posted on February 21, 2003 03:15:00 AM new
This would probably be cause for celebration were it not for the knowledge that there are many more innocent people still facing execution and for the tragic knowledge that untold numbers of other people never had the opportunity to be cleared by the relatively new DNA technology.
posted on February 21, 2003 07:44:28 AM new
What makes me sick is that 25 of those are from Florida. And numbers 26 and 27 have already been exonerated by DNA and are just waiting for the legal wheels to grind toward their release.
One strong common thread ... a vast majority of the people convicted were originally implicated (or had the cases against them significantly strengthened) by the testimony of jailhouse snitches who recieved sentencing breaks in return for "helping" in a first-degree murder case.
posted on February 21, 2003 09:37:26 AM new
The brothers Jeb and George have difficulty with this human rights issue. Is that surprising?
It's good to see that the number of Americans in favor of abolishing this archaic practice is increasing.
From the article....
His case is a powerful reminder that there are grave problems with this ultimate punishment – and his case has renewed calls by civil rights activists for a moratorium on the death penalty.
"This is a system broken beyond repair," says David Elliot, with the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "There's nothing magic about the number 100, but it'is a good opportunity to convey to the public the extent of the problem."
Since 1976, 767 people have been put to death, says Mr. Elliot. And with 100 exonerations of death-row inmates in the past 25 years, he says he can only conclude that innocents have been executed.
posted on February 21, 2003 12:19:27 PM new
I think that is is dangerous for the state to ever have the right to put any citizen to death for any reason whatsoever. Once you cross that boundry - a very wide one, then it is only a short distance to increasing what constitutes the death penalty. Already there are proposals in Congress right now to increase the number of things that can bring down the death penalty on your head and to do so in secret.
If we have so many innocent people on death row for shoddy investigations and criminally-wrong prosecutions, just image what Hell-on-Earth will be let loose when Homeland Security can snatch people secretly, try them secretly, and then execute them secretly -- all with the blessings of the state! That isn't some far off fantasy - that is on the table RIGHT NOW!
posted on February 21, 2003 12:21:19 PM new
I'm no Jeb fan, but Gov. Bush seems to at least wrestle with this issue, and I've always wondered if his conversion to Catholicism had anything to do with it. (For the record, the Catholic Church is very adamant against capital punishment.)
He put an unofficial moratorium in place for several months (by simply letting the death warrants pile up on his desk) while the U.S. Supreme Court dealt with several cases that might have made Florida's death penalty statutes unconstitutional. (Actually, they DID make Florida's death penalty unconstitutional, but then they refused to acknowledge it.)
The governor also been willing to stay executions while DNA testing was conducted.
But the governor also let an exonerated man sit in prison for months (timing that was suspiciously coincidental with his reelection campaign.)
Most recently, he stayed an execution while DNA evidence could be tested. Unfortunately, that evidence was inconclusive and Amos Lee King is scheduled to be executed Feb. 26 despite the flimsiness of the case against him. Many Floridians are praying the governor will commute King's sentence before that date. I am one of them.
posted on February 21, 2003 01:01:57 PM newHe put an unofficial moratorium in place for several months (by simply letting the death warrants pile up on his desk) while the U.S. Supreme Court dealt with several cases that might have made Florida's death penalty statutes unconstitutional.
I think he only put a moratorium in place because he knew that any warrant he signed would be challenged in court. He gets to look "fair," while no executions would have taken place anyway.
I've no doubt that Jeb will gleefully continue his murder spree very shortly.
posted on February 21, 2003 01:05:15 PM new
It appears that Jebb Bush looks at the death penalty as a campaign scheduling problem. I wonder how many innocent people he has denied clemency from execution so far.
In the Amos King case, all the classic problems related to discrimination are apparent... minority status along with the related racial problems, poverty and inability to hire adequate legal help and judicial failure. Without a DNA match and credible evidence he should be free right now.
Helen
A gallup poll found that the majority polled felt that there should be a moratorium on the death penalty.
