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Last Entry: November 05, 2008 at 15:31:17

This is Our Last Post! Subscribe to the New Amnesty Blog

Posted on November 05, 2008
Dear Reader,This is our last post to the Amnesty International Death Penalty Blog. We are discontinuing our issue-based blogs to launch one new Amnesty International Blog, Human Rights Now, that will cover all human rights news and opportunities for you to make a difference...

Innocence and the death penalty

Posted on November 04, 2008
The recent execution of Gregory Wright in Texas reminds us that possible innocence will not always shield an inmate from the death chamber. Gregory Wright was convicted of murdering Donna Vick in 1997 along with accomplice John Adams. Mr. Wright consistently maintained his innocence, passed a polygraph test in which he stated that he did not murder Donna Vick, and Mr...

When Victims and their Familes are Against Capital Punishment

Posted on October 31, 2008
A district attorney in North Carolina will seek the death penalty despite opposition to capital punishment by the victim and her family. Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall announced in August that he would seek the death penalty for the murder of Eve Carson, former student-body president of the University of North Carolina...

Two stays in 24 hours!

Posted on October 24, 2008
AMAZING NEWS! Both Troy Davis and Bobby Woods were granted stays of execution! Bobby Woods' execution was stayed after his lawyers raised claims that he is mentally retarded and is legally ineliglible for execution under U.S. Supreme Court standards...

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Take Action for Gregory Wright

Posted on October 23, 2008
One of the nine inmates on death row in Texas facing execution in the next 30 days is Gregory Wright. (Bobby Woods is scheduled to be executed by Texas tonight.) Like Troy Davis, Mr. Wright has serious claims of innocence that have not been heard in court...

Global Day of Action for Troy Davis

Posted on October 22, 2008
As many of you know, Thursday, October 23 (tomorrow) is the Global Day of Action for Troy Davis. There will be rallies, demonstrations, and vigils held around the country and around the world. Find an event in your area - show your concern for and support of Troy Davis by taking ACTION! There are certainly other ways to show your support for Troy Davis - check our website for other ideas...

Execution Date Set for Troy Davis

Posted on October 16, 2008
The Georgia Authorities wasted no time in issuing a death warrant and setting October 27th as the day Troy Davis will be executed. That means we have only 10 days to make it known to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, the sole authority in granting clemency in capital cases in the state, that executing a man whose case for innocence has never been heard in court is not only unjust, it is...

Appeal denied by U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on October 14, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court today announced that it has denied to hear Troy Davis' appeal, which means that the stay issued by the high court three weeks ago has expired. This essentially means that the Georgia Authorities now have the power to seek a new death warrant and, ultimately, set a new execution date for Davis...

World Day Against the Death Penalty

Posted on October 10, 2008
Today is the fifth annual World Day Against the Death Penalty. Every October 10 for the past six years, abolitionists from across the globe rally to oppose capital punishment and enforce the idea that abolition is a global struggle. This year, the focus will be on abolition in Asia, where Amnesty International estimates that there were at least 644 reported executions in 2007...

Partnership on the Death Penalty and Mental Illness

Posted on October 08, 2008
Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights (MVFHR) and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) have joined together to launch a national project opposing the death penalty for persons with severe mental illness. While virtually every country has banned execution of the mentally ill, and the United States Supreme Court has ruled that executing insane prisoners violates the Eighth Amendment...

Support Clemency for Richard Cooey

Posted on October 07, 2008
Richard Cooey is scheduled to be executed in Ohio next Tuesday, October 14. He was sentenced to death on December 5, 1986, after being convicted of two counts of murder by a three-judge panel. He has spent nearly 22 years on death row. Cooey's sentence is of particular concern for several reasons...

No action from Supreme Court on Troy's case

Posted on October 06, 2008
The United States Supreme Court took no action on Troy Davis's appeal and may consider the case at their next conference this Friday, October 10. If they do decide on his case on Friday, the order will be released on the next Tuesday, the 14th. We'll continue to keep you updated as we know more...

Former FBI Director urges Supreme Court to hear Troy Davis case

Posted on October 03, 2008
Former FBI Director William S. Sessions, a supporter of the death penalty, has called for the Supreme Court of the United States to grant certiorari in the Troy Davis case. Sessions, also the former Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas and current member of the Constitution Project's Death Penalty Committee, acknowledged the serious nature of a...

A message from Troy Davis

Posted on September 30, 2008
Below you will find a message my brother Troy mailed to me on September 22, 2008 the night before his scheduled execution in Georgia, it was for all the people who belive in Justice and in him, so I hope you get a small glimpse of what Troy's spirit is really like...

