AB1
“‘Death penalty has no place in 21st century,’ declares UN chief.” un.org. United Nations, 2 July
2014. Web. 24 March 2016.
AB2
Sherwood, Roxanna and Lauren Effron. “Convicted Serial Killer Tommy Lynn Sells Executed in
Texas.” Abcnews.go.com. ABC News Internet Ventures, 3 April 2014. Web. 24 March
2016.
AB3
“State Execution Rates.” deathpenaltyinfo.org. Death Penalty Information Center, n.d. Web. 23
March 2016.
AB4
“Texas.” deathpenaltyinfo.org. Death Penalty Information Center, n.d. Web. 23 March 2016.
AB5
“The Case Against the Death Penalty.” aclu.org. The American Civil Liberties Union, 2012.
Web. 25 March 2016.
AB6
Walpin, Ned. “Why is Texas #1 in Executions?” pbs.org. WGBH educational foundation--
Public Broadcasting Service, n.d. Web. 23 March 3016.
“‘Death penalty has no place in 21st century,’ declares UN chief.” un.org. United Nations, 2 July
2014. Web. 24 March 2016.
URL: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48192#.VvSfWa6rSYU
About the UN: “The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. It is currently made up of 193 Member States. The mission and work of the United Nations are guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding Charter” (taken from the UN “Overview” page: http://www.un.org/en/sections/about-un/overview/index.html).
There is no author—however, the UN—United Nations—is an international, well- recognized, and credible entity.
About the primary speaker: “Ban Ki-moon is the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations. His priorities have been to mobilize world leaders around a set of new global challenges, from climate change and economic upheaval to pandemics and increasing pressures involving food, energy and water. He has sought to be a bridge-builder, to give voice to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, and to strengthen the Organization itself” (taken from the Biography page on the Ban Ki-moon via the UN website-- http://www.un.org/sg/biography.shtml)
Overview/Summary: Overall, the UN Secretary General delivered clear commentary on the disdain for capital punishment. In addition to the information included below, he cited that “Against such a backdrop, he said that over the past two years, OHCHR* has convened a series of important global panel events on the death penalty, focusing on wrongful convictions, deterrence and public opinion, and discrimination. Specifically, discriminatory practices in the imposition of the death penalty further reinforce the calls for its universal abolition.”
* Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Use: provides anti-death penalty global perspective.
Main quote to use:
“The death penalty has no place in the 21st century, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon declared today, calling on all States take concrete steps towards abolishing or no longer practicing this form of punishment.”
Comments from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: “Together, we can finally end this cruel and inhumane practice everywhere around the world … Best practices and challenges in implementing a moratorium on the death penalty.”
“Looking ahead to the next session of the General Assembly, he [United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon] therefore called on all States to take action in three critical areas: ratify the Second Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the death penalty; support the resolution on the moratorium on the use of the death penalty; and take concrete steps towards abolishing or no longer practicing this form of punishment.”
Sherwood, Roxanna and Lauren Effron. “Convicted Serial Killer Tommy Lynn Sells Executed in
Texas.” Abcnews.go.com. ABC News Internet Ventures, 3 April 2014. Web. 24 March
2016.
About ABC News: “The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (stylized in its logo as abc since 1957) is an American commercial broadcast television network that is owned by the Disney–ABC Television Group, a subsidiary of Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is part of the Big Three television networks” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Broadcasting_Company)
About Roxanna Sherwood: “Whether delving into major investigations, traveling to all corners of the world, or covering big entertainment stories, Roxanna is a superb storyteller. A 19-year veteran of ABC News, Roxanna has worked across the news division-most recently as a senior producer at "20/20," overseeing concept hours and stories that have contributed greatly to our current success in primetime. She also was responsible for field coordination on major breaking news events including the Newtown school tragedy and the Boston bombings” (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/09/roxanna-sherwood-named-executive-producer-of- abc-news-nightline/)
About Lauren Effron: “Lauren Effron is a digital producer for ABC News' late night news show, "Nightline," and ABCNews.com. She is responsible for creating content for the show pages and special projects, as well as filing for general assignment news” (http://abcnews.go.com/Author/Lauren_Effron)
Summary: The article details “Sells, 49, was convicted of killing 13-year-old Katy Harris while she slept in her Del Rio, Texas, home. Her murder landed Sells on death row, but he has been linked to at least 17 other killings and claims he has killed as dozens more.” It details specific incidences of the Dardeen case Sells confessed to as well as the Harris case he was convicted of (Texas), including the anecdotal evidence from survivor Krystal Surles.
