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News

SADP Releases Summary of Candidates' Positions on Death Penalty

(January 16, 2004) 

Students Against the Death Penalty (SADP), a grassroots program of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, has released a summary of the ten presidential candidates' positions on the death penalty.  The summary includes background information on issues pertaining to innocence and DNA testing, racial disparities, the death penalty for juveniles, and a moratorium on executions, as well as the positions that the 2004 candidates have taken on these issues throughout their political careers.  Three presidential candidates, Sen. Dennis Kucinich, Ambassador Moseley-Braun, and Rev. Al Sharpton, categorically oppose the use of the death penalty.  Three other candidates, Gen. Wesley Clark, Sen. John Kerry, and current frontrunner Gov. Howard Dean, support limited use of the death penalty and significant reforms to the system.  Rep. Richard Gephardt and Sen. John Edwards also support reforms of the death penalty to minimize risk of executing an innocent person.  Sen. Joseph Lieberman, widely considered the most conservative of the democratic candidates, also supports the death penalty, but only supports limited reform.  President Bush, who as the Governor of Texas oversaw more executions than any other Governor in the 20^th century, supports the death penalty and does not believe that America's capital punishment system is in need of reform.  SADP, which is mobilizing youth through education and advocacy to reform and ultimately abolish the death penalty, hopes that this resource will help educate voters on the candidates' overall positions on the death penalty.  

Read the Summary of the Presidential Candidates' Positions on the Death Penalty 

New Jersey Governor Vetoes Death Penalty Study Bill

(January 13, 2004) 

New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey was met with widespread criticism after his decision to veto a bill that would have commissioned a study of the state death penalty system.  The death penalty study bill was passed with overwhelming support by both the State House and the Senate and received support from hundreds of statewide citizen organizations as well as the heads of virtually every major religion.  The bill would have established a commission to determine whether the death penalty was applied manner that is arbitrary, unfair, and discriminatory and consistent.  In 2001, a report released by the New Jersey Supreme Court found disturbing evidence regarding race and the death penalty.  The report cited unsettling statistical evidence indicating that cases involving killers of white victims were more likely to progress to a penalty phase than cases involving killers of black victims.  There are also many documented cases of geographic disparity and ineffective assistance of counsel in New Jersey.  At a time when the exoneration of more than 100 death row inmates has caused many states around the nation to curtail use of the death penalty, a review of the capital punishment system is essential to ensure the fairness and accuracy of the criminal justice system.   

Learn More About the Death Penalty In New Jersey

Arkansas Executes Drugged Death Row Inmate(January 6, 2004) 

Charles Singleton was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday despite concerns that he was mentally ill.  Singleton, who was forced to take anti-psychotic drugs to make him mentally competent to stand execution, recently had his final appeal rejected from the US Supreme Court.  After he was diagnosed as psychotic, delusional, and suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, a prison board ordered him to take anti-psychotic medications.  Despite the medication, Singleton's schizophrenia worsened over the years.  Up until the point he was put to death, Singleton heard voices in his head.  The current legal standard to qualify for execution requires that an inmate be able to understand why he or she is being put to death.  Singleton was only able to understand this when he was on medication.  The US Supreme Court offered no explanation for their refusal to review the federal appeals court ruling.  Singleton's attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, described himself as ""frustrated, disappointed, and saddened"" by the execution.        Read An Article From CNN                                    Learn More About Mental Illness and the Death Penalty 

Highlights From DPIC's Year End Report (DPIC)(January 3, 2004)

The Death Penalty Information Center has released its 2003 Year End Report.  The report highlights some significant death penalty developments from the past year.  According to the report:

· The number of executions dropped by 8% from 71 in 2002 to 65 in 2003.                                              ·  After steady increases from 1976 to 2000, the size of death row has decreased.                                            · In 2003, the number of death row inmates declined by 5%, the third decrease in as many years.                 · The number of people sentenced to death also continued to decline in 2003, down from 159 in 2002 to a projected 139 in 2003.  This is about a 50% drop from the high number of death sentences in the late 1990s of approximately 300 per year.                     · The South was responsible for 89% of the executions in 2003.                                                              ·  Eleven states, but only three outside of the South, conducted executions in 2003, the fewest states in a decade.                                                                    · Ten individuals were exonerated from death row in 2003, tying the record for the most exonerations in a single year.                                                          · Public support for capital punishment reached its lowest level in 25 years; an October 2003 Gallup Poll found 64% of respondents supporting capital punishment, down from 70% in 2002.                         Read DPIC's 2003 Year End Report

Jury Spares Lee Boyd Malvo's Life          (December 23, 2003)

Rejecting prosecutors' call for a death sentence, a Virginia jury decided that Lee Boyd Malvo should receive life in prison without parole after he was convicted for his role in the Washington, DC area sniper shootings.  Malvo admitted to taking part in the shootings, but his lawyers argued that he was brainwashed by convicted accomplice John Allen Muhammad.  Defense attorney Craig S. Cooley argued, ""Children are not born evil, and when they commit evil acts, you can almost always trace those acts to the influences and acts that have been performed against them. And almost always those are acts and influences that precede any transgression by that child. As are we all, Lee is a product of his environment.""  The jury's refusal to hand down a death sentence to a juvenile offender undoubtedly illustrates a growing national consensus against the juvenile death penalty.  Virginia is one of only 21 states that allow the execution of those who were 16 or 17 when they committed a murder.  Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, Virginia is one of only six states that have actually executed a juvenile offender.  The juvenile death penalty has become increasingly unpopular in the United States.  According to a 2002 Gallup Poll, 69 percent of the people polled opposed the death penalty for juveniles; only 26 percent supported the execution of juvenile offenders, and 5 percent offered no opinion.  A recent medical study by the Harvard Medical School demonstrated that parts of the brain responsible for impulse control and judgment are not fully developed by the age of 18.  In a society where laws prohibit juveniles from voting, serving in the military and on juries, marrying, entering into contracts, making medical decision, and purchasing tobacco products, the existence of the juvenile death penalty is an anomaly.     Read Defense Attorney Craig S. Cooley's Closing Arguments 