No news is good news

Posted on September 29, 2008
We have all been waiting to hear from the US Supreme Court and, so far, there has been no news. If there is no decision from the Supreme Court by noon tomorrow (Tuesday, September 30), the death warrant for Troy will expire. There is still a possibility that the Court will decline to hear the case and a new execution date will be set...

Stay of execution!

Posted on September 23, 2008
The Supreme Court of the United States has blocked the scheduled execution of Troy Davis! The Court issued an order staying the execution until Monday to give itself time to consider his certiorari appeal. Should the Court deny the petition for the writ of certiorari, the stay will terminate automatically...

Execution of Troy Davis Tomorrow - Actions Planned

Posted on September 22, 2008
The scheduled execution of Troy Anthony Davis is now less than 24 hours away. It is important that we continue to show our disapproval of the decision to deny him clemency. Please take action today if you haven't already, and continue to spread the word...

Thank you for you continued support!

Posted on September 19, 2008
Last night's events in support of Troy Davis were a big success! The Atlanta march drew around 300 people. Amnesty International members, along with members of the NAACP and other supporters, marched through downtown Atlanta to the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where a prayer vigil was held...

Continue to take action in support of Troy Davis

Posted on September 16, 2008
In spite of the recent decision by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to deny Troy Davis clemency, action still can and needs to be taken on his behalf. There are two events this week to attend to show your support for Troy. For those in and around the Atlanta area, there will be a March to Save Troy Davis this Thursday, September 18 at 6 p...

Urge Board to Reconsider Clemency

Posted on September 15, 2008
In light of the troubling decision by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to deny clemency to Troy Davis, it makes sense that there is only one course of action to take. We will continue, tirelessly, to urge the Board to reconsider its decision! The Board has the power to revisit this decision and, possibly, reverse it...

Troy Davis: Clemency Denied

Posted on September 12, 2008
The Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles has denied clemency for Troy Anthony Davis. I planned to use this blog entry to tell you all about the amazing, beyond amazing, rally in Atlanta last night - attended by hundreds of supporters - on behalf of Troy Davis...

Execution date for Jack Alderman

Posted on September 11, 2008
Georgia has scheduled a September 16 execution date for Jack Alderman. This date is less than a week away - so please take action! You can go to www.justiceforjack.org to sign the petition right now! And please don't forget to spread the word. Thanks! Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, AIUSA

Send a text for Troy!

Posted on September 11, 2008
Got a cell phone? Text "TROY" to 90999! That's it, so easy. You will get a text message back that you can send to everyone in your phonebook to ask them to take action on behalf of Troy Davis. That's all you have to so - so send the text now! Today is the DEADLINE for taking action by sending a letter to the Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles asking that they grant...

Clemency Hearing for Troy Davis

Posted on September 08, 2008
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles will hold a clemency hearing on Friday, September 12 where they will hear from the attorneys of Troy Davis. Troy is scheduled to be executed by the state of Georgia on September 23, even though his serious claims of innocence have never been heard in court...

Some Good News

Posted on September 04, 2008
While the scheduling of Troy Davis for execution (despite the fact that he has never had a hearing on the seven of nine non-police witnesses who have recanted their trial testimony) still sinks in, there is also some good news to report. In Texas, a hearing on whether a judge and prosecutor were having an affair during a death penalty trial has now been rescheduled so that it takes...

New Execution Date for Troy Davis

Posted on September 03, 2008
Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed by the state of Georgia on September 23, even though his serious claims of innocence have never been heard in court. Take action right now to stop this execution! Troy Davis was convicted of murder solely on the basis of witness testimony, and seven of the nine non-police witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony, several...

Texas: First the Execution, Then the Hearing

Posted on August 28, 2008
Charles Dean Hood is scheduled to be executed on September 10. The good news is that a hearing has been scheduled to consider explosive evidence about the fairness of his original trial, involving allegations that the prosecutor and the judge were involved in a romantic relationship during his trial...

Child Offender Executions Continue

Posted on August 27, 2008
Yesterday, Iran executed another juvenile offender. That makes 6 so far this year (221 non-juvenile offenders have also been put to death in Iran). No other country has executed a juvenile offender this year, though a few in Saudi Arabia are at serious risk...

In Memoriam: Rachel King, 1963-2008

Posted on August 26, 2008
We are sad to announce the passing of a long-time anti-death penalty activist, who died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. Rachel achieved many great things in her short lifetime, and we will be forever grateful for her extraordinary contribution to this world...