"Now that the constitutionality of Florida's death penalty statute has been affirmed, Governor Bush can feel comfortable in scheduling as many executions as possible," said Abe Bonowitz, Director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP). "However, with a very tight election just weeks away, we hope that Jeb Bush will not further politicize the death penalty by scheduling executions before November 5th."
Executions had been on hold while the Florida Supreme Court scrutinized the full ramifications of the US Supreme Court's recent decision in Ring V. Arizona. When the US Supreme Court June decision in Ring failed to explicitly disallow Florida's death penalty statute, Governor Bush immediately scheduled two executions. The Florida Supreme Court issued stays and heard arguments in the Bottoson and King cases in August, and ruled against the two today.
"The question now becomes: 'Who is calling the shots in the Governor's office: the policy advisors or the campaign advisors?'," said Bonowitz. "If the campaign advisors prevail, we can expect to see the executions of King and Bottoson any day now."
Bonowitz was speaking from Chicago where he has traveled with Juan Melendez to attend the annual conference this weekend of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Bonowitz and Melendez on Tuesday completed a state-wide tour to raise awareness about the fact that Florida leads the nation in wrongful convictions.
"I am a prime example that the system in Florida is not fair, and it is not accurate," said Melendez, who on January 3, 2002 became the 24th exonerated person to be released from Florida's death row. "Florida's death penalty system is broken. We lead the nation in wrongful convictions, and the Governor is in denial that Florida needs a "Time-Out" on executions."
posted on February 21, 2003 01:23:21 PM new .....what Hell-on-Earth will be let loose when Homeland Security can snatch people secretly, try them secretly, and then execute them secretly -- all with the blessings of the state!
And with the terms terrorist and terrorism being so loosely thrown about in society today as a tool for petty personal revenge and for unethical partisan political advantage, the potential for further and more serious abuse is staggering.
(AP) Federal prosecutors exaggerated their success convicting would-be terrorists last year by wrongly classifying three of four cases as "international terrorism," a government watchdog says.
Overall, almost half of 288 convictions deemed "terrorism-related" were found by investigators to have been wrongly classified as such for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the General Accounting Office found.
The Department of Justice "does not have sufficient management oversight and internal controls in place to ensure the accuracy and reliability of terrorism-related conviction statistics included in its annual performance reports," reported Congress' nonpartisan watchdog agency.
In 2001 at least 3,048 people were executed in 31 countries. At least 5,265 people were sentenced to death in 68 countries. These figures include only cases known to AI; the true figures were certainly higher. The vast majority of executions worldwide are carried out in a tiny handful of countries. In 2001, 90 percent of all known executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the USA.
In China, preliminary figures indicated that at least 2,468 people were executed, although the true number was believed to be much higher. At least 139 executions were carried out in Iran. In Saudi Arabia, 79 executions were reported, but the total may have been much higher. Sixty-six people were executed in the USA.
"The death penalty is disgusting, particularly if it condemns an innocent. But it remains an injustice even when it falls on someone who is guilty of a crime."
Giuliano Amato, Prime Minister of Italy, 14 September 2000, commenting on a scheduled execution in Virginia USA
posted on February 21, 2003 04:41:49 PM new Linda, Numbers of black and white executions do not present an accurate picture of the percentage of black and white population subjected to the death penalty.
COLLEGE PARK, Maryland (AP) -- Prosecutors in Maryland are much more likely to seek the death penalty in cases where blacks are accused of killing whites, according to a University of Maryland study released Tuesday.
The report also concluded geography plays a major role in whether a defendant faces a potential death sentence, as the decisions by state's attorneys to pursue capital punishment varies widely from county to county.
Outgoing Gov. Parris Glendening commissioned the report in 2000 in response to concerns that the state's death penalty is unfairly meted out according to race and jurisdiction.
Glendening, a Democrat, imposed a moratorium on executions last May while the study was being completed, but Republican Gov.-elect Robert Ehrlich has promised to lift the ban when he takes office January 15. Only one other state that has capital punishment, Illinois, has imposed a similar moratorium.
Maryland has 12 men on death row; eight are black and four are white. In all 12 cases, the victims were white. The state has executed three people, two of them black, since 1976.
