Home - Death Penalty

Mission Statement:

We, as the Marianist Family, because of our belief in the sanctity of all human life and in the dignity of all persons, pledge ourselves to prayer, education, reflection, and action to abolish the death penalty. This practice is unjust, inhumane and inconsistent with the Gospel message. By our witness we seek to change hearts and minds concerning this injustice.

Issue Statement:

We, as the Marianist Family, endorse legislation for a moratorium on executions in order to study the inequities in the application of the death penalty.

Issue Team Chair: Sr. Grace Walle FMI (walleg@stmarytx.edu)

At the Death Penalty Issue Team meeting in Dayton , Ohio March 2007, seated: Gary Beeman, Sr. Alice Gerdeman and Carol Ann Parcel (guest speakers); standing: Bro. Frank O’Donnell, Andria Brannon, Bro. Brian Halderman, Bob Stoughton, Jeff Campbell, Sr. Grace Walle, Ed Block, and Bros. Dick Olsen and Phil Aaron

Important Death Penalty Issue Team News (below):

ACT NOW to stop impending executions (visit www.ncadp.org for more info)

Is the Tide Turning?
Death Penalty Resources for Communities of Faith
Irretrievably Broken
Bipartisan Group Seeks Moratorium in Missouri
There Is No 'Humane' Execution
States Can Save Hundreds of Millions By Abolishing the Death Penalty
Light a Candle for Abolition
"The Price of Death"
Ohio and Texas -- In the Spotlight
Innocent, but Executed
Troy Davis -- Update -- August 2009
Racial Bias and the Death Penalty
Ohio is on a Record Pace of Executions
"When Governments Kill"
New Educational Resource for Death Penalty Issues
Starvin' for Justice 2009
Death Penalty Leads to Miscarriage of Justice
Is the death penalty worth what it costs us?
Verdana>Repeal bill passes Colorado House
Read the article from the St. Mary's U. newspaper about students and staff joining together to pray for the end of the death penalty
Maryland Commission Recommends Abolition
Newspapers in Two States Editorialize Against the Death Penalty
Documentary: “Lethal Solution”
Former Warden Opposes Death Penalty
Murder Rate Declines in Every Region Except the South, Where Executions Are Most Prevalent
D.A. in Texas to Re-Examine Convictions and Possibly Halt Executions
Live Radio Show Covers Issues in Texas Executions
New Findings Regarding Racial Disparities
Another Prosecutor Speaks Out Against the Death Penalty
Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Protocol
Number of Exonerations Reaches 128
Maryland Considers the Cost of the Death Penalty
Maryland Senate Committee Hears From Murder Victims’ Families
Religion and the Death Penalty
Will Nebraska Abolish the Death Penalty?
The Year of No Executions
Are death penalty juries fairly representative?
Supreme Court Case Attracts Much Interest
Something to Think About

ACT NOW to stop impending executions

For a current list of impending executions visit www.ncadp.org

Is the Tide Turning?

New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007; New Mexico did the same in 2009. So far in 2010 at least five more states are considering bills to abolish the death penalty: Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, South Dakota and Washington. In addition, New Hampshire has a legislative commission considering abolition. Other states, such as Indiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas, are observing that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty less and less, with the trend being driven by concerns about the cost, the possibility of wrongful convictions, and the need for CSI-exposed juries to accept nothing less than stellar evidence in order to impose the death penalty. What is going on?

Consider Kansas, which became a state in 1861, joining the union as a free state near the outbreak of the Civil War. On January 29^th, the anniversary of statehood, a state senator supporting abolition declared, “I'm reminded of what Kansas is, and what we stand for. We have values in this chamber, and as a state, that I hope we live up to."

Death Penalty Resources for Communities of Faith

On Feb. 2, 2010, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) announced that it “has recently updated its information packet entitled Death Penalty Resources for Communities of Faith." This packet was initially developed to help a wide spectrum of religious groups address the death penalty by providing information, discussion questions, and multi-media resources. These materials offer a framework useful for any discussion of capital punishment and do not directly involve religious or moral instructions. Each packet contains a CD with statements on the death penalty from various religious denominations, death penalty fact sheets in English and Spanish, and answers to questions about the death penalty. It also includes video clips, bulletin inserts, and discussion guides on four key death penalty issues: Innocence, Race, Victims and Costs.”

DPIC went on to say that the “packet has been praised by such religious leaders as Bill Mefford of the United Methodist Church, Rabbi Leonard Beerman, and Sister Helen Prejean, who said, ‘The death penalty is one of the most critical issues of our time, and people of all faiths should contribute to the dialogue. The Death Penalty Information Center has rendered a wonderful service by offering religious leaders the key tools they need for raising this issue with their congregations.’”

For information on obtaining copies of this important resource, please contact religious@deathpenaltyinfo.org.

Irretrievably Broken

“(T)he capital justice system in the United States is irretrievably broken.” That is how Adam Liptak, writing in The New York Times, translates some “dense lawyer talk” contained in a resolution recently adopted by the members of the American Law Institute (ALI). The ALI, considered the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law, thus withdrew its support of the death penalty section of the Model Penal Code.

This is significant because the US Supreme Court, when it reinstated the death penalty in 1976, used the Model Penal Code as a basis. The Institute considered a number of factors in making this decision, including the “near impossibility” of removing racial bias, the excessive costs of the system, the very real possibility of wrongful executions, and the role that politics has come to play in judicial elections. However, as Liptak goes on to point out, the history of court decisions regarding the death penalty since it was reinstated makes it difficult to predict what the immediate or long-term consequences of the ALI’s action are.

Bipartisan Group Seeks Moratorium in Missouri

A bipartisan group of state legislators in Missouri – one of the states targeted by the Issue Team – introduced a bill last August seeking a study commission and a moratorium. The bill did not pass, but one of the co-sponsors said he will reintroduce the bill this year, according to an article in the Columbia Missourian. This news comes at a time when over 100 organizations, businesses and houses of worship in Columbia signed on to the Moratorium Now! campaign. To garner more support they are planning a “lobby day” on March 17 in Jefferson City.

There Is No ‘Humane’ Execution

That is the editorial judgment of the New York Times, rendered after Ohio – one of the Issue Team’s target states – executed Kenneth Biros on December 8. Biros was, in effect, a human guinea pig, being the first person on whom a newly developed one-drug protocol was ever used. The one drug replaced a series of three drugs, a procedure which had resulted in three botched executions since 2006. “Ohio should not have used it without a more public airing of its strengths and weaknesses, with input from medical and legal authorities,” wrote the Times. They went on to say that, in the words of Justice Harry Blackmun, the state was simply “tinkering with the machinery of death.”

Writing about Ohio’s new procedure a Team member wrote to his local paper, “The death penalty is plagued with problems — geographic and racial imbalance; high costs; the possibility of an innocent person being executed — so there may be a method to Ohio’s madness. Divert attention from these serious flaws by a wave of the hand, now flashing just one syringe where there used to be three. It is an old magician’s trick to keep the audience from spotting the truth. But in this case, we must not be fooled. The death penalty system was riddled with problems and no fancy hand- waving can make them disappear.”

New Report Shows States Can Save Hundreds of Millions

By Abolishing the Death Penalty

According to information from the Death Penalty Information Center, many states have been reexamining the death penalty and, in light of the current economy, this trend is expected to continue. In 2009, 11 state legislatures (Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Texas and Washington) considered abolition bills. New Mexico abolished the death penalty and Maryland narrowed its application with costs as an issue in both states. Both houses of the Connecticut legislature voted to end the death penalty and one house of the Montana and Colorado legislatures (where cost savings were to be allocated to solving cold cases) passed abolition bills.

Recently released results of a poll of 500 randomly selected police chiefs from across the country support these efforts. The police chiefs ranked the death penalty as the least efficient use of taxpayers' money. They rated expanded training and more equipment for police officers; hiring more police officers; community policing; more programs to control drug and alcohol abuse; and neighborhood watch programs as more efficient uses of taxpayers’ dollars. In addition, they ranked the death penalty last among their priorities for crime-fighting and they do not believe the death penalty deters murder.

Light a Candle for Abolition

November 30^th is the the anniversary of the first abolition of the death penalty by one European state, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, in the year 1786. In 2002 the Community of Sant'Egidio began the World Day of Cities for Life/Cities Against the Death Penalty initiative to commemorate this event and to mobilize the worldwide abolition of the death penalty. Participants are asked to light a candle – or to illuminate a significant public monument – in a show of support. As of Nov. 12, 2009 1,053 cities in 81 countries had signed up – including 25 in the United States. (Of those 25, 22 are in states targeted by the Issue Team!)

“The Price of Death”

“It is time for the nation to conclude once and for all that in our civilized society there is no place for capital punishment.” Thus ends a recent editorial in the national Catholic weekly America. Marshaling a variety of reasons – botched executions; racial disparities; the possibility of executing someone who is actually innocent; the financial costs, especially as states struggle to meet other needs – the editorial makes a compelling case. Included in its argument are actions and statements from the Pope and the US Conference of Bishops.

Ohio and Texas – In the Spotlight

Events in Ohio and Texas, two of the states targeted by the Issue Team, have been making headlines recently. On September 15 in Ohio, the execution of Romell Broom had to be called off after the technicians tried for two hours – and failed – to keep an IV line open for delivery of the necessary drugs. This marks the third time since 2006 that Ohio has had trouble executing an inmate. In authorizing the postponement Governor Strickland immediately set a new date for just one week later, September 22; however, Broom’s attorneys filed an appeal and U.S. District Court Judge Gregory L. Frost has scheduled a hearing on November 30, 2009 to discuss the constitutional questions raised by a second attempt.

In Texas, a meeting of the Texas Forensic Science Commission was recently cancelled. What elevated this cancellation from sidebar to headline status was the reason for the cancellation and its timing. The Commission had been created in 2005 by the Texas Legislature to improve forensics in the state and to investigate specific cases, one of which was Cameron Todd Willingham’s, the subject of a recent – and much publicized – New Yorker article by David Grann. That article discussed a report prepared by Craig Beyler, a national arson expert hired by the Commission. Beyler concluded that the fire, in which Willingham’s three young children died, was accidental and NOT arson – in other words, that Texas had executed an innocent man.

Beyler was scheduled to discuss his findings at a public meeting of the Commission on October 2, but three days before that Governor Perry replaced the Chairman and two other members. The new Chairman immediately cancelled the meeting, spawning speculation about the Governor’s motives. Since Perry was governor at the time of Willingham’s execution, and had been given a report before the execution which challenged the forensic evidence, many people are outraged.

Notable reaction to Grann’s article included a statement by a conservative Republican and supporter of capital punishment that, in light of cases such as this, the death penalty should be repealed. And Diann Rust-Tierney, Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, citing Justice Antonin Scalia’s assertion that "[There has not been] a single case -- not one -- in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent's name would be shouted from the rooftops." has issued a call for death penalty opponents to – in effect – “Shout It From The Rooftops!”

Innocent, but Executed

“It was inevitable that some case in which a clearly innocent person had been put to death would come to light. It was far from inevitable that this case would be the one.” So writes Bob Herbert in the New York Times, describing his reaction to David Grann’s recent article in The New Yorker examining the case of Cameron Todd Willingham.

Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 following a conviction for arson. The 1991 house fire killed his three small children. Lacking a motive but aided by a deeply flawed forensic analysis, the district attorney sought – and obtained – the death penalty. As Grann documents in the article, scientific evidence refuting the conclusion that the fire was arson was available before Willingham’s execution…but it was ignored.

Months after the execution, with doubts about the scientific evidence growing, Texas appointed a commission to examine allegations of misconduct in cases such as Willingham’s. The commission’s report has yet to be released. But reaction to Grann’s article has been quick, widespread and very eloquent. For example, The Houston Chronicle editorialized as follows: “At the time of his state-inflicted death, it appeared Willingham's fate was to be remembered as a monster who burned his children alive for no conceivable motive. With the release of a report by renowned arson expert Craig Beyler, commissioned by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, history may hold him in a very different light: the first person executed since capital punishment resumed in the United States in 1974 who was posthumously proven innocent.”

Troy Davis – Update -- August 2009

On August 17 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a federal judge to consider Troy Davis' innocence claim. Time Magazine says that this decision raises lots of new questions.

Racial Bias and the Death Penalty

On August 11 North Carolina Governor Beverly Purdue signed the state's Racial Justice Act into law. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, “The law allows pre-trial defendants and death-row inmates to challenge racial bias in the death penalty system through the use of statistical studies. Prosecutors would then have the opportunity to rebut the claim that the statistical disparities indicate racial bias. If proven, a judge could overturn the death sentence or prevent prosecutors from seeking the death penalty.”

The long lead-up to passage and signing of the bill allowed critics to question the need for this law. David Baldus, Professor of Law at the University of Iowa, and George Woodworth, a fellow of the American Statistical Association, responded with an op-ed in The (Durham, NC) Herald-Sun. They wrote that "several studies, including one done at UNC-Chapel Hill several years ago, … found that a defendant's odds of getting the death penalty in North Carolina increased by 3.5 times if the victim is white."

Ohio is on a Record Pace of Executions

So far in 2009 Ohio has executed three inmates, all since June. Currently five more executions – one per month – are scheduled for the rest of the year. That would mean eight executions in seven months. The previous high was seven, covering all of 2004. And the pace is expected to be maintained in the opening months of 2010. This busy calendar of death is due to several factors, but the two primary reasons are 1.) inmates convicted over a decade ago are exhausting their appeals; and 2.) a temporary backlog was created when two separate Supreme Court cases led to a de facto moratorium.

But is this close scheduling good public policy? According to this article in The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, Ohio Public Defender Tim Young thinks not. "This should never become ordinary, it should never become run-of-the-mill, it should never be a normal happening like the turning of a calendar page," Young said. "There is an incredible amount of work that goes into one of these cases, and to ask people to do it faster than it is normally done is unacceptable," he said. "Shortcuts are going to happen."

“When Governments Kill”

Writing in Sojourners Magazine, Richard A. Viguerie (who has been called “one of the creators of the modern conservative movement” by The Nation magazine) says “because I am a follower of Jesus Christ, I oppose the death penalty….and because (of) my political philosophy…, I find it quite logical to oppose capital punishment.” To his consternation, he has drawn criticism from other conservatives for his position. He responds with a thoughtful argument, and joins “…in a coalition of liberals and conservatives calling for a national moratorium and conversation about the death penalty…” Click here to read his essay.

New Educational Resource for Death Penalty Issues

The Death Penalty Information Center has begun issuing podcasts discussing key death penalty issues. The most recent episode explores the costs of capital punishment; previous topics include arbitrariness and clemency. To learn more, including how to download and/or subscribe to the series, click here.

STARVIN' FOR JUSTICE 2009

The 16th Annual Fast & Vigil in Washington, DC
June 28th - July 2nd, 2009

Once again the Marianist Social Justice Collaborative was a sponsor of the four-day Fast & Vigil which took place on the sidewalk in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Annual Event was a great experience and training ground for people who want to practice, or become very adept, at talking about the death penalty. Tens of thousands of tourists, from all over the U.S. and throughout the world, pass by the vigil and table, so the opportunity for dialogue and discussion at a real grass-roots level is invaluable to the movement. To find out more, please click here or contact the Abolitionist Action Committee at 800-973-6548 or aac@abolition.org.