Two Stays

Posted on August 22, 2008
Both Dennis Skillicorn and Jeff Wood have received stays of execution; in both cases, they had been sentenced to death despite the fact that they did not actually kill. But neither stay was related to that issue. In Skillicorn's case, the Missouri Supreme Court chastised the state for "obstruction of clemency advocacy", for blocking his lawyer's efforts to develop a...

Executing Accomplices

Posted on August 21, 2008
UPDATE: Jeffery Lee Wood was stayed this afternoon by a federal judge in order to allow for more time to evaluate his mental capacity. Jeffery Lee Wood and Dennis Skillicorn are two death row inmates that have something in common--they both were scheduled to be executed within a one week time span for crimes in which they did not directly kill the victim...

Mentally Ill Offenders Languishing on Death Row

Posted on August 13, 2008
Raymond Riles has spent 33 years on Texas death row for the 1974 robbery and murder of Houston used car salesman John Henry. In the nation's most active execution state, Riles' stay on death row defies standards set in place by Texas to ensure that executions take place as speedily as possible...

Iran's Judiciary to Review Stoning

Posted on August 12, 2008
Last Wednesday, Iranian press reported that Iran's Judiciary had drafted legislation to remove stoning from their methods of execution. The draft legislation has been submitted to the parliament for approval, where the parliament's legal commission will prepare a final draft for Iranian MPs to vote on...

Another Foreign National Executed in Texas

Posted on August 08, 2008
Last night, two nights after putting Mexican national Jose Medellin to death, the state of Texas executed Heliberto Chi, a national from Honduras. He was convicted of a killing Armand Paliotta during a robbery in the Dallas area in 2001. Unlike Mexico in the Jose Medellin case, Honduras did not appeal to the International Court of Justice, or World Court, but the government of...

Live from the Maryland Commission...

Posted on August 06, 2008
Yesterday's Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment featured a continuation of racial, jurisdictional, and socio-economic disparities in capital punishment sentencing. The Commission heard expert testimony on the U.S. Supreme Court and Maryland Death Penalty Law...

Jose Medellin Executed

Posted on August 06, 2008
In upholding the Jos� Medellin execution the unsigned opinion of Supreme Court's 5-4 majority makes some strange arguments. First, they insist that: "The beginning premise for any stay, and indeed for the assumption that Congress or the legislature might seek to intervene in this suit, must be that petitioner's confession was obtained unlawfully...

My experience testifying ...

Posted on August 01, 2008
On Monday I had the opportunity to sit and experience the Commission on Capital Punishment recently convened by Maryland's General Assembly. Expert testimony was offered by six witnesses followed by ten members of the public who spoke as well. Much of the discussion was devoted to the presentation of statistics that prove there are racial, socio-economic, and jurisdictional disparities in...

Thomas Arthur Execution Stayed

Posted on July 31, 2008
The Birmingham News is reporting that the Alabama Supreme Court has "indefinitely delayed" the execution of Thomas Arthur, who was scheduled to be put to death tonight. Earlier this week, someone else has confessed to the crime for which Thomas Arthur was sentenced to death...

MORE ON MEDELLIN

Posted on July 29, 2008
Today, the Dallas Morning News, urging Texas Governor Rick Perry to halt the execution of Jose Medellin, made an extremely important point: "The State Department calculated that 4,456 Americans were arrested abroad in 2006, up from 3,614 in 2005. The bulk of those arrests occurred in Mexico...

The Strange and Continuing Odyssey of Dr. Doerhoff

Posted on July 25, 2008
Dr. Alan Doerhoff first came to the attention of the world as "John Doe 1", an anonymous physician who testified in 2006 in a federal court that during his participation in executions in Missouri, he had improvised drug dosages, had no set protocol and kept no records...

Putting Some Humanity in Something Inherently Inhumane

Posted on July 23, 2008
If California is going to insist on the death penalty, it must at least be humane. Last month's scathing California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice revealed just how much the hidden death tax is costing residents of California, whose state budget is already stretched too thin...

Hidden Victims of the Death Penalty-What about Death Row Family Members?

Posted on July 22, 2008
If California is going to insist on the death penalty, it must at least be humane. Last month's scathing California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice revealed just how much the hidden death tax is costing residents of California, whose state budget is already stretched too thin...

One year ago today?

Posted on July 17, 2008
One year ago today - July 17, 2007 - was the original execution date set for Troy Anthony Davis, a man with a strong innocence case who still sits on Georgia's death row. Yesterday, July 16th, was the one-year anniversary of that infamous hearing in front of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles...

The World (Court) Is Watching

Posted on July 16, 2008
Today, the International Court of Justice (aka the World Court) issued an order calling for the US to take "all measures necessary" to stay the execution of Jose Medellin and four other Mexican nationals in danger of being put to death in the near future...

Kevin Young Gets a 30 Day Stay-- PLEASE ACT NOW!

Posted on July 16, 2008
On July 15th, Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma granted a 30-day stay of execution to Kevin Young, who was originally scheduled to be executed on July 22nd. His new execution date is August 21st. Governor Henry announced the stay in order to have more time to review Kevin Young's case...

Cost Effective Administration?

Posted on July 15, 2008
Not everyone wants to abolish the death penalty, but some states do want to change the efficacy of it. While some see the lack of reverence for human life alone as reason enough, states such as Ohio and Texas are searching for fairer ways to administer the death penalty and make it cost effective...

SHOULD VICTIMS? FAMILY MEMBERS WHO OPPOSE THE DEATH PENALTY GO TO JAIL?

Posted on July 11, 2008
"If you don't follow my orders, I will sanction you. I will not hesitate to put you in jail." That's what a judge (William R. Pounders) told a victim's family member. Why? Because, according to the Los Angeles Times, he was worried she might tell jurors "that she had forgiven" her husband's accused killer "or that she believed he should be spared the death penalty...

Good News! But We Still Need Action to Help Spare Kevin Young...

Posted on July 09, 2008
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 yesterday to grant clemency to Kevin Young, who is scheduled to be executed on July 22nd. The Board's action to recommend commutation of his sentence is encouraging, but the final decision of whether Young lives or dies now belongs to Governor Brad Henry...

Executions Are For the Victims' Families (except when they're not ? )

Posted on July 07, 2008
On Thursday, Texas is set to execute Carlton Akee Turner. He murdered his parents. He has said he killed his father in self defense (Carlton Turner Sr. had been a very abusive, including breaking his son's leg when he was 7 years old); he has also said he doesn't know why he killed his mother...

Paul House Moves from Death Row

Posted on July 03, 2008
After years of allowing his case to drag on, Tennessee released Paul House into the custody of his mother Joyce, where he will remain till October. House's story represents another strong claim of innocence on death row, and his treatment exemplifies the depravity of the system, and the state's negligence to treat prisoners with respect...

?No Right Way To Do The Wrong Thing?

Posted on July 03, 2008
"No right way to do the wrong thing" is an old saying; a Google search doesn't shed much light on its origins, although one website suggests that "no right way to do a wrong thing" is an old Turkish proverb. One of its most recent incarnations is in a Toby Keith song, entitled "Ain't No Right Way"...

Calculating Executions by Computer

Posted on July 02, 2008
While the death penalty is inherently irrevocable and unjust to those sentenced to death, the variables that lend themselves to determining death sentences all become complex indicators in deciding who will live and who will die. Even though one person executed would be one too many, the actual number of people sentenced to death and the number of those that are actually executed make...

California Recognizes Need for, Massive Cost of, Reform

Posted on July 01, 2008
The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice issued a 117-page report yesterday on the administration of the death penalty in California. They have agreed unanimously that capital punishment in California is broken and that implementing reforms will cost a fortune...

Alabama, Germany and the Death Penalty

Posted on June 30, 2008
Today Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions concluded a two-week tour of the US by issuing a strong statement on a variety of issues, including the death penalty. Professor Alston visited two states, Alabama and Texas...

Virginia Carries Out 100th Execution

Posted on June 26, 2008
Virginia became only the second state in the U.S. to reach the grim milestone of 100 executions yesterday when Robert Yarbrough was put to death by lethal injection at 9:28pm. Virginia is joined only by Texas, a state that has now executed 406 inmates since the reinstatement of their death penalty...

Not on my turf--Texas ignores World Court

Posted on June 20, 2008
With all of the atrocities the world has seen committed since World War II, academics and the public have gradually seen Human Rights as global and not just rights enjoyed by a few in privileged Western nations. While this seems like a no-brainer; sadly, International Law and Human Rights are predicated by state and federal laws, which have MORE jurisdiction than those treaties...

A Soap Opera Execution almost Happens

Posted on June 18, 2008
Execution delayed in Texas! Since yesterday, death penalty advocates and opponents have their eyes focused on Texas. Charles Hood was supposed to be executed for the 1989 murders of Ronald Williamson and Tracie Lynn Wallace, but his execution was put on hold after hours of legal wrangling between attorneys and judges...

