­able tax­pay­er dol­lars in the state and praised local efforts to sup­port a tem­po­rary halt to exe­cu­tions while cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is reviewed. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed: Termination of the death penal­ty would add immea­sur­ably to the $32 bil­lion in sav­ings pro­ject­ed if all of the rec­om­men­da­tions in the review are adopt­ed. According to the…

Policy Issues

Costs

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New Voices

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Aug 03, 2017

Political Analysis: Is Conservative Support the Future of Death-Penalty Abolition?

In a forth­com­ing arti­cle in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, released online in July, Ben Jones argues that, despite the pop­u­lar con­cep­tion of death-penal­ty abo­li­tion as a polit­i­cal­ly pro­gres­sive cause, its future suc­cess may well depend upon build­ing sup­port among Republicans and polit­i­cal con­ser­v­a­tives. In The Republican Party, Conservatives, and the Future of Capital Punishment, Jones — the Assistant Director of Rock Ethics Institute at Pennsylvania State University — traces the ide­o­log­i­cal roots of the recent emer­gence of Republican law­mak­ers as cham­pi­ons of death penal­ty repeal to long-held con­ser­v­a­tive views. He writes,…

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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Jan 05, 2018

Retired Lt. General: Exclude Mentally Ill Vets from the Death Penalty

Saying that the death penal­ty should ​“be reserved for the ​‘worst of the worst in our soci­ety,’” retired Marine Corps Lieutenant General John Castellaw (pic­tured) has urged the Tennessee state leg­is­la­ture to adopt pend­ing leg­is­la­tion that would bar the death penal­ty for peo­ple with severe men­tal ill­ness­es. In an op-ed in the Memphis news­pa­per, The Commercial Appeal, General Castellaw writes that the death penal­ty ​“should not be pre­scribed for those with severe men­tal ill­ness­es, includ­ing those peo­ple with ill­ness­es con­nect­ed to their mil­i­tary ser­vice.” A 2015 report by the Death…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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May 17, 2006

Science Journal Recommends: ​“Let the death penal­ty die a nat­ur­al death.”

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in Nature, the inter­na­tion­al week­ly jour­nal of sci­ence, called on sci­en­tists and doc­tors to refuse to par­tic­i­pate in exe­cu­tions: ​“Don’t advise, don’t pre­scribe, don’t inject. Let the death penal­ty die a nat­ur­al death.” Noting that courts are now con­sid­er­ing whether the death penal­ty by lethal injec­tion should be out­lawed as inhu­mane, the edi­to­r­i­al points out that the pro­ce­dure was large­ly devel­oped with­out the input of physi­cians, nurs­es, or sci­en­tists. It also notes that research has shown that pris­on­ers might still be con­scious, though par­a­lyzed, when potas­si­um chloride…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Clemency

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New Voices

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Apr 14, 2017

With Looming Execution and Serious Innocence Concerns, Calls Mount for Virginia to Grant Clemency to Ivan Teleguz

Amid mount­ing con­cerns that Virginia may exe­cute an inno­cent man on April 25, a diverse group of reli­gious, polit­i­cal, and busi­ness lead­ers are call­ing on Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to grant clemen­cy to Ivan Teleguz (pic­tured). Their pleas for clemen­cy stress that Teleguz was con­vict­ed based upon high­ly unre­li­able tes­ti­mo­ny and sen­tenced to death based upon false tes­ti­mo­ny that he had been involved in a fab­ri­cat­ed Pennsylvania mur­der that had, in fact, nev­er occurred. Teleguz was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death on charges that he had hired Michael Hetrick to…