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No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness: No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness: On this World Day of Peace, may a more intense prayer rise from the hearts of all believers for the victims of terrorism, for their families so tragically stricken, for all the peoples who continue to be hurt and convulsed by terrorism and war. May the light of our prayer extend even to those who gravely offend God and man by these pitiless acts, that they may look into their hearts, see the evil of what they do, abandon all violent intentions, and seek forgiveness. In these troubled times, may the whole human family find true and lasting peace, born of the marriage of justice and mercy! From the Vatican, 8 December 2001 JOHN PAUL II "Jesus Christ, whose way of life I try to follow, refused to meet hate with hate and violence with violence... I cannot believe in a God who metes out hurt for hurt, pain for pain, torture for torture. Nor do I believe that God invests human representatives with such power to torture and kill." "I learned too late and only after coming to Death Row that each of us ever must be aware of the brotherhood of man . . . . Circumstances may compel us to become our brother's keeper; I think we destroy something in ourselves when we become his executioner." Caryl Chessman executed in 1960 at the San Quentin, California, gas chamber
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The Controversial Case of Stanley Tookie Williams, cofounder of the Crips. History of the Death Penalty -- The Ancient Laws of China established the death penalty. In the 18th Century BC, the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon allowed the death penalty for 25 crimes, but murder was not included. The first recorded death sentence was in 16th Century BC Egypt. A member of nobility, was accused of magic, and ordered to take his own life. Non nobility were usually killed with an ax. Legal executions came to America in 1776 when British soldiers hung Nathan Hale for spying during the Revolutionary War. "The first person to die in the electric chair was William Kemmler, an ax murderer from New York on August 6, 1890." Amazing Facts All judicial executions in the UK in the last century and details of thousands of other executions going back hundreds of years. The site is useful for geneologists, historians and true crime fans as well as the plain curious. In 1972, the US Supreme Court ruled state executions unconstitutional. Legislators lifted the moratorium on capital punishment in 1976. US has the distinction of joining China, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia as nations that execute their citizens. During the 1988 Presidential race, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis dropped in the polls after opposing the execution of first degree murderer. Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo's 1994 reelection loss could be attributed to his vetoes of death penalty bills. Executions increased last decade. Nationwide the number of Americans who favor the death penalty is declining. Twelve states and the District of Columbia prohibit the death sentence: Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Hawaii, Alaska, Iowa, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Death Penalty Reliability As of March 2005, 119 innocent people have been released from death rows across the country since 1973 (Northwestern University, DP Information Center). Researchers Radelet and Bedau found 23 cases where innocent people were executed since 1900 (In Spite of Innocence, Northeastern University Press, 1992). Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, Inc. Carried Out Disportionately Thurgood Marshall said it was racist, unfair to poor and the mentally retarded, and often ends in the state sanctioned murder of innocents.
It is not cost effective: Capital murder trials threaten to bankrupt townships costing taxpayers:
It is does not deter crime: The two states with the most executions in 2003, Texas 24, and Oklahoma 14, saw increases in their murder rates from 2002 to 2003. Both states had murder rates above the national average in 2003: Texas - 6.4, and Oklahoma - 5.9. The top 13 states in terms of murder rates were all death penalty states. The murder rate of the death penalty states increased from 2002, while the rate in non-death penalty states decreased.Death Penalty Information Center The Death Penalty has been abolished in all other Western Countries and civilized societies, except the US: The European Union (EU) is opposed to the death penalty in all cases and is "deeply concerned about the increasing number of executions in the United
States of America (USA), all the more since the great majority of executions
since reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 have been carried out in the
1990s. Furthermore, in the US, young offenders who are under 18 years of age at
the time of the commission of the crime may be sentenced to death and executed,
in clear infringement of internationally recognized human rights norms."