No Stay for Charles Hood - Execution to go forward tonight

Posted on June 17, 2008
"The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals failed to uphold the integrity of the justice system yesterday by refusing to stay the execution of murderer Charles Dean Hood" begins today's editorial in the Dallas Morning News. You may have already read in Amnesty's urgent action that Hood is scheduled to be executed today, despite the fact that a trial court recently recommended that he get a new...

Witnessing an Execution; or signing up to be an executioner: You pick!

Posted on June 17, 2008
The death penalty in the United States fails to serve the American people. Capital Punishment in the United States (and around the world!) does not deliver any viable consequences. While its advocates claim that the Death Penalty is a successful deterrent, cost-effective, effective, unarbitrary and FAIR, those that oppose the death penalty realize that these arguments are simply ineffective...

When Politicians Vote with their Conscience

Posted on June 12, 2008
Pro-death penalty supporters often take a sense of pride in their advocacy of capital punishment, pushing for greater usage and arguing for the deterrent effects and money that they have saved taxpayers. Campaigns by governors in the Deep South have been run on platforms of speedier executions and more death warrants signed...

Words of an Iranian Child Offender Facing Execution

Posted on June 11, 2008
Mohammad Feda'i was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, June 11th, along with ten others, before his and fellow child offender Saeed Jazee's executions were stayed for an additional month. Tortured into signing a murder confession after voluntarily coming forward to police to report a fight that he had witnessed, Feda'i has been on death row in Iran since the age of 16...

Virginia Commutes Percy Walton!

Posted on June 10, 2008
Good news! Activist efforts and thoughtful consideration by Virginia have led to the commutation of Percy Walton's death sentence. Mr. Walton's execution was to be the 100th in Virginia, which is second only to Texas in executions. Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia announced his decision for Walton's commutation Tuesday evening and reflected in a statement that after thinking...

Words of an Iranian Child Offender Facing Execution

Posted on June 10, 2008
Mohammad Feda'i was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, June 11th, along with ten others, before his and fellow child offender Saeed Jazee's executions were stayed for an additional month. Tortured into signing a murder confession after voluntarily coming forward to police to report a fight that he had witnessed, Feda'i has been on Iranian death row since the age of 16...

Georgia Still Can?t Get it Right

Posted on June 05, 2008
Executioners last night in Georgia struggled for 35 minutes to find a vein in which to administer the lethal injection into Curtis Osborne's body. Once a vein was finally found, it took 14 minutes before Osborne was pronounced dead. This, just after Georgia declared its lethal injection procedures to be sound when they became the first state to hold an execution after the Supreme Court ruled...

Georgia Still Cant Get it Right

Sonnier Stay

Posted on June 04, 2008
Last night, less than two hours before he was scheduled to be executed, Derrick Sonnier received a stay from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The motions on his behalf (a Motion for Stay of Execution, and a longer, more detailed Petition for Writ of Prohibition), were filed by attorneys with the Texas Defender Service...

As Arbitrary As Ever

Posted on June 03, 2008
Tonight, with the execution of Derrick Sonnier, Texas is set to resume executions after more than 8 months of going without. Of the 28 currently pending executions in the US, there are 13 others scheduled in Texas between now and October. And two other executions are scheduled for this week: Curtis Osborne in Georgia tomorrow, June 4, and David Hill in South Carolina on Friday, June...

"Boss Hog"

Posted on May 29, 2008
The Georgia capital punishment system continues to be haunted by the way way less than adequate representation many on death row received at their trials. Inadequate Defense Counsel at Trial, and Lack of Defense Counsel for State Habeas Corpus Proceedings are the first two "Problem Areas" listed in the Executive Summary of the ABA's Death Penalty Assessment Report for Georgia, published in...

Deference, Or Indifference?

Posted on May 28, 2008
Terry Lyn Short is scheduled to be executed in Oklahoma on June 17 for the death of Ken Yamamoto, who was killed in a fire in 1997. Short was convicted of setting that fire, largely based on the testimony of a jailhouse informant named Jay Brown, who was rewarded for his words with leniency in charges he was facing (such testimony, for obvious reasons, is notoriously unreliable)...

More From Virginia

Posted on May 20, 2008
There are now over 20 pending executions in the United States. The list is striking, in that almost every execution that isn't likely to be stayed is set to take place in the Old Confederacy. That the death penalty is a significantly Southern phenomenon is not exactly news (almost 80% of US executions since 1976 have taken place in the South), but the current list of scheduled executions is a...

