Tag: executions
Posted on Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 07:18:00 AM EST
Tags: death penalty, executions (all tags)
Texas has 12 executions scheduled for the next six weeks.
Two were executed the week of Oct. 13. Two were scheduled for this week. And two more the week after that. Then six more in November, adding to Texas' standing as the nation's most active death penalty state.
[Hat tip Sentencing Law and Policy.]
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Posted on Wed Oct 10, 2007 at 02:34:47 PM EST
Tags: executions (all tags)
Twenty Texas lawyers have filed a formal judicial complaint against Presiding Judge Sharon Keller for closing the courthouse at 5:00 pm the day of a scheduled execution. (Background here.)
The complaint to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct says Keller improperly cut off appeals that led to the execution of Michael Richard on Sept. 25 despite the fact the U.S. Supreme Court earlier in the day had accepted a case on the propriety of lethal injection, which had direct implications for Richard's execution.
"Judge Keller's actions denied Michael Richard two constitutional rights, access to the courts and due process, which led to his execution," the complaint states. "Her actions also brought the integrity of the Texas judiciary and of her court into disrepute and was a source of scandal to the citizens of the state."
Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project which is representing the lawyers, says:
Keller's actions were "morally callous, shocking and unconscionable for an appellate judge."
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Posted on Fri Jan 05, 2007 at 01:34:00 AM EST
Tags: executions (all tags)
Death sentences dropped last year to the lowest number since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court 30 years ago.
Executions dropped to the lowest level in a decade.
"The death penalty is on the defensive," said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington organization that looks at problems with the capital punishment system.
Death sentences fell in 2006 to 114 or fewer, according to an estimate from the group. That is down from 128 in 2005, and even lower than the 137 sentences the year after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. It is also down sharply from the high of 317 in 1996.
A total of 53 executions were carried out in 2006, down from 60 in 2005. Executions over the past three decades peaked at 98 in 1999.
Fear of executing an innocent person, more state laws allowing life without parole as an option, decreases in violent crime and the high cost of prosecuting a death case are believed to be contributing factors.
We need one more factor to make a critical difference: moral opposition to the death penalty. We're not quite there:
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