Opinion Polls on the Death Penalty GALLUP POLL: Public Divided Between Death Penalty and Life Imprisonment Without Parole June 2004The Cornell Law School's Death Penalty Project Assists volunteer lawyers representing death row prisoners -- American Bar Association Death Penalty Representation Project through the generosity of The Open Society Institute and the law firm of Shearman & Sterling. Federal Death Penalty Resource Council -- To help defense counsel become familiar with the issues, procedures, and practices of capital prosecutions. The Execution Tapes -- Public radio special hosted by Ray Suarez featuring excerpts of recordings made in Georgia's death house during electrocution executions. Since this country's last public execution in 1936, executions have been solely in front of state selected witnesses. The media has tried to bring in cameras and tape recorders, but the courts have consistently ruled, the media has no right to record the scene. Execution Photos -- When the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair was a constitutional form of execution, an outraged justice of the court attached 3 photographs to his dissent. Botched lethal injection executions in the USA The death penalty and conditions behind bars at San Quentin State Prison, home to California's Death Row. A Look at San Quentin through the eyes of country legend Merle Haggard who served three years in San Quentin, Kevin Kemp served 10 years in San Quentin for second degree murder and worked as a clerk on death row. Tammi Menendez, wife of Erik Menendez tells us what it's like to visit behind bars. And Lieutenant Vernell Crittendon, public information officer at San Quentin. For 3 years, Jim Willett, 52, Huntsville, Texas, ran the busiest execution chamber in the nation. The best part of leaving the job is not having to watch anybody die. Most states go to great lengths to conceal the identity of their executioners, but in Mississippi Solotaroff was able to contact two of them. Innocence -- Out of at least 400 innocent people convicted of capital crimes they did not commit, 23 were executed. Execution of an innocent person is an injustice that cannot be rectified. Innocent people will be executed in America. Police and prosecutors suppress evidence, public defenders are often incompetent, and the appeals process is increasingly difficult. Calculating the Risk -- As fatal errors escalate, voters reconsider capital punishment. Wrongfully convicted of murder, they spent years on death row. DNA evidence freed Ray Krone after 10 years, four on Arizona's death row. Despite no physical evidence, Gary Gauger, was sentenced to death. Ronald Keine, was 10 days away from the New Mexico death chamber until another man's confession got him a new trial.After spending 14 years on Florida's death row, Frank Lee Smith was cleared of the rape and murder of 8-year-old Shandra Whitehead. Like 100 prisoners before him, Smith's exoneration came as a result of DNA testing unavailable when he was convicted. But the good news came too late, ten months before Frank Lee Smith was proven innocent, he died of cancer in prison. Dennis Williams lived on death row, just 25 feet away from the electric chair. If not for DNA testing and a journalism class, Dennis would be dead today. Kirk Bloodsworth is an innocent person released from death row after being wrongfully accused, convicted and sentenced to death. Death Penalty Controversy -- In 1993, Gary Gauger was living on his parents' farm, working in his father's motorcycle shop when he found his father lying in a pool of blood. When police found his mother's body, he became a suspect in a double homicide. Convicted cop killer and death row inmate, Philip Workman's, "new evidence" would likely have resulted in a different outcome if presented to the jury that convicted him. FBI accused the Oklahoma City police chemist for 21 years, Joyce Gilchrist, of shoddy forensic work in criminal cases. Of twelve inmates sentenced to death on the strength of forensic analysis, the state attorney general has determined three need further review. Death penalty: uncertain justice -- Nearly a 1/5th of Washington State death penalty defendants were represented by lawyers who had been, or were later, suspended or arrested. Our system has condemned innocent people to death and will continue to unless significant reforms are made. We are not able to guarantee that no innocent person will be executed. Indiana's other Lottery: Death Penalty -- Seven Indiana newspapers examine the fairness of Indiana's death penalty process. The papers decided to examine the system after 13 inmates on Illinois' Death Row were exonerated. Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon ordered a review of Indiana's capital punishment laws, but the executions continue. Also see the Wrongful Convictions page. Too late to stop the hangman? -- Missouri is determined to execute Joseph Amrine for murder even though every prosecution witness and the jury foreman now say he's innocent and new witnesses point to another man. Failure of the death penalty in Illinois -- Errors and incompetence rule and justice often is absent. Is the death penalty an effective deterrent to crime or a violation of the United States Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment? Crime and Delinquency examines over a decade of executions in George W. Bush's Texas, and found no deterrent effect. Other research reached the same conclusion, including a 1997 study of crime in over 500 counties nationwide. A 1995 poll by Hart Research Associates found that only one percent of police chiefs believe the death penalty significantly reduces homicides. Under Gov. George W. Bush, Texas executed dozens of death Row inmates whose cases were compromised by unreliable evidence, disbarred or suspended defense attorneys, and dubious psychiatric testimony. Harris County is a pipeline to death row -- is justice served? The Death Penalty in Texas: Texas executes more people than any jurisdiction in the Western world. The death toll is astounding: of the 74 executions carried out in the US during 1997, 37 occurred in Texas. Between 1977 and 1997, the US put 432 prisoners to death, Texas alone accounted for 144. Defendants with Mental Retardation executed in the US since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The Executioner's I.Q. -- In ruling it was unconstitutional to execute the retarded, the Supreme Court added a new element of arbitrariness to a system. Mentally Ill or a Defense? The Johnny Paul Penry Case. You Decide -- A moratorium on the death penalty meant her son's killer would have a chance at parole. ... Fearing his mentally ill younger brother had committed murder, Bill Babbitt turned to the authorities for help. The Death Penalty and Mental Retardation -- Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, at least 35 people with mental retardation were executed in the US. The exact number is not known; experts believe 200 - 300. Because of their mental retardation, they do not understand what they did wrong and cannot comprehend the punishment that awaits them. While they have the bodies of adults, their mental function is that of children. 25 states permit capital punishment for offenders with mental retardation. The US Supreme Court has ruled execution of persons with mental retardation is not cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the 8th Amendment to the US Constitution. Human Rights Watch The Psychology of Suicide-Murder and the Death Penalty -- To understand individuals who seek the death penalty probe the murder-suicide syndrome. A sketch of 22 murderers in the US who kill in hopes of getting executed. By Reason of Insanity -- With few legal protections for mentally ill defendants, some states are routinely executing people guilty of acts of madness. Yates represents a new kind of misuse of the death penalty: examples of people who are behind bars instead of in mental institutions because prosecutors used the death penalty to advance their own careers instead of justice. Angel On Death Row -- An examination of the death penalty debate with a profile of the work of Sister Helen Prejean. In 1976 the US Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was constitutional. Ninety of the 722 murderers executed in the US volunteered, according to Amnesty International. 2/3rds of the voluntary executions have occurred since 1994. Life and death sentencing: The murders they committed were strikingly similar, but their punishments were not. The night Lloyd Lee Anderson went to the gas chamber in Missouri and of Tony Bonino, an old-time gangster who beat the hangman's noose. The Execution traces the life crimes, and execution of self-confessed death row murderer Clifford Boggess that led up to his Texas execution in 1998. Caryl Chessman, The Red-Light Bandit -- The Chessman case engendered more anti-capital punishment sentiment. Chessman was a 27 year old Folsom Prison parolee who spent most his adult life in prison. In January 1948, he was arrested as the Red-Light Bandit. The Bandit approached parked victims in isolated areas, flash a red police light, rob the victims and took some to another to sexually assault them. Caryl Chessman has been expunged from history. Many know an innocent man was murdered in California's gas chamber
Kevin Cooper, 46, a convicted killer on California's death row for over 20 years, won a stay of execution, hours before he was to be executed February 2004. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request for an 11-judge panel to rehear Cooper's case. Cooper, was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to death for the murders of Douglas and Peggy Ryen, 41, their daughter, Jessica, 10, and her friend, Christopher Hughes, 11. Wanda Jean Allen, 41, was executed by Oklahoma on January 11, 2001, at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Allen, killed by lethal injection, was pronounced dead at 9:15pm. Robert Glen Coe and the Death Penalty -- News archives related to the condemned child killer. Support for the death penalty might be declining -- US juries are sentencing fewer convicts to death according to Justice Department research that reflects waning enthusiasm for capital punishment. Why does a state insist on maintaining a capital punishment statute it refuses to enforce? Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation -- It is time to break the cycle of violence. To those who say society must take a life for a life, we say: "not in our name." - Marie Deans, founder of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation. The Lamp of Hope Project - Founded by Texas Death Row prisoners to educate the public about the death penalty and alternatives; Support victims' families by promoting healing and reconciliation; and Support prisoners' families, thereby breaking the cycle of violence. Pending ExecutionsDeath Row Trivia
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Lynch Law Of Prison, Perversions and Executions: BEHIND THE WIRE: An Inside Look at the prison system from one who lived it by Richard K. Minard gives a behind the scene look at the workings of a maximum security prison. Executions are carried out flawlessly, most of the time. Brutal inmate rape happens even on Christmas. Families cry out for justice during executions only to be shocked that it just wasn't enough. The last words of a dying man are never heard. " Let's rock and roll" with these words, his last, the execution began. The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice -- Bill Kurtis, anchor of the Cold Case Files and American Justice, used to support the death penalty. But after observing the justice system for years, he came to a stunning realization that capital punishment is wrong. There can be no real justice in America until it is abolished. Kurtis examines the eight main reasons why the wrong people are condemned to death, including dishonest prosecutors, corrupt policemen, unreliable witnesses, incompetent defense attorneys, bias judges, and jailhouse informants. DNA is opening a window into the criminal justice system that could touch off a revolution of reform. The possibility for error in our justice system is simply too great to allow the death penalty to stand as our ultimate punishment. Deadline -- What would you do if you discovered that 13 people slated for execution had been found innocent? That was exactly the question that Illinois Governor George Ryan faced in his final days in office. He alone was left to decide whether 167 death row inmates should live or die.
Superbly adapted and directed by Tim Robbins from the nonfiction book of the same name by Sister Helen Prejean, is against the death penalty. The film maintains sharp focus through flawless, lead performances by Susan Sarandon as the Catholic nun Prejean, and Sean Penn as the death-row killer she struggles to save. The Hangman's Knot: Lynching, Legal Execution, and America's Struggle with the Death Penalty -- Eliza Steelwater -- Public executions were once common. Puritan clergymen convicted and executed nineteen people for the "crime" of witchcraft. On the other side of the country many years later, San Francisco's city fathers held "official" vigilante hangings. But today, executions are rigidly controlled bureaucratic procedures authorized by the state. Steelwater presents a fascinating history of execution in the United States, from colonial times to the present.
American Justice: Lethal Injection The Ethics of Capital Punishment (At Issue Series) by Nick Fisanick Death Penalty -- Examine the legal, political and religious issues involved through interviews with experts on both sides. Get insight into the personal side of capital punishment with Caryl Chessman, a rapist, kidnapper and jailhouse lawyer who appealed his sentence for twelve years. He was the last person put to death before capital punishment was declared unconstitutional in the 1960s. Edison & the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty -- Severed Heads: British Beheadings Through the Ages by Geoffrey Abbott Murdered by His Wife by Deborah Navas -- "In March 1778, Joshua Spooner, a wealthy gentleman farmer in Brookfield, Massachusetts, was beaten to death and his body stuffed down a well. Four people were hanged for the crime: two British soldiers, a young Continental soldier, and Spooner's wife, Bathsheba, the daughter of the state's most prominent and despised Loyalist, was charged with instigating the murder. She was thirty-two years old and five months pregnant when executed. Newspapers described the case as "the most extraordinary crime ever perpetrated in New England."" Bathsheba sought a stay of execution to deliver her baby, the Massachusetts Council rejected her petition, and she hung before a crowd of 5,000 spectators. Death Penalty in a Nutshell Don't Kill in Our Names: Families of Murder Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler: A Story of Rape, Incest, and Justice in Early America by Irene Quenzler Brown, Richard D. Brown -- In 1806 an anxious crowd of thousands descended upon Lenox, Massachusetts, for the public hanging of Ephraim Wheeler, condemned for the rape of his daughter, Betsy, 13. No one had been executed for rape in Massachusetts in more than a quarter century. Wheeler maintained his innocence. Over 100 local citizens petitioned for his pardon including Betsy and her mother. Impoverished, illiterate, a failed farmer who married into a mixed race family and clashed routinely with his wife, Wheeler existed on the margins of society. Using the trial report to reconstruct the tragic crime and drawing on Wheeler's jailhouse autobiography to unravel his troubled family history, Brown and Brown illuminate a slice of early America. They explore issues of family violence, poverty, gender, race and class, religion, and capital punishment, revealing similarities between death penalty politics in America today and 200 years ago. The Execution of a Serial Killer: One Man's Experience Witnessing the Death Penalty Death Penalty Cases: Leading US Supreme Court Cases on Capital Punishment Death Penalty Decisions of the United States Supreme Court
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