Post by Anja Nieser on Oct 1, 2006 5:30:39 GMT -5
Opposition to Death Penalty Gains Momentum
Elijah Page isn't a prime candidate for a cause celebr for death penalty
opponents. He took no apparent steps to reform his life or to seek
redemption. In addition to admitting guilt openly, he has requested to die
for helping murder a person during a robbery 6 years ago. Page even filed
court papers to fire his lawyers in order to speed up his execution date.
But his impending execution in the red state of South Dakota, potentially
the first execution in that state since reinstating it in 1979, is still
stirring debate about whether or not the death penalty is a measure of
justice.
According to media reports, South Dakota's Republican Governor Mike
Rounds, who is Catholic, commuted Page's execution last month on the
pretext of technical discrepancies between state law and the methods of
killing used by the prison authorities.
Underlying this pretext, one defense attorney from South Dakota explained
to the local media, may be the real concern that the specific technique of
execution (lethal injection) may be cruel. The delay in Pages case has
helped publicize the ensuing debate.
In that usually quiet state, some influential voices strongly rejected the
death penalty as an inhumane, brutal form of punishment. Both the Catholic
bishop of the Rapids City archdiocese and the bishop of the Dakotas
Conference of the United Methodist Church (President Bush's church,
incidentally) denounced Pages impending execution and urged permanent
forms of punishment other than killing. Both religious leaders argued that
redemption and forgiveness are higher forms of human responses to killing
than revenge and a "cycle of violence" perpetuated by the states killing
of an inmate.
Opposition Grows
From the Catholic Church's recent strong reiteration of its opposition to
the death penalty to the refusal of doctors in San Quentin Prison's death
row to use lethal injection on cruelty grounds earlier this year,
opposition to the death penalty has gained momentum.
Over the past few years, incidents like former Republican Illinois
Governor George Ryan's self-imposed moratorium on the death penalty in
that state after revelations of torture by Chicago police and a wave of
exonerations of death row inmates by new DNA evidence (14 since 1989,
according to the Innocence Project) brought serious debate to the public's
attention. Massive protests over the execution of Stanley "Tookie"
Williams and New York's de facto ban on the practice this past year,
pushed the death penalty again into the headlines.
In the words of David Elliot, spokesperson for the National Coalition to
Abolish the Death Penalty, these developments show an "important climate
change" that indicate "the death penalty is withering away in the United
States."
Public opinion is roughly split over the death penalty when people are
given a choice between sentencing convicted murderers to life without
parole and the death penalty. And the number of death sentences handed
down per year has fallen from more than 300 since the late 1990s to around
100, said Elliot.
The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court has even aided anti-death
penalty momentum. In recent cases, Elliot pointed out, the Court ruled
that only juries can hand down death sentences and against executing
juvenile offenders and severely mentally disabled people. This past
summer, the Court also ruled in favor of giving more weight to new DNA
evidence not available at the time of trial when appellate judges make
decisions about ordering new trials for defendants sentenced to death.
Legal observers view these decisions as potentially increasing the
fairness of the judicial process and reducing the use of the death
penalty.
The failure of the New York legislature to re-write its death penalty laws
after a New York state court struck them down last year, means "that New
York now effectively has no death penalty, although strangely they still
have a couple of people on death row," Elliot stated.
In New Jersey, the state legislature reinstated the death penalty in 1992.
Even some Republicans are now expressing criticism for having spent $253
million on it without having executed anyone in those 15 years. For this
reason, Elliot expressed a belief in the likelihood of abolishing it
there.
He also added that important efforts to abolish the death penalty in North
Carolina and New Mexico will happen in the coming year. In fact, a
potential shift in several state legislatures from Republican to
Democratic control this election cycle may have a big impact on several
state-centered efforts to either abolish or limit the use of the death
penalty. New state legislators are more likely to be open to lobbying
groups with reform and abolition proposals.
Race and the Death Penalty
The cruelty of the death penalty aside, critics of the death penalty argue
that persistent racial disparities from the bottom to the top of the
judicial system make its use too unfair for a democratic society.
When they are not simply denying that racism plays a role in the criminal
justice system, people who support the death penalty, like right-wing
activist and Bush supporter Michael Paranzino, whose website
ThrowAwaytheKey.org is little more than a donation page and collection of
links to articles that quote his diatribes, insist that creating mandatory
death sentences would make the death penalty more fair.
While arguments for mandatory sentences ignore racial disparity throughout
the process before sentencing well-documented inequalities include racial
profiling, unequal sentencing, disproportionate incarceration rates, jury
bias, and economic inequalities they also fail to address some
fundamental facts about race on death row.
According to Elliot, "People need to know that it is not the race of the
perpetrator so much that makes a difference, but rather the race of the
victim."
Of the 1,047 executions since 1976, more than 80 % of the victims in these
cases were white, despite the fact that whites and Blacks are murdered in
nearly equal numbers. Elliot highlighted his home state of Texas, which
leads the nation in executions with 376 over the past 30 years.
Texas "has executed precisely 1 white inmate whose victim was Black,"
Elliot said. "By contrast, the number of Blacks who have been executed for
killing white victims in Texas is in the hundreds. Its really the race of
the victim that makes a difference."
"Draconian responses" like mandatory penalties, Elliot argued, will
increase the rate of erroneous convictions. It will also inevitably
increase the rate of people who are executed wrongfully as well, he
concludes.
