At the behest of Mass. Governor Mitt Romney, a panel of appointed experts have submitted a death penalty bill for the state. The proponents of the bill argue that under its provisions, the death penalty will be applied fairly and innocent persons are unlikely to be executed. Poppycock.

Nationwide, more than 100 death row inmates have been exonerated in recent years. Former Illinois governor George Ryan ® commuted 167 death sentences in January 2003, saying his state's system was "haunted by the demon of error." A University of Michigan study published last month said it was likely that thousands of wrongfully convicted people were incarcerated in the United States.

Joshua Rubenstein, northeast regional director for Amnesty International, which opposes capital punishment, said that the reforms proposed by Romney expose the shortcomings of existing death penalty laws and that those sentenced to long prison terms for murder or other crimes deserve the same high standards Romney seeks for capital cases. Even with higher standards in place, Rubenstein said, mistakes will continue, because even scientific evidence has been proven fallible. "The system is simply too flawed to fix," he said. "We are still relying on the vagaries of human nature, and there's nothing Governor Romney can do about that."

The Commission did not start from the proposition of asking whether the death penalty should be reinstated. It assumed it should:

The 11-member committee was not asked to make a recommendation about whether the penalty should be reinstated but rather to determine how best to administer it.

Massachussetts has not had a death penalty for 20 years. No one has been executed in the state in 57 years. Our view: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Romney will hold a press conference and release the Commission's report Monday.

by TChris

A hundred people met today in Pinehurst, North Carolina to discuss the need for a moratorium on the state's death penalty. Attending the meeting were Darryl Hunt, who spent 19 years in prison before DNA evidence that prosecutors had withheld from him proved he didn't commit the crime, and Alan Gell, who spent nine years on death row before his lawyers uncovered witness statements, again withheld by the prosecution, that proved his innocence.

The state Senate passed a bill last year calling for a two year moratorium. The state House is now considering the bill.

by TChris

Earlier today, TalkLeft reported that New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson will probably veto a bill that would eliminate the death penalty for people who were juveniles when the offense was committed. Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Gov. Benson today making a persuasive case for signing the bill. If you live in New Hampshire, you might want to send the Governor a similar letter.

Last month, when writing about the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision holding that South Carolina's "Choose Life" license plates violated the First Amendment, we opined:

We have a simple solution. Allow "Choose Life" license plates, provided they include the phrase "End the Death Penalty."

We're pleased to report that a growing number of Catholics are beginning to question the support for one, but not the other:

Texas death row conviction voided in case of Vodochodsky.

Max Soffar, Death row inmate, ordered released pending new trial.

Court takes Modden off death row.

This is an interesting article about David Paul Hammer, a death row prisoner in jail for 26 years, who is ready for his June 8 execution. He's also the death row inmate who will testify at Terry Nichols' trial about what he says Timothy McVeigh told him while they were in adjacent death row cells. He's also written a book.

Providence Sister Rita Clare Gerardot of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., who has been one of Hammer’s two spiritual advisers since March 2000,....She said Hammer also told her that incarceration is "like a slow death in a cage." In a recent statement shared by the Providence sister, Hammer said, "It is my hope that protests against capital punishment will be loud and vocal on the day before I am killed—not for me, but rather for the thousands of men and women still fighting against overwhelming odds for justice in their respective cases. There is no justice in capital punishment. It is revenge, pure and simple."

He was sentenced to die in 1998 after he pleaded guilty to the 1996 murder of Andrew Marti, his cellmate at the U.S. Penitentiary in Allenwood, Pa. At the time of the murder, Hammer was serving a federal sentence for escaping in the early 1980s from an Oklahoma state prison, where he was incarcerated for kidnapping and attempted murder.

Hammer will be the 4th federal prisoner executed since 2001, when the federal reinstated the death penalty after a 38 years suspension. His website is here.

The National Coaliton Against the Death Penalty (NCADP) just sent us this press release:

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Thursday called on Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute the death sentence of James Clark, a mentally retarded man scheduled to be executed April 27. "Texas may not flout the highest court in the United States," said David Elliot, NCADP communications director. "Prosecutors and judges may not like the outcome of Atkins. But to allow this execution to proceed would create a stain of embarrassment that will not be easily hidden or soon removed."

The details and action alert are here. Please contact Gov. Perry and urge that he stop the execution of James Clark. Please further urge the governor to declare a moratorium on all Texecutions.

Yesterday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated the death sentence of another retarded prisoner, Willie Mack Modden. It also vacated the death sentence of Kenneth Vodochodks, a prisoner for whom the Court found the evidence insufficient that he aided the triggerman.

Modden is the first Texas inmate to have his death sentence commuted by the Court of Criminal Appeals since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that execution of retarded inmates is unconstitutional.

by TChris

The United Nations Human Rights Commission today voted to support a resolution calling for the worldwide suspension of the death penalty. The United States, as it does every year, voted against the resolution, allying itself with such notable protectors of human rights as China and Saudi Arabia.

by TChris

A federal court stayed the execution of Michael Rosales in Texas just hours before he was scheduled to die. Lawyers for Rosales argue that he is mentally retarded and cannot be executed under a recent Supreme Court ruling holding unconstitutional the execution of severely retarded defendants. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sent Rosales' case back to a district court where the issue of Rosales' retardation can be more fully explored.

Rosales would have been the ninth person executed in Texas this year.

A 48 year old woman was blindfolded, tied to a stake and executed by firing squad in Vietnam:

She was condemned to death after being caught trafficking 337-grammes of heroin from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City in 1998. Under Vietnamese law, anyone found in possession of 300 grams or more of heroin, or at least 10-kilograms of opium, faces the death penalty. At least 28 people have been handed the death penalty this year in Vietnam, while 19 people have been executed.

Money talks in death penalty defense. Check out the record of the well-funded Philadelphia defender's office: In eleven years, not one client has been sentenced to death.

Lawyers say the Defender Association of Philadelphia's track record — in a city that annually ranks near the top in use of the death penalty — is proof that when it comes to capital punishment, the difference between life and death for a convicted killer can be a matter of dollars and cents. With 215 attorneys on staff, the Defenders Association is equipped with resources usually available only to prosecutors. Every capital murder client gets two lawyers and a private investigator. A team of psychologists and ``mitigation experts'' hunt for evidence that might sway jurors against a death sentence.

Amnesty International has just released the results of its study of world executions for 2003. The top three: China, the U.S., and Iran. Together with country #4, Vietnam, they account for 84% of all executions.

Amnesty International's figures also showed that 77 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes by the end of 2003....This year's figures show that as the majority of countries follow an abolitionist path, others choose to remain on the wrong side of the justice divide", Amnesty International said. "Countries retaining the death penalty because of its supposed power as a unique deterrent to crime are flying in the face of scientific studies that fail to establish any such effect."

Amnesty further reports: