Argue for Hte Death Penalty
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AMR 51/003/2002 USA: €Arbitrary, Discriminatory, and Cruel: An
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Arbitrary, discriminatory, and cruel: an aide- mémoire to 25 years of judicial killing “For the rest of your life, you will have to move around in a world that wanted this death to happen. You will have to walk past people every day who were heartened by the killing of somebody in your family.” Mikal Gilmore, brother of Gary Gilmore1 A quarter of a century has passed since a Utah firing squad shot Gary Gilmore and opened the “modern” era of judicial killing in the United States of America. Since that day – 17 January 1977 – more than 750 men and women have been shot, gassed, electrocuted, hanged or poisoned to death in the execution chambers of 32 US states and of the federal government. More than 600 have been killed since 1990. Each has been the target of a ritualistic, politically expedient punishment which offers no constructive contribution to society’s efforts to combat violent crime. The US Supreme Court halted executions in 1972 because of the arbitrary way in which death sentences were being handed out. Justice Potter Stewart famously compared this arbitrariness to the freakishness of being struck by lightning. Four years later, the Court ruled that newly-enacted capital laws would cure the system of bias, and allowed executions to resume. Today, rarely a week goes by without at least one prisoner somewhere in the country being strapped down and killed by government executioners. In the past five years, an average of 78 people a year have met this fate. Perhaps Justice Stewart, if he were still alive, would note that this is similar to the number of people annually killed by lightning in the USA.2 So, is the system successfully selecting the “worst of the worst” crimes and offenders for the death penalty, as its proponents would claim, or has it once again become a lethal lottery? The evidence suggests that the latter is closer to the truth. -
UNITED STATES of AMERICA the Execution of Mentally Ill Offenders
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA The execution of mentally ill offenders I cannot believe that capital punishment is a solution – to abolish murder by murdering, an endless chain of murdering. When I heard that my daughter’s murderer was not to be executed, my first reaction was immense relief from an additional torment: the usual catastrophe, breeding more catastrophe, was to be stopped – it might be possible to turn the bad into good. I felt with this man, the victim of a terrible sickness, of a demon over which he had no control, might even help to establish the reasons that caused his insanity and to find a cure for it... Mother of 19-year-old murder victim, California, November 1960(1) Today, at 6pm, the State of Florida is scheduled to kill my brother, Thomas Provenzano, despite clear evidence that he is mentally ill.... I have to wonder: Where is the justice in killing a sick human being? Sister of death row inmate, June 2000(2) I’ve got one thing to say, get your Warden off this gurney and shut up. I am from the island of Barbados. I am the Warden of this unit. People are seeing you do this. Final statement of Monty Delk, mentally ill man executed in Texas on 28 February 2002 Overview: A gap in the ‘evolving standards of decency’ The underlying rationale for prohibiting executions of the mentally retarded is just as compelling for prohibiting executions of the seriously mentally ill, namely evolving standards of decency. Indiana Supreme Court Justice, September 2002(3) On 30 May 2002, a jury in Maryland sentenced Francis Zito to death. -
JACKIE BLACK: LAST MEAL August 7, 2020–January 31, 2021
JACKIE BLACK: LAST MEAL August 7, 2020–January 31, 2021 All works: Jackie Black (American, born 1958) Last Meal (series), 2001–2003 Archival pigment on paper 12 x 12 inches Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, N.Y., Museum purchase with funds provided by the Bessemer Trust, 2016.33(a-x) 1. Thomas Andy Barefoot Executed: October 30, 1984 Education: Not listed Occupation: Oil field roughneck Last Statement: ”I hope that one day we can look back on the evil that we’re doing right now like the witches we burned at the stake. I want everybody to know that I hold nothing against them. I forgive them all. I hope everybody I’ve done anything to will forgive me. I’ve been praying all day for (the victim’s) wife to drive the bitterness from her heart because that bitterness that’s in her heart will send her to Hell just as surely as any other sin. I’m sorry for everything I’ve ever done to anybody. I hope they’ll forgive me. .” 2. Charles Frances Rumbaugh Executed: September 11, 1985 No background information given Last Statement: “. About all I can say is goodbye, and for all the rest of you, although you don’t forgive me for my transgressions, I forgive yours against me. I am ready to begin my journey. .” 3. Charles William Bass Executed: March 12, 1986 No background information given Last Statement: “I deserve this. Tell everyone I said goodbye.” 4. Jeffrey Allen Barney Executed: April 16, 1986 No background information given Last Statement: “. .I am sorry for what I’ve done. -
Capital Victims' Families and the Press
University of Michigan Law School University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository Articles Faculty Scholarship 2003 What They Say at the End: Capital Victims' Families and the Press Samuel R. Gross University of Michigan Law School, [email protected] Daniel J. Matheson Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/articles/911 Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/articles Part of the Criminal Law Commons, and the Law and Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Gross, Samuel R. "What They Say at the End: Capital Victims' Families and the Press (Symposium: Victims and the Death Penalty: Inside and Outside the Courtroom)." D. J. Matheson, co-author. Cornell L. Rev. 88, no. 2 (2003): 486-516. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WHAT THEY SAY AT THE END: CAPITAL VICTIMS' FAMILIES AND THE PRESS Samuel R. Grosst & DanielJ.Mathesontt INTRODUCTION ................................................... 486 I. EXECUTIONS .............................................. 489 A . C losure ............................................. 490 B. Justice and Vengeance .............................. 494 C. Com passion ........................................ 497 D. Clemency and Intrafamilial Conflict ............... -
Last State to Use Death Penalty
Last State To Use Death Penalty HarryIsolable remains and eastwardly feastful and Bear Hispanic. never jollifies Zestful considering and post-obit when Esau Murdock disembowel face-lift her his adscripts colt. Fallen orchestrates Thurston orframe-up incages very out-of-hand. conceptually while History whose Capital Punishment in California Capital Punishment. Many prominent organizations and restore capital punishment quietly amending its protocol was permitted execution because that capital punishment from accepted his bicycle. Garrett argues, why now? But said last meal for death penalty today have access to uses a class. Arrangements will promptly comply with state. Capital Punishment The end of the recent penalty. Barr said in several of violent criminals most cases to state use death penalty, it take so much discretion of state currently administered equitably to death sentence for. Conviction and use? Florida state death penalty states. Not be executed by staff and are added or depraved manner designed to anchors on their last state to death penalty? Rescuers evacuate residents from their flooded homes in Bekasi on Feb. Supplementary Information in Federal Register documents. Statistical Brief Presents statistics on persons under sentence of death four year-end 2016. Federal executions have been exceedingly rare until recent decades. And that settle that rare are its more relate to convince a focus that mitigating factors justify a picture other hand death. The Department would then either distinct to hope its convenient system known an execution by that manner more than lethal injection or pay box the use over State however local facilities and gamble to beat the execution. -
A Systematic Examination of the Rituals and Rights of the Last Meal
Mercer University School of Law Mercer Law School Digital Commons Faculty Publications Faculty 2014 Cold Comfort Food: A Systematic Examination of the Rituals and Rights of the Last Meal Sarah Gerwig-Moore Mercer University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.mercer.edu/fac_pubs Part of the Criminal Law Commons, and the Criminal Procedure Commons Recommended Citation Sarah L. Gerwig-Moore, et al., Cold Comfort Food: A Systematic Examination of the Rituals and Rights of the Last Meal, 2 Brit. J. Am. Legal Stud. 411 (2014). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty at Mercer Law School Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Mercer Law School Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COLD (COMFORT?) FOOD: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LAST MEAL RITUALS IN THE UNITED STATES SARAH L. GERWIG-MOORE1 Merceer University School of Law ANDREW DAVIES2 State University of New York at Albany SABRINA ATKINS3 Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz P. C ABSTRACT Last meals are a resilient ritual accompanying executions in the United States. Yet states vary considerably in the ways they administer last meals. This paper ex- plores the recent decision in Texas to abolish the tradition altogether. It seeks to understand, through consultation of historical and contemporary sources, what the ritual signifies. We then go on to analyze execution procedures in all 35 of the states that allowed executions in 2010, and show that last meal allowances are paradoxically at their most expansive in states traditionally associated with high rates of capital punishment (Texas now being the exception to that rule.) We con- clude with a discussion of the implications of last meal policies, their connections to state cultures, and the role that the last meal ritual continues to play in contem- porary execution procedures. -
Sean Richard Sellers
Sean Richard Sellers “Schoolboy Night Stalker” “Night Roomer” Information researched and summarized by Sloane Naughton Heather Newson Robert Nissel Department of Psychology Radford University Radford, VA 24142-6946 Date Age Life Event Sean’s parents, Richard C. Sellers and Vonda Blackwell are married in Kings County, 11/22/1968 California. Vonda is 15 and Richard is 17. Born in Corcoran California to Vonda Blackwell and Richard Sellers. His mother was 05/18/1969 0 only 16 and his father was an alcoholic. After his parents’ marriage fell apart, his mother moved with him back to her home 1972 3 state of Oklahoma -Vonda Sellers and Paul Bellofatto got married in a simple ceremony. Paul Bellofatto became Sean Sellers’ stepfather -Economic recession hit Oklahoma and Vonda decided to join Paul by becoming his team truck driver. This lead to Sean being cared for by his grandfather, Jim, and step grandmother, Geneva, when his parents were on the road for 3-4 weeks at a time. Mid 1970s 5-10 -Geneva realized that Sean had such high demands for himself. However, he had no problems getting along with the other children at school -In 3rd grade, his mother and stepfather decided to take him from his school and move to California - He started hearing voices by the age of 6 and 7, which were always criticizing him but he thought that this was normal -Satan’s gospel came into Sean Sellers’ life. His babysitter would bring over books about Satan while his parents were away. However, he knew that it was a good idea to keep this a secret. -
Content Analysis of Prisoners' Last Words, Innocence Claims And
DEAD MEN TALKING: CONTENT ANA LYSIS OF PRISONERS’ LAST WORDS, INNOCENCE CLAIMS, AND NEWS COVERAGE FROM TEXAS’ DEATH ROW Dan F. Malone, B.J. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2006 APPROVED: Jacqueline Lambiase, Major Professor James Mueller, Minor Professor Richard Wells, Committee Member Mitchell Land, Director of the Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism Susan Zavoina, Chair of the Department of Journalism Sandra L. Terrell, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Malone, Dan F. Dead Men Talking: Content Analysis of Prisoners’ Last Words, Innocence Claims and News Coverage from Texas’ Death Row. Master of Arts (Journalism), August 2006, 91 pp., 5 tables, references, 64 titles. Condemned prisoners in Texas and most other states are given an opportunity to make a final statement in the last moments before death. An anecdotal review by the author of this study over the last 15 years indicates that condemned prisoners use the opportunity for a variety of purposes. They ask forgiveness, explain themselves, lash out at accusers, rail at the system, read poems, say goodbyes to friends and family, praise God, curse fate – and assert their innocence with their last breaths. The final words also are typically heard by a select group of witnesses, which may include a prisoner’s family and friends, victim’s relatives, and one or more journalists. What the public knows about a particular condemned person’s statement largely depends on what the journalists who witness the executions chose to include in their accounts of executions, the accuracy of their notes, and the completeness of the statements that are recorded on departments of correction websites or records. -
Death Row U.S.A
DEATH ROW U.S.A. Winter 2005 A quarterly report by the Criminal Justice Project of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Deborah Fins, Esq. Director of Research and Student Services, Criminal Justice Project NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Death Row U.S.A. Winter 2005 (As of January 1, 2005) TOTAL NUMBER OF DEATH ROW INMATES KNOWN TO LDF: 3,455 Race of Defendant: White 1,576 (45.62%) Black 1,444 (41.79%) Latino/Latina 356 (10.30%) Native American 39 ( 1.13%) Asian 40 ( 1.16%) Unknown at this issue 1 ( .03%) Gender: Male 3,401 (98.44%) Female 54 ( 1.56%) Juveniles: Male 79 ( 2.29%) JURISDICTIONS WITH CAPITAL PUNISHMENT STATUTES: 40 (Underlined jurisdiction has statute but no sentences imposed) Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming, U.S. Government, U.S. Military. JURISDICTIONS WITHOUT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT STATUTES: 13 Death Row U.S.A. Page 1 Alaska, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin. Death Row U.S.A. Page 2 In the United States Supreme Court Update to Fall 2004 Issue of Significant Criminal, Habeas, & Other Pending Cases for Cases to Be Decided in October Term 2004 1. CASES RAISING CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTIONS Fourth Amendment Devenpeck v. Alford, No. 03-710 (Probable cause to arrest and qualified immunity) (decision below Alford v. -
Death Row Witness Reveals Inmates' Most Chilling Final Moments
From bloodied shirts and shuddering to HEADS on fire: Death Row witness reveals inmates' most chilling final moments By: Chris Kitching - Mirror Online Ron Word has watched more than 60 Death Row inmates die for their brutal crimes - and their chilling final moments are likely to stay with him until he takes his last breath. Twice, he looked on in horror as flames shot out of a prisoner's head - filling the chamber with smoke - when a hooded executioner switched on an electric chair called "Old Sparky". Another time, blood suddenly appeared on a convicted murderer's white shirt, caking along the leather chest strap holding him to the chair, as electricity surged through his body. Mr Word was there for another 'botched' execution, when two full doses of lethal drugs were needed to kill an inmate - who shuddered, blinked and mouthed words for 34 minutes before he finally died. And then there was the case of US serial killer Ted Bundy, whose execution in 1989 drew a "circus" outside Florida State Prison and celebratory fireworks when it was announced that his life had been snuffed out. Inside the execution chamber at the Florida State Prison near Starke (Image: Florida Department of Corrections/Doug Smith) 1 of 19 The electric chair at the prison was called "Old Sparky" (Image: Florida Department of Corrections) Ted Bundy was one of the most notorious serial killers in recent history (Image: www.alamy.com) Mr Word witnessed all of these executions in his role as a journalist. Now retired, the 67-year-old was tasked with serving as an official witness to state executions and reporting what he saw afterwards for the Associated Press in America. -
Lethal Injection's Visibility Problem
ESSAY RECORDING THE PAIN OF OTHERS: LETHAL INJECTION’S VISIBILITY PROBLEM CHRISTEN HAMMOCK† In a particularly revealing moment in the testimony, Dr. Baskin was questioned about his refusal to euthanize rabbits for experiments by injecting them with air bubbles . Dr. Baskin conceded that he did not run an objective test to determine whether the injected rabbit was experiencing pain (i.e., the “tail flick test”). Rather, in response to counsel’s question, “How do you know it was a painful death?”, Dr. Baskin responded “You had to be there,” and explained that seeing the animal and hearing the sounds it made was enough to convince him that the manner of death was painful. – Fierro v. Gomez, 865 F. Supp. 1387, 1404 (N.D. Cal. 1994). INTRODUCTION In July 2011, Georgia executed Andrew DeYoung for murdering his parents and sister. Pursuant to a motion to preserve evidence brought by counsel for Gregory Walker, another man on Georgia’s death row, DeYoung’s execution produced the only existing video of a lethal injection in the United States, which remains under seal in a Georgia courthouse.1 This effort to record an execution runs against the historical trend of making executions † J.D. Candidate, 2020, Columbia Law School. 1 Motion to Compel Response to Allow Preservation of Critical Evidence of the Execution of Andrew DeYoung, Walker v. Humphrey, No. 08-V-1088 (Ga. Super. Ct. July 19, 2011) (on file with author). Only one other execution has been recorded (Robert Alton Harris in California), pursuant to a class action challenging lethal gas; ultimately, the judge in the class action did not view the video, which was destroyed in 1994. -
1976 Year of First Execution (Since Reenactment)
ALABAMA Year of Reenactment (since 1972 suspension) 1976 Year of First Execution (since reenactment) 1983 History 1836-1922: hanging 1923-2002: electrocution 2002-present: lethal injection or electrocution Current Method Lethal Injection is the primary method, but Electrocution is available if the inmate chooses it. FACTS Alabama has life without parole. Sentencing is decided by a judge, who can override the jury's recommendation. The Governor has sole authority to grant reprieves and commutations in capital cases. Sentences that are commuted to life are not eligible for a pardon from the Board of Pardons and Parole unless the Board receives sufficient evidence to indicate that the person is innocent of the crime of conviction and unanimously approves the pardon with the Governor. NEWS Alabama recently changed its method of execution to Lethal Injection, but retained Electrocution as an option available to the condemned. Wesley Quick became Alabama's fifth exoneration in 2003. He was acquitted during his third trial, as jury misconduct had been found in the original trial and witness inconsistencies were found in the second. In the latter, the second trial judge refused a copy of the transcripts which would have helped convict the prosecution's star witness of the crime. © Michigan State University and Death Penalty Information Center, 2006 ARIZONA Year of Reenactment (since 1972 suspension) 1973 Year of First Execution (since reenactment) 1992 History 1901-1915: hanging 1916-1917: no death penalty (except for treason and train robbery) 1918-1932: hanging 1933-1991: lethal gas 1992-present: lethal injection Current Method Lethal injection Choice between lethal injection or lethal gas if the inmate was sentenced before 11/15/92.