(source: Argus Leader)
Elijah Page isn't a prime candidate for a cause celebr for death penalty
opponents. He took no apparent steps to reform his life or to seek
redemption. In addition to admitting guilt openly, he has requested to die
for helping murder a person during a robbery 6 years ago. Page even filed
court papers to fire his lawyers in order to speed up his execution date.
But his impending execution in the red state of South Dakota, potentially
the first execution in that state since reinstating it in 1979, is still
stirring debate about whether or not the death penalty is a measure of
justice.
According to media reports, South Dakota's Republican Governor Mike
Rounds, who is Catholic, commuted Page's execution last month on the
pretext of technical discrepancies between state law and the methods of
killing used by the prison authorities.
Underlying this pretext, one defense attorney from South Dakota explained
to the local media, may be the real concern that the specific technique of
execution (lethal injection) may be cruel. The delay in Pages case has
helped publicize the ensuing debate.
In that usually quiet state, some influential voices strongly rejected the
death penalty as an inhumane, brutal form of punishment. Both the Catholic
bishop of the Rapids City archdiocese and the bishop of the Dakotas
Conference of the United Methodist Church (President Bush's church,
incidentally) denounced Pages impending execution and urged permanent
forms of punishment other than killing. Both religious leaders argued that
redemption and forgiveness are higher forms of human responses to killing
than revenge and a "cycle of violence" perpetuated by the states killing
of an inmate.
Opposition Grows
From the Catholic Church's recent strong reiteration of its opposition to
the death penalty to the refusal of doctors in San Quentin Prison's death
row to use lethal injection on cruelty grounds earlier this year,
opposition to the death penalty has gained momentum.
Over the past few years, incidents like former Republican Illinois
Governor George Ryan's self-imposed moratorium on the death penalty in
that state after revelations of torture by Chicago police and a wave of
exonerations of death row inmates by new DNA evidence (14 since 1989,
according to the Innocence Project) brought serious debate to the public's
attention. Massive protests over the execution of Stanley "Tookie"
Williams and New York's de facto ban on the practice this past year,
pushed the death penalty again into the headlines.
In the words of David Elliot, spokesperson for the National Coalition to
Abolish the Death Penalty, these developments show an "important climate
change" that indicate "the death penalty is withering away in the United
States."
Public opinion is roughly split over the death penalty when people are
given a choice between sentencing convicted murderers to life without
parole and the death penalty. And the number of death sentences handed
down per year has fallen from more than 300 since the late 1990s to around
100, said Elliot.
The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court has even aided anti-death
penalty momentum. In recent cases, Elliot pointed out, the Court ruled
that only juries can hand down death sentences and against executing
juvenile offenders and severely mentally disabled people. This past
summer, the Court also ruled in favor of giving more weight to new DNA
evidence not available at the time of trial when appellate judges make
decisions about ordering new trials for defendants sentenced to death.
Legal observers view these decisions as potentially increasing the
fairness of the judicial process and reducing the use of the death
penalty.
The failure of the New York legislature to re-write its death penalty laws
after a New York state court struck them down last year, means "that New
York now effectively has no death penalty, although strangely they still
have a couple of people on death row," Elliot stated.
In New Jersey, the state legislature reinstated the death penalty in 1992.
Even some Republicans are now expressing criticism for having spent $253
million on it without having executed anyone in those 15 years. For this
reason, Elliot expressed a belief in the likelihood of abolishing it
there.
He also added that important efforts to abolish the death penalty in North
Carolina and New Mexico will happen in the coming year. In fact, a
potential shift in several state legislatures from Republican to
Democratic control this election cycle may have a big impact on several
state-centered efforts to either abolish or limit the use of the death
penalty. New state legislators are more likely to be open to lobbying
groups with reform and abolition proposals.
Race and the Death Penalty
The cruelty of the death penalty aside, critics of the death penalty argue
that persistent racial disparities from the bottom to the top of the
judicial system make its use too unfair for a democratic society.
When they are not simply denying that racism plays a role in the criminal
justice system, people who support the death penalty, like right-wing
activist and Bush supporter Michael Paranzino, whose website
ThrowAwaytheKey.org is little more than a donation page and collection of
links to articles that quote his diatribes, insist that creating mandatory
death sentences would make the death penalty more fair.
While arguments for mandatory sentences ignore racial disparity throughout
the process before sentencing well-documented inequalities include racial
profiling, unequal sentencing, disproportionate incarceration rates, jury
bias, and economic inequalities they also fail to address some
fundamental facts about race on death row.
According to Elliot, "People need to know that it is not the race of the
perpetrator so much that makes a difference, but rather the race of the
victim."
Of the 1,047 executions since 1976, more than 80 % of the victims in these
cases were white, despite the fact that whites and Blacks are murdered in
nearly equal numbers. Elliot highlighted his home state of Texas, which
leads the nation in executions with 376 over the past 30 years.
Texas "has executed precisely 1 white inmate whose victim was Black,"
Elliot said. "By contrast, the number of Blacks who have been executed for
killing white victims in Texas is in the hundreds. Its really the race of
the victim that makes a difference."
"Draconian responses" like mandatory penalties, Elliot argued, will
increase the rate of erroneous convictions. It will also inevitably
increase the rate of people who are executed wrongfully as well, he
concludes.
(source: Argus Leader)