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What Went Wrong in New York

By Steve Hall

"How Two Questions Caused Death Penalty Misstep," by A.G. Sulzberger is in the New York Times. After five months, the death penalty trial of Ronell Wilson had entered its last few minutes when a federal prosecutor presented some parting thoughts for the jurors to consider as they deliberated. If Mr. Wilson, who had executed two undercover police officers on Staten Island, truly accepted responsibility for the killings, why had he not pleaded guilty? And if Mr. Wilson truly felt remorse for his actions, why had he not taken the witness stand to say so? It is not known whether those statements contributed to the jury?s decision to issue the first death sentence in New York in more than a half century. But what is clear is that this week, three and a half years after the sentence was issued, those statements have spared Mr...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on July 02, 2010 (boomark / email).