Mississippi Mess

Posted on May 15, 2008
Earl Wesley Berry is scheduled to be executed May 21 for the murder of Mary Bounds. Whatever the alleged benefits of the death penalty are in theory, several aspects of this case demonstrate what an ugly sordid mess it is in practice. One of the problems in Earl Wesley Berry's case is that he may be mentally retarded...

Another Death Penalty Supreme Court Case

Posted on May 12, 2008
The US Supreme Court agreed today to hear the case of Edward Nathaniel Bell (Bell v. Kelly), who was scheduled to be executed in Virginia on July 24. The main issue in Bell's case is that his attorneys presented absolutely no mitigating evidence during the sentencing phase of his trial, basically leaving the field to the prosecution and virtually ensuring that he would get a death sentence...

"...one of the worst criminal justice systems in this country"

Posted on May 09, 2008
On Sunday, 60 Minutes profiled Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins, who has proactively sought out and exposed the wrongful convictions of his predecessor, Wade. In all, 18 men from Dallas County have been cleared by DNA testing; a total of 33 men have been cleared across Texas...

Georgia Again

Posted on May 07, 2008
The state of Georgia has always had a special place in the history of the US death penalty. It was Supreme Court cases out of Georgia that both halted (Furman v. Georgia, 1972) and restarted (Gregg v. Georgia, 1976) executions in the US. In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled in McCleskey v...

129

Posted on May 02, 2008
After 13 years on North Carolina's death row, Levon "Bo" Jones was exonerated. Jones is the 129th person exonerated from death row in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 and the eighth condemned man to be freed from North Carolina's death row in less than four months...

Cuba ceases fire, for now

Posted on April 30, 2008
Cuba's death penalty is usually carried out by firing squad but Cuba is ceasing the fire. Past Monday, new Cuban President Raul Castro announced that all death sentences had been commuted to prison terms of 30 years to life, with the exception of 3 people charged with terrorism...

What is it going to take?

Posted on April 29, 2008
The death penalty is arbitrary, unfair, not a deterrence of crime, more costly than life imprisonment and, moreover, it is a human rights violation that is taking away the lives of people who well may be innocent. More than 126 prisoners have been released form U...

Innocence in Texas

Posted on April 28, 2008
The Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that prosecutors in Dallas, Texas have decided to take a second look at convictions in which DNA evidence CANNOT exclusively prove guilt or innocence. This is a welcome extension to a decision a year ago by Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins and The Innocence Project of Texas to review convictions in the state amid a wave of DNA...

Death Penalty at the AGM

Posted on April 23, 2008
Amnesty International's Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held this week-end (April 25-28th, 2008) in Washington, DC. It will be the occasion for activists from all over the world to gather, share their vision of a fairer world and above all go on seeking solutions together...

Lethal injection and doctors

Posted on April 21, 2008
In my previous post on the Baze v. Rees decision, I noted that Justice Alito, in a separate concurring opinion, raised the question of doctor participation in executions, and argued that an alternative to a current execution protocol can't be considered "feasible" or "readily available" if that alternative requires "participation - either in carrying out the execution or in training those who...

Protecting Children

Posted on April 17, 2008
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in the case of Kennedy v. Louisiana regarding the constitutionality of imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child, when no murder has taken place. It has been 44 years since the last execution in the U...

BAZE v. REES

Posted on April 16, 2008
Today, the Supreme Court, in the case of Baze v. Rees, ruled 7-2 that lethal injection is constitutional, in Kentucky and elsewhere, as long as there is no "substantial risk of severe pain", and as long as there is no alternative procedure which is "feasible, readily implemented, and in fact significantly reduces a substantial risk of severe pain...

Good News, Bad News

Posted on April 15, 2008
There is good news and bad news in Amnesty International's 2007 Death Penalty Statistics. The good news is that the world, slowly but surely, continues to move away from the death penalty. With Uzbekistan's abolition of capital punishment in January of this year, there are now 135 countries which have rejected the death penalty in law or practice...

Who is killing in your name?

Posted on April 11, 2008
Overblown claims about security threats to justify government secrecy are an all too common feature of our current political landscape. But executions are a government function and the public has a right to know how, and by whom, they are carried out...

Reflections on Abolition - from an AI activist in Nebraska

Posted on April 10, 2008
It has been two weeks since the Nebraska Unicameral rejected LB 1063, the legislative bill to repeal the death penalty in the state of Nebraska. Time away from the event has been beneficial, giving me pause to reflect and gain some clarity on abolition in Nebraska...

THE WORST LAWYERS

Posted on April 09, 2008
We often say that those who end up on death row are usually not the "worst of the worst" but those with the worst lawyers. Yesterday Senator Russell Feingold held a hearing on The Adequacy of Representation in Capital Cases; the witnesses suggested that bad lawyering was a central problem with the death penalty in the US...