Criminologist Ray Paternoster found that the race of the defendant was not significant in death penalty-eligible cases, but wrote that the race of the victim proved a major factor in determining whether prosecutors sought the death penalty.
Furthermore, the race of the victim and offender taken together showed significant differences. Prosecutors filed death notices, indicating their intent to seek the death penalty, in almost half of the homicides where a black defendant killed a white victim, but only in about a quarter of all other homicides.
"Black offenders who kill white victims are at greater risk of death sentences than others, primarily because they are substantially more likely to be charged by the state's attorney with a capital offense," the report said.
Paternoster studied 6,000 murder cases between 1978, when the state reinstated a death penalty statute, and the present. Paternoster sifted through police reports, case files, autopsy reports and other records. Researchers evaluated 250 factors, such as the racial characteristics of the victim and how the crimes were committed.
Decisions by prosecutors in the early stages of cases varied dramatically between jurisdictions. In Baltimore County, for example, State's Attorney Sandra O'Connor pursues the death penalty in all eligible cases to avoid any allegations of bias -- even though the county had considerably fewer death-eligible cases than jurisdictions such as the city of Baltimore.
"The between-county differences that occur at the beginning of the process have effects that propagate the end of the process," the report concluded.
Maryland's death penalty could be a major issue in the General Assembly session that starts Wednesday.
Prosecutors want to strengthen the statute, saying the law is relatively weak compared to other states and was a reason Maryland lost the right to first prosecute Washington-area sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo.
Several black lawmakers have proposed legislation to extend the moratorium while the General Assembly reviews the study.
Ehrlich would not comment Tuesday morning on the study, saying he had not had a chance to review it. But he repeated his pledge to end the moratorium when he takes office, saying he will review death sentences on a case-by-case basis.
posted on February 21, 2003 06:27:36 PM new
I say conduct DNA testing on every death row inmate and if it is a match... they die right then, if no match... they get released...simple.
I support the death penalty and will stand by it, nothing in this world is perfect and to expect the same from others as you cannot perform is a typical cop out.
of course those of you who don't support it should be asked to provide a home for that just paroled murderer...
posted on February 25, 2003 03:51:18 PM new
DNA testing is great ... when there's DNA to test.
But you have to think this through. Most of the people being released now were convicted before DNA testing was available. How many more were convicted and executed wrongly?
How about cases where someone was convicted wrongly but there was no DNA evidence? For example, someone convicted of a drive-by shooting. What DNA would there be?
It's important to note that many of the people freed from Florida's death row were not released because of DNA evidence. In some cases, false "confessions" were coerced, obtained from defendants who were mentally retarded, or flat-out fabricated. In others, police or expert witnesses lied. One of the biggest problems is the use of "jailhouse snitches" who swap testimony for leniency.
Amos King (the man scheduled for execution tomorrow night) was convicted on very spurious evidence, and two key witnesses against him (the medical examiner and a corrupt prison official) have since been proven highly suspect in terms of their professionalism and honesty. There might have been ample DNA evidence at the time, but much of it has been "lost" in evidence rooms. They have tried to scrape enough DNA together to test. In the most recent tests, the state says they couldn't get enough of a sample. Does that "prove" he's guilty? No. In fact, the physical evidence that still exists tends to suggest that he's not.
posted on February 25, 2003 07:47:59 PM new
jebb says no further delays.
So, innocent people will continue to be executed. DNA, as you pointed out, will not always exonerate innocent people.
Incompetent lawyers, racial bias, judicial error, false confessions, paid witnesses and human error will continue to result in more innocent people being sentenced to death. And why does this country still condone this barbaric killing?
I am sorry about Amos and the number of innocent people who have, in the past been wrongly executed and the number of people who will be executed in the future.
"The death penalty is disgusting, particularly if it condemns an innocent. But it remains an injustice even when it falls on someone who is guilty of a crime."
Giuliano Amato, Prime Minister of Italy, 14 September 2000, commenting on a scheduled execution in Virginia USA
