The LA Times has an excellent editorial opposing the Streamlined Procedures Act which would gut habeas corpus for those on death row as well as the provisions in the Patriot Act renewal legislation that would make it easier for the feds to get a death penalty conviction.

The Times also points out that it is becoming increasingly acceptable for politicians to oppose the death penalty. Case in point: the newly elected Governors of both Virginia and New Jersey oppose the death penalty.

The Department of Justice has issued its annual death penalty statistics. There are 63 fewer people on death row in America than there were in 2003.

That's still 3,315 too many.

Texas continues to lead the country in the number of executions carried out. California has the largest death row population, followed by Texas. As for race and gender:

The Denver Film Festival opens tomorrow and runs through November 20. If there's one film I hope people will see it is Fighting For Life in the Death Belt which will have its Colorado premiere on Thursday, November 17 at 6pm at Starz FilmCenter at the Tivoli.

The film considers capital punishment in the U.S. through the eyes of Stephen Bright, who has served as the Director of the Southern Center for Human Rights for the past 20 years. Bright is a hero to the criminal defense bar for his unwavering commitment to defending death row inmates in the heart of the "death belt" - the Southern states where 90% of America's executions take place.

The film follows Bright and the Center's 11 lawyers and 10 investigators as they prepare for a capital trial in one case while fighting to save another client from execution. The trailer is here.

The editorial board of the Birmingham News, the largest newspaper in the largest city in the very conservative state of Alabama, has decided they can no longer support capital punishment.

"After decades of supporting the death penalty, the editorial board no longer can do so. Today and over the next five days, we will explain our change of mind and heart..... Why? Because we have come to believe Alabama's capital punishment system is broken. And because, first and foremost, this newspaper's editorial board is committed to a culture of life.

by TChris

Federal law makes a life sentence the default punishment when a federal jury can’t unanimously agree to impose the death penalty. The Justice Department wants to change that law, and it’s managed to sneak a change into the House version of the bill that would renew the Patriot Act.

So long as at least one juror voted for death, prosecutors could empanel a new sentencing jury and argue again that execution was warranted.

Former federal prosecutor Mary Jo White doesn’t think the government “should have two bites at that apple.”

by TChris

Tim Kaine has promised Virginia voters that he'll allow executions to proceed if they elect him as their governor, despite his personal opposition to the death penalty. His opponent, Jerry Kilgore, also supports the death penalty.

And if you accept that both men are willing to support the death penalty, then what's at issue here is, which one will do it with enthusiasm? For supporters of capital punishment, you see, mere acquiescence is insufficient. Anything less than hard moral clarity opens the door on issues they'd rather not face.

One such issue: how can we be certain that an innocent accused isn't executed? Leonard Pitts Jr. argues that the question isn't academic: Virginia may already have executed an innocent man, Roger Coleman.

by TChris

According to Jerry Kilgore, Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, criminal defense attorneys are unfit to hold a political office, at least if they defend individuals who face the death penalty.

Republican nominee Jerry Kilgore sparked a firestorm with television ads that feature relatives of murder victims criticizing [Tim] Kaine for representing a death row inmate and for once supporting a moratorium on executions in the state. ... But even before the latest ads hit the airwaves, Kilgore had persistently argued that Kaine's legal representation of three death row inmates and his public statements against capital punishment make him unfit to serve as governor.

Assuring that the government doesn't execute an innocent accused hardly seems the kind of radical occupation that should disqualify someone from holding public office. Do Republicans seriously believe that prosecutors the only players in the criminal justice system who are sufficiently "trustworthy" to hold an elective office?

by TChris

Ken Starr was unsuccessful in his effort to persuade the Supreme Court to review the conviction and death sentence imposed on Robin Lovitt (TalkLeft background here). Among other reasons to review the case: initial DNA tests were inconclusive, but a court clerk destroyed all the evidence after Lovitt was sentenced, making additional testing impossible.

Under the circumstances, this editorial sensibly argues that Lovitt should not be executed:

Virginia officials now want to schedule Lovitt's execution for Nov. 30. But after sending Earl Washington Jr. to death row for a rape and murder he did not commit, the commonwealth has an even greater responsibility to make sure its own procedures are flawless before it puts anyone to death. Supreme Court or not, deliberate destruction of evidence falls far short of any reasonable threshhold.

Gov. Mark Warner, who so far has not commuted any of the 11 death sentences carried out on his watch, should sign the clemency order this time.

by TChris

It shouldn't take another study to tell us what has been obvious for years: black on white crime is more likely to be punished by death than is white on black crime. Another study nonetheless concludes that the race of the victim is a significant factor in the imposition of the death penalty.

The murder of a white person, especially in nonurban counties, is far more likely to result in a California death sentence than urban crimes against minorities, according to a new study. Death penalty opponents say this new evidence that race and geography dictate how the state metes out capital punishment proves the system is skewed and must be halted at least until it is fixed.

The study will be presented to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, which was formed last year "to study causes and prevalence of wrongful convictions and wrongful executions in California, and to find ways to improve the system's fairness and accuracy."

Update: Frances Newton was executed a few minutes ago.

It took eight minutes for her to die from the time they pumped the chemicals in her.

********

The Supreme Court has denied Frances Newton's petition to stop her execution scheduled for 6:00 pm CST.

On Wednesday afternoon justices rejected appeals that could have kept Frances Newton, 40, from becoming the third woman executed in Texas since the Civil War. She also would become the first black woman executed in modern times.

Without dissent, the high court declined a pair of appeals about an hour before Newton was scheduled to be taken to the Texas death chamber. Newton is slated to die by chemical injection at 6 p.m.

Background and links here.

There's a must-read article in Salon today, Dreams Unrealized on the failure of the civil rights movement in the U.S., in the context of the yeoman's job foreign poverty lawyers are doing for the poor and those facing the death penalty in the U.S.:

While it may be easy for American tourists to turn a blind eye to their own third world, a steady stream of young Australians and Europeans have been coming to Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and the rest of the deep South for years to serve the needs of the indigent people throughout these states.

As the co-director and recruiter for Reprieve U.S., an organization that sponsors and places volunteers at poverty law offices, it is always mildly surprising and embarrassing to me to hear these bright and passionate people explain that they are applying either to work for the poor in the criminal justice system in Texas or to help build shelters in Guatemala, and are unable to determine where the needs are greater. What seems most shocking to our volunteers is the complete disregard that the U.S. government has paid our clients throughout their lives, failing to provide housing, healthcare, education and other basic needs.

[Via Capital Defense Weekly]

Frances Newton is scheduled to be executed in Texas tomorrow night. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee gave a press conference today, urging that Newton be granted a reprieve.

Ms. Newton's habeas sought to raise three independent claims:

• The first is that she is actually innocent, and that had she received effective counsel, no rational juror would have convicted her.
• The second is that she is actually innocent of the sentence (meaning she should not have been sentenced to death).
• Thirdly, her conviction and sentence violate the due process clause, because the State has destroyed potentially exculpatory evidence

Links:

• Committee to Free Frances
• Austin-Statesman Editorial
• Austin Chronicle