Prosecutorial misconduct

Posted on April 08, 2008
What do Glen Chapman, Jonathan Hoffman and Alan Gell have in common? They are all innocent men released from death row after spending years in prison; in all three cases, issues of serious prosecutorial misconduct led to their wrongful convictions, and all three cases took place in North Carolina...

You got it all wrong

Posted on April 03, 2008
On Tuesday (3/1/2008), the Governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, announced a stay of excecution for Edward Bell, who was scheduled to be executed on April 8, and declared a moratorium on every execution in the state until the United States Supreme Court reaches a verdict in the case of Baze v...

Death Penalty is a waste of critical resources

Posted on April 02, 2008
The Hidden Death Tax and Death by Geography are the new reports release on March 27, 2008 by the ACLU of Northern California. These reports demonstrated that California's death penalty is arbitrary, unnecessary and a waste of critical resources. The Hidden Death Tax details the high cost of California's death penalty, based on records of actual trial expenses and state budgets...

Activism with a beat

Posted on March 25, 2008
Hip-hop artist, Andre Latallade, also known as Capital-X, will walk 1700 miles through 10 of the states with the highest execution rate to advocate for the abolishment of capital punishment in the US. Latallade has decided to begin his "walk for life" on March 31 at 5 a...

You said it, now follow through

Posted on March 19, 2008
Troy Davis presented the Supreme Court of Georgia with new evidence - recantations from nearly every witness that testified against him at trial, plus multiple affidavits claiming that another (one of the two remaining witnesses) was the actual murderer...

Woman under stoning sentence in Iran is released

Posted on March 18, 2008
An update to Urgent Action 179/07 ... Mokarrameh Ebrahimi was released from Choubin prison in Qazvin province, northwestern Iran, on 17 March, along with her youngest child, a son named Ali, who was living in prison with her. Mokarrameh Ebrahimi had been imprisoned for 11 years...

Troy Davis Appeal Denied

Posted on March 17, 2008
Many of you who read this blog have been following the case of Troy Davis - on death row in Georgia for over 16 years despite strong evidence that he may be innocent. Troy came within 24 hours of execution last July before receiving a temporary stay of execution...

The debate keeps going

Posted on March 07, 2008
For two years in a row, Maryland has been the set of a controversial debate in which opponents are trying to get Maryland's death penalty overturned in the legislature. Yesterday, Thursday March 6, 2008, Maryland's Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee heard two bills related to the death penalty...

Taking justice into your own hands

Posted on March 05, 2008
Today I received an unexpected email but one of the most gratifying emails I have received in a long time. Martina Davis-Correia, sister of Georgia Death Row Inmate Troy Anthony Davis, wrote a very compelling letter to thank everyone for the international support given to her brother...

Our second life

Posted on February 26, 2008
We always hoped that in 2000 we would live like the Jetsons and while in 2008, we are still not even close to the having a car that packs itself into a bag, we have numerous new technologies and new media. The internet, film, video games and many other innovative media have given us the opportunity to express ourselves and the topics that matter, in a more creative and interesting way...

If it does not work, why expand it?

Posted on February 22, 2008
Thankfully the New Hampshire Senate recognized that expanding the death penalty would not solve the criminal problems they are suffering. The bill sponsored by Senator Joe Kenny, R-Wakefield, wanted to impose the death penalty on those guilty of killing more than one person at a time...

Not living the dream

Posted on February 20, 2008
"Imagine a white man going on trial for the murder of a black man and receiving the death penalty... You know you can't." said Sister Helen Prejean past Monday at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center. "Eighty percent of the real practitioners of the death penalty are in the 10 Southern states that practiced slavery the longest - where white people are threatened by people of color," Prejean...

PUNISH CRUELTY WITHOUT PRACTICING IT

Posted on February 08, 2008
We hear a lot from folks who argue that we shouldn't worry about inflicting pain on the condemned during an execution, because of the pain they inflicted on their victims. Or that the pain of the execution should match, or even exceed, the pain suffered by the victims in their last moments...

Mardi gras colors

Posted on February 05, 2008
Let's dress ourselves with the Mardi gras colors. The traditional colors of this Carnival are purple, green and gold. Even if you do not like this holiday or consider it somewhat odd, I am asking you to reflect back to its origins and act based on those original meanings...

Does Alabama want to be the new Texas?