Death Penalty Leads to Miscarriage of Justice

The Death Penalty Information Center reports that “U.N. Special Investigator Philip Alston has submitted a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva criticizing the application of the death penalty in the U.S. Alston calls for the U.S. to enact more stringent safeguards to protect the innocent, saying the current application sometimes leads to miscarriages of justice. "It is widely acknowledged that innocent people have most likely been executed in the U.S," Alston said. "Yet, in Alabama and Texas, the 2 States that I visited, I found a shocking lack of urgency about the need to reform criminal-justice system flaws." Alston’s report encourages the U.S. Congress to enact legislation authorizing a review of state and federal death penalty cases.”

Is the death penalty worth what it costs us?

That provocative question might not be “news” when it is asked by a known opponent of the death penalty. However, when it is posed by a federal judge with thirty years on the bench it certainly merits attention. Judge Boyce Martin, Chief Justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, concurring in a capital case (Wiles v. Bagley) on April 14, wrote that the death penalty is “so fundamentally flawed at its very core that it is beyond repair.” He answers his own question by writing, “In my view, this broken system would not justify its costs even if it saved money, but those who do not agree may want to consider just how expensive the death penalty really is.” US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens recently called for 'a dispassionate, impartial comparison of the enormous costs that death penalty litigation imposes on society with the benefits that it produces.' Judge Martin echoed that call, adding that “Such an evaluation … is particularly appropriate at a time when public funds are scarce and our state and federal governments are having to re-evaluate their fiscal priorities."

Repeal bill passes Colorado House

On April 21 the Colorado House narrowly passed a bill to repeal the state’s use of the death penalty. According to the Denver Daily News the bill faces an uncertain future in the state Senate and, should it pass, on the Governor’s desk. Nevertheless opponents of capital punishment are heartened because similar legislation failed two years ago. The bill attempts to help close unsolved murder cases by shifting funds used to prosecute death penalty cases to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, currently facing over 1,400 unsolved murders across the state. Proponents believe the state would save close to $4 million by repealing the death penalty.

Maryland Commission Recommends Abolition

In November 2008 the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment voted to recommend the abolition of the state’s death penalty. The Commission cited racial and geographic disparities as well as the possibility that an innocent person might be executed in explaining its 13-7 vote. The Commission’s full report is due to be released by December 15. Observers are uncertain how the state legislature will react, but Governor Martin O’Malley has already said that he will sign repeal legislation if it reaches his desk.

According to WBAL-TV, Jane Henderson, executive director of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions, said the panel's findings strengthen arguments death penalty opponents have made for years. The panel found death penalty cases cost more and that there is "a real possibility" a mistake could cause an innocent person to be executed. "I think we now have a strong recommendation - that's factually based - that Maryland should ban the death penalty," Henderson said.

Newspapers in Two States Editorialize Against the Death Penalty

The Journal-Star in Lincoln, Nebraska and The Virginian-Pilot in Hampton Roads, Virginia have recently published editorials opposing their respective state’s use of the death penalty. Serious prosecutorial misconduct was the precipitating issue in Nebraska, while the seeming arbitrariness of the decision to pursue the death penalty as opposed to life without parole was what drew the response in Virginia. Due to the prevalence of human error in the system, The Journal-Star concluded "The death penalty should be abolished." And if life without parole is enough for the families of some victims then “It should be enough for the rest of us, too” wrote The Virginian-Pilot. Public discussion of these and other procedural problems can mobilize opposition and can recruit those who do not already oppose the death penalty on strictly moral grounds.

Documentary: “Lethal Solution”

From the Death Penalty Information Center’s Web site comes a recommendation of a new resource from the BBC: The documentary "Lethal Solution" chronicles reporter Vivian White’s exploration of the death penalty in the US through the prism of the lethal injection issue. White traveled across the US to execution chambers where lethal injection executions are carried out and interviewed participants from a wide variety of perspectives.

The documentary features judges, doctors, and men on death row. White interviewed the family of a man whose execution lasted 34 minutes and a lawyer who witnessed that event, vividly recalling the details. He spoke with the doctor who first proposed the lethal injection system, and to the judge in California who recommended that medically-qualified people should be present at executions to ensure a humane death. In the California case, two doctors walked out of the execution chamber when they realized they might have to assist in the killing. The execution was called off.

The full 48-minute documentary may be viewed on the BBC Web site here.

Former Warden Opposes Death Penalty

Jeanne Woodford, the former warden of San Quentin prison in California, has written an Op-Ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, "Death Row Realism, Do Executions Make Us Safer?" Her answer is “No.”

She writes that she “worked in corrections for 30 years, starting as a correctional officer and working my way up to warden at San Quentin and then on to the top job in the state -- director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. During those years, I came to believe that the death penalty should be replaced with life without the possibility of parole.”

She reasons that “If we condemn the worst offenders … to permanent imprisonment, resources now spent on the death penalty could be used to investigate unsolved homicides, modernize crime labs and expand effective violence prevention programs, especially in at-risk communities. The money also could be used to intervene in the lives of children at risk and to invest in their education -- to stop future victimization.”

“To say that I have regrets about my involvement in the death penalty is to let myself off the hook too easily,” she concludes. “To take a life in order to prove how much we value another life does not strengthen our society. It is a public policy that devalues our very being and detracts crucial resources from programs that could truly make our communities safe.”

Murder Rate Declines in Every Region Except the South,
Where Executions Are Most Prevalent

In 2007 the South was the only region of the US that had a rise in its murder rate according to Crime in the U.S., 2007, released by the FBI on Sept. 15, 2008. Over the years the South has consistently had the highest murder rate when compared to the other three regions, the Northeast, the Midwest and the West. In response to the FBI report the Death Penalty Information Center observed that “The South also leads the country in executions: 100% of the executions carried out in 2008 have been in the South and 86% of those carried out in 2007 were in this region. By contrast, the Northeast has the lowest murder rate in the country and the fewest number of executions. The Northeast also experienced the sharpest decline in its murder rate among the four regions, while carrying out no executions in 2006-08.”

D.A. in Texas to Re-Examine Convictions and Possibly Halt Executions

When the current Dallas County, Texas, District Attorney took office he inherited nearly 40 death penalty convictions – cases awaiting execution – from his predecessor. Recent exonerations and problems with the prosecution in those cases has led Craig Watkins to announce that he will be reviewing all of those cases and that no execution will occur until he does. “I don’t want someone to be executed on my watch for something they didn’t do,” said Watkins to the Dallas Morning News. The newspaper added that Southern Methodist University Law Professor Fred Moss said he has never heard of another prosecutor in the country conducting such a review. “It’s really quite extraordinary,” said Moss.

Live Radio Show Covers Issues in Texas Executions

A unique public awareness and education tool has been launched in Texas. Starting at 6:00 pm Central Time on the days that an execution is scheduled in Texas, live coverage and commentary can be heard on the radio and streamed on the internet. Texas’ execution schedule and an archive of past shows are also available.

New Findings Regarding Racial Disparities

Over the years it has been well documented that defendants who kill whites are more likely to get the death penalty than defendants who kill blacks. So when Scott Phillips, a professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Denver, examined several years of court records in Harris County (Houston) in Texas and reached the same conclusion, Adam Liptak, writing in the New York Times (April 29, 2008) called that result “commonplace.” But Phillips, whose research will be published in The Houston Law Review later in 2008, also found what Liptak called a “surprising” result. In Phillips’ words, his findings “challenge conventional wisdom by suggesting that the race of the defendant and victim are both (emphasis added) pivotal…: death is more likely to be imposed against black defendants than white defendants, and death is more likely to be imposed on behalf of white victims than black victims.”

Another Prosecutor Speaks Out Against the Death Penalty

From the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Web site: The ACLU of Northern California has unveiled a new YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-o_HWgatFM) taken from California's ongoing death penalty study commission hearings. The video tells the story of Aundre Herron, a former prosecutor who lost her older brother to murder in 1994. At first Herron wanted revenge; now she speaks out against the death penalty.

Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Protocol

On April 16, 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 7-2 ruling upholding the constitutionality of the lethal injection protocol used by the federal government and nearly all of the 36 states which still have the death penalty. Reacting to the announcement the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) said the Baze v. Rees decision sidesteps the critical issues surrounding the death penalty debate in the U.S. “The death penalty system was a flawed public policy before the Supreme Court agreed to review Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol,” said NCADP Executive Director Diann Rust-Tierney. “It was a flawed public policy while the Court debated the protocol. And now that the Court has ruled, it remains as deeply a flawed public policy as ever.”

The last execution in the US was in September 2007, marking the beginning of a de facto moratorium while the Court considered the case. As a result of the decision analysts expect execution dates to be set quickly, at least in some states such as Texas. However, many observers are also expecting a wave of new litigation, partly because of the nature of the decision: the 7 votes in favor of the judgment were assembled from 6 different opinions, some of which raised additional questions.

For example, quoting from the syllabus released in connection with the ruling: “Justice Stevens concluded that instead of ending the controversy, this case will generate debate not only about the constitutionality of the … protocol … but also about the justification for the death penalty itself.” To read more please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/us/16cnd-lethal.html?hp or http://www.ncadp.org/news.cfm?articleID=212.

Number of Exonerations Reaches 128

The Death Penalty Information Center maintains a list of all those exonerated from Death Row since 1973. For inclusion, defendants must have been convicted, sentenced to death and subsequently either they were given an absolute pardon by the governor based on new evidence of innocence – OR – their conviction was overturned AND they were acquitted at re-trial or all charges were dropped. The average length of time between being sentenced to death and exoneration? 9.6 years!! To see the list please visit http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=6&did=110.

Maryland Considers the Cost of the Death Penalty

On March 6 the Urban Institute released a study revealing that the average cost to Maryland taxpayers for reaching a death sentence was $3 million, $1.9 million more than a non-death penalty case. The research, covering 162 murder cases between 1978 (when executions resumed in Maryland) and 1999, concluded that seeking the death penalty had cost $186 million more over those years than would have been spent seeking a lesser sentence. While the methods and conclusions were criticized by the top prosecutor in Baltimore County, the state’s busiest jurisdiction for capital cases, the study was praised by a researcher with the New York State Defenders’ Association for being the first of its kind to control statistically for confounding factors. In other words, "(t)he argument goes that ... death penalty cases might be worse or more heinous cases, so that even if they weren't death penalty cases, they still would be more expensive," said Andrew Davies. "But in this study, they've isolated the pure effect of the death penalty on inflating the cost of cases." (emphasis added) To read more visit http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.death06mar06,0,5961444.story or http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=2641&scid=64.

Maryland Senate Committee Hears From Murder Victims’ Families

The Judiciary Committee of the Maryland Senate is once again considering a bill that would repeal the death penalty. A similar measure failed – by one vote – to pass the Committee last year. This year, on the day that the Urban Institute study was released, the Committee heard testimony from some family members of murder victims. "My real life experience has taught me as long as the death penalty is still on the books, it would continue to harm families…There is no such thing as closure," said Kathy Garcia, whose nephew was murdered 20 years ago. To read more visit http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0801413.htm or http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=2649&scid=64 .

Religion and the Death Penalty

“Most Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic Church oppose capital punishment, though many of their members support it,” says a posting on the Death Penalty Information Center’s Web site, www.deathpenaltyinfo.org. In fact, according to a Pew Forum poll from 2007, the strongest supporters of the death penalty are white evangelicals, with 74% approval. This might help explain why overall support for the death penalty in the United States is at 62% according to that same poll. This also means that faith-based opponents of the death penalty have work to do in their own pews. A successful argument may be found in the results of “a January poll done by NationalChristianPoll.com (which found that) about two-thirds of active Christians who oppose capital punishment are troubled by mistakes in the legal system that could lead to the execution of innocent people.” (Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra in Christianity Today, February 19, 2008) Read her article and get insight from church leaders at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/march/6.20.html.

Will Nebraska Abolish the Death Penalty?

On Feb. 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair was unconstitutional. Because Nebraska is the only state in which electrocution is the sole means of execution this means that – temporarily at least – Nebraska is without a death penalty. Two days later the Lincoln Journal Star editorialized that the Nebraska Legislature “should take this opportunity to finally get rid of the death penalty." "With the advent of more DNA testing, errors in sending people to death row were shown to be far more frequent than most people believed." Hence, the paper concluded, "the time is ripe to abolish capital punishment in the state.” The last execution to take place in Nebraska occurred in 1997.

(“Abolish the death penalty in Nebraska,” Lincoln Journal Star, February 10, 2008).

The Year of No Executions

2008 marks the 40th anniversary of 1968 – the 1st year in the history of the United States that not a single prisoner was executed. That got Vince Beiser, a California-based writer who often writes on criminal justice issues, thinking about what has happened since then. He observes that “just a few years later, the nation began an astonishing about-face. The Supreme Court reopened the door to capital punishment in 1976, launching an era in which the U.S. didn't just bring back the death penalty, it feverishly embraced it.” Find his essay, “Falling Out of Love with Death,” under Death Penalty Files.

Are death penalty juries fairly representative?

From the Web site of Catholics Against Capital Punishment http://www.cacp.org/whatsnew.html

In a nationwide public opinion poll of 1,000 U.S. adults, 47% of Catholic respondents said “yes” when asked if they believed they would be disqualified from serving on a jury in a death penalty case because of their moral beliefs. The percentages were even higher for two other subgroups of the population who were asked the same question - women (48%) and African Americans (68%).

“This points to a problem of skewed juries that do not represent the country’s diversity,” said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which commissioned the survey. "Jurors in capital cases," he explained, "must be interrogated about their positions on the death penalty. If they are opposed to it in all cases, they will not be permitted to serve. The resultant juries look different than society at large because they will have fewer minority members, fewer women, and none of those who represent one side on this divisive issue."

For more information, visit the Death Penalty Information Center's website at www.deathpenaltyinfo.org.

Supreme Court Case Attracts Much Interest

The Death Penalty Information Center reports that “several amicus curiae briefs have been filed in support of the inmates from Kentucky who are challenging the constitutionality of lethal injections as practiced in their state before the U.S. Supreme Court.”

The amicus (“friend of the court”) briefs have been submitted by law schools, policy institutes opposed tot the death penalty, professionals such as doctors, nurses and veterinarians – the latter argue that “Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol would not meet the minimum standards for the humane euthanization of animals” – and organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch.

The briefs filed by various amici, as well as the Petitioner's brief, are available here. (Source: Death Penalty Clinic, U.C. Berkeley School of Law, Nov. 13, 2007). Oral arguments in the case, Baze v. Rees, are scheduled for Jan. 7, 2008 with a ruling expected by June.

Something to Think About

The November 10, 2007 issue of Newsweek included an article by Evan Thomas and Martha Brant discussing the atmosphere surrounding the death penalty as the nation awaits the Supreme Court’s ruling in Baze v. Rees. They write that “The new reluctance to punish by killing is part of a historical trend” and they ask a cautionary question: will the Supreme Court end up improving the lethal injection procedures and, in effect, raising the standards for killing humans up to those for killing animals?

You can read the article by clicking here: “Injection of Reflection,” Newsweek, November 10, 2007).