Learn More About the Juvenile Death Penalty 

New Report on the Juvenile Death Penalty(December 17, 2003) 

Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation, leading victims' rights group, released a report exploring the juvenile death penalty in the United States.  According to the report, more than 70 juvenile offenders are currently on death row in the United States, about half of whom are in Texas and Alabama.  The report, 'I Don't Want Another Kid To Die' details the experiences of families who oppose the death penalty whose loved ones were murdered by juveniles.  Each story in this report speaks to how the surviving family members who lost loved ones to murder view the juvenile death penalty and its impact on their lives.  The United States is one of 123 countries that currently utilize the death penalty as a form of punishment.  Of those counties, the United States and Iran impose the majority of death sentences on juvenile offenders.  Since 1973, 21 juvenile offenders have been executed in the United States, a total of 226 juvenile death sentences have been handed down, and 78 juveniles are presently on death row.  Only 28 states and the federal government prohibit the execution of persons who committed crimes as juveniles.  Of the 21 states that have retained the right to execute juvenile offenders, 16 states allow 16 year olds to receive death sentence, and the remaining 5 permit the execution of 17 year olds.                        Read 'I Don't Want Another Kid To Die.' 

Upcoming Executions 

NCADP Execution Alerts 

Action Alerts

Action Alerts From the ACLU                          Action Alerts From Amnesty International           Action Alerts From the NCADP Legislative Action Center

Legislative Update

Federal Legislation

Innocence Projection Act

On Wednesday, October 1, bipartisan members of both the House and Senate introduced an Omnibus Bill called ""the Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act"".  Title III of the bill contains a revised version of the Innocence Protection Act that was introduced in the 107^th Congress. This version of the IPA would, among other things, set up a process for federal prisoners who meet the standards in the bill to obtain access to DNA testing and obtain relief if exonerated by the DNA results. Title III would also encourage states to set up similar mechanisms and provide funding to local prosecutors and defense lawyers to improve the quality of representation in death penalty cases. 

Other provisions of the Omnibus bill would however, greatly expand the categories of individuals at the federal and state level whose DNA information could be stored in the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Current law permits DNA information for those convicted of violent federal crimes and those convicted of state felonies to be stored. This new measure would extend the reach of CODIS to those convicted of additional federal crimes, those convicted of any state offense and any other offense for which DNA information has been collected under state law or practice-going well beyond those who have been convicted of committing a crime.

 Another provision would indefinitely toll the statute of limitations for federal felonies so that it does not begin to run until the government implicates the individual by means of DNA testing. This provision raises a number of serious due process concerns stemming from the possibility of indictments being handed down decades since a crime occurred.   

The House of Representatives has already passed the Advancing Justice Through DNA Testing Act.  IPA supporters are working toward Senate action.  

Support the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act

On June 24, 2003, U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced HR 2574, the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2003. This legislation, which is a companion bill to Senate legislation introduced by Senator Feingold (D-WI), will put an immediate halt to executions and forbid the imposition of the death penalty as a sentence for violations of federal law. Please contact your U.S. Representative today to urge him/her to co-sponsor and support this important legislation! Note: If your Congressional Representative is an original co-sponsor, you may not take this action.

State Legislation

NJ:  (From NJ Advocates)

A1913/S1112 UPDATE

Governor McGreevey vetoed the death penalty study bill, A1913/S1112, on January 12, 2004.  Thanks to all of you called and wrote letters urging the Governor to sign this piece of legislation.  

If you want to learn more about the death penalty in New Jersey, contact:

New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
22 Oliver Street, Chatham, New Jersey 07928         973-635-6396 * paxcf@aol.com.  www.njadp.org

PA:  

Pennsylvania Residents: Support a Moratorium on Executions in Pennsylvania

During his campaign for governor, Ed Rendell -- a former district attorney and death penalty proponent -- stated that he would support a temporary freeze on executions if there was compelling evidence of errors and unfairness in the system. 

On March 4, 2003, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System released a report recommending an immediate moratorium on executions, citing evidence of racial bias and the failure of Pennsylvania to ensure competent representation for indigent defendants.  Gov. Rendell has since stated repeatedly that he has seen no compelling evidence of problems with Pennsylvania's death penalty system.

The exoneration of death row prisoner Nicholas Yarris on Tuesday, December 9, 2003, is one of the most significant developments in the history of the death penalty in Pennsylvania.  After spending more than two decades on death row for a crime he did not commit, Yarris joins Jay Smith, Neil Ferber, William Nieves, Hank Kimbell, and Fred Thomas (who died on death row after having his conviction dismissed while prosecutors stalled with appeals) - innocent men who spent a combined total of nearly 50 years on Pennsylvania's death row before they were finally exonerated.  

Pennsylvania has now exonerated twice as many death row prisoners (6)