Posted on January 31, 2008
highest rate of death sentencing in the county ... no right to counsel for appeal ... stay of execution lifted despite a halt to executions nationwide ... You may expect to hear such things coming out of Texas, the state that far exceeds every other in executions - where Michael Richard was executed on September 25th, 2007 because a judge didn't want to keep her office open an extra 30...

Murder victims' families against Death Penalty

Posted on January 30, 2008
"You have not lost a family member, right? You would think very differently about the death penalty after someone close to you is killed", a friend of mine told me. Although she has not lost anyone to murder, she is one of those persons who believe that the death penalty is the right punishment for atrocious murder crimes and that it brings relief to the murder victims' families...

Atonement

Posted on January 18, 2008
Last night, the NBC show ER featured a retired prison doctor who had performed lethal injections and was now racked with guilt. This doctor, Dr. Truman, was also dying of cancer and was spending his remaining time trying to make amends to the families of the men he had helped execute...

Stoning in Iran

Posted on January 17, 2008
Women continue to bear the brunt of Iran's draconian penal system and are subject to more punishments by stoning. Eleven people-nine of them women-are currently waiting to be stoned to death on charges of adultery. In a 32-page reported entitled, Iran: death by stoning a grotesque and unacceptable penalty, Amnesty International documents a cruel practice that is often imposed after grossly unfair...

Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Lethal Injection

Posted on January 07, 2008
Oral arguments in the case of Baze v. Rees, on the constitutionality of Kentucky's lethal injection protocol, took place this morning at the U.S. Supreme Court. I sat in the courtroom and listened to both sides make their case, as the nine Supreme Court Justices asked continuous questions and as those watching, like myself, listened silently...

Secret Executions in Nigeria

Posted on December 18, 2007
"Punishment only comes after exhaustive legal and judicial processes, including recourse to the supreme court of the land... It is thus on record that we have not carried out any capital punishment in recent years in Nigeria." This statement was made last month, on November 15, 2007, by a Nigerian government representative at the United Nations...

Aw-Right NEW JERSEY!!!!

Posted on December 13, 2007
We are so happy to say that the New Jersey Legislative Assembly just passed the abolition bill (with a 44-36 majority). Thanks to everyone who made this a reality! Here is what Amnesty International USA's executive Director Larry Cox had to say: Amnesty International USA applauds the New Jersey Assembly for voting to abolish the death penalty...

126 exonerees

Posted on December 12, 2007
During the period of time between 1995 and 2007, I worked in one industry, went back to school and completed one and 7/8ths degrees in another industry. I have moved over ten times and traveled a tiny portion of the world. People have married, had kids and so on...

On cruel and unusual punishment

Posted on December 07, 2007
I wanted to comment briefly on one of the questions raised during the online chat today: Question Submitted by Robbie: Thank you for answering my first question. I have a follow up, if the person that is being executed has been administered anesthesia properly with the first injection, do lethal injection still constitute "cruel and unusual" punishment if he or she...

Happy (?) 25th Anniversary, Lethal Injection (but your time has come...)

Posted on December 06, 2007
Tomorrow, December 7, 2007, is the 25th anniversary of the first lethal injection in the USA. Charles "Charlie" Brooks Jr. of Fort Worth, Texas was the first man (and potentially the first innocent man killed by lethal injection, see here ) injected with the three drug-cocktail which would spread faster than any infectious disease to become the country's preferred method of state-killing...

Exonerated, After 15 Years on Death Row

Posted on December 06, 2007
Michael Lee McCormick was acquitted yesterday, December 5th, by a Tennessee jury of the 1985 murder of Donna Jean Nichols. He spent over 15 years on Tennessee's death row for this murder, which he did not commit. In his first trial, McCormick was convicted based on hair evidence from Nichols' car and a secretly recorded confession to an undercover cop...

NJ Senate budget committee approves death penalty abolition!

Posted on December 03, 2007
It's been over 40 years since Iowa and West Virginia repealed their capital punishment statutes in 1965. Since that time the death penalty has been invalidated, and reinstated; lethal injection has taken over as the main method of execution; and 124 people have been found innocent and released from death row...

To Test DNA, or not to test, why is this even a question?

Posted on November 29, 2007
Death Penalty Opposer: ...there is always a chance that an innocence person may be executed. Over 120 people have been exonerated from death row since reinstatement in the USA and there are many cases where there is significant evidence that people who have been executed were actually innocent (see here for at least nine examples)...

On Deterrence

Posted on November 26, 2007
The controversy regarding the deterrent effect of capital punishment has gained momentum these days... It seems to have begun this time around with the publication of Adler and Summer's November 2, 2007 commentary in the Wall Street Journal regarding their own findings...