How to Use: The Sells case illustrates ‘heinous crimes’ and lack of remorse. This is a useful piece of evidence if I want to argue the death penalty should be legal in Texas.
What I Could Use:
Tommy Lynn Sells: Executed in Texas on April 3, 2014
- Sells “has been linked to at least 17 other killings and claims he has killed as dozens more.”
- Sells' attorneys said, "It is our belief that how we choose to execute prisoners reflects on us as a society. Without transparency about lethal injections, particularly the source and
purity of drugs to be used, it is impossible to ensure that executions are humane and constitutional. It is our hope that the U.S. Supreme Court and the Texas courts will ultimately agree that we must have transparency about the execution process in order to ensure that prisoners are able to protect their Eighth Amendment rights."
- From Sells: “I am hatred. When you look at me, you look at hate," Sells said in 2010. "I don't know what love is. Two words I don't like to use is 'love' and 'sorry,' because I'm about hate."
- “Sells appeared nonchalant when asked about the victims he had slain, and spoke very matter-of-factly when recounting his killing methods: beatings, stabbings, strangling. He even raped many of his targets before slicing their throats.”
- Per the interview Sells detailed the murder of 30-year-old Eileen Dardeen (1987-- Indiana) and her family. Dardeen was more than seven months pregnant—“ Sells allegedly beat her to death. During the attack, she went into premature labor and gave birth to a baby girl. Investigators determined the newborn was alive when she was born, but was later found bludgeoned to death, as was Dardeen's 3-year-old son.”
- Sells’s rationale for the Dardeen murders: “I didn't want them to live through the pain I lived through.”
- Why on Texas Death Row: “Inmate number 999367 sits on Death Row in Huntsville, Texas, awaiting execution for raping and murdering 13-year-old Kaylene Harris in 1999.” (http://qctimes.com/news/state-and-regional/serial-killer-texas-inmate-admits-to- dardeen-slaying-and-lawrenceville/article_b3148c0b-141c-5cdb-830d- 04d2bdf5adc1.html)
“State Execution Rates.” deathpenaltyinfo.org. Death Penalty Information Center, n.d. Web. 23
March 2016.
URL: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-execution-rates
About Source: “The Death Penalty Information Center is a national non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. Founded in 1990, the Center promotes informed discussion of the death penalty by preparing in-depth reports, conducting briefings for journalists, and serving as a resource to those working on this issue. The Center releases an annual report on the death penalty, highlighting significant developments and featuring the latest statistics. … The Center is funded through the generosity of individual donors and foundations, including the Roderick MacArthur Justice
Center, the Open Society Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, and the Death Penalty Project, a Proteus Action League initiative” (from Death Penalty Information Center “About DPIC” page).
About the Author/Perspective/Bias: The overall source is strongly credible and backed by legitimate/credible organizations. However, the sponsors tend to be more aligned with commentary on the flaws and errors of the criminal justice system—i.e. anti-death penalty. While I don’t see any direct statements re: being anti-death penalty, I do feel like this is the undercurrent of the site. So, one would need to be careful of any statements made/biased perspectives.
Scope/Summary: yet, I am particularly looking at the “State Execution Rates” page which lists the rates of execution by State between “Cumulative Executions: 1976-Februray 11, 2015.” This is a chart of all the States and ranks them by the rate of “Executions per Capita.”
How I’ll Use It: the information will help provide concrete evidence showing comparison of execution rates between all the States—Texas is clearly higher than ALL others.
Notable Information:
Oklahoma is actually ranked first—with a population of 3,751,351 and an execution rate of 112; this is the highest “Executions per Capita (x10,000)” with a total of 0.299 of the State population executed.
Texas follows as second with a population of 25,145,561, 521 “Cumulative Executions: 1976- February 11, 2015” and 0.207 “Executions per Capita (x10,000)”
Of the 36 States, Texas executes the highest number—per capita, though, Oklahoma. Most States are under 20 executions from 1976-February 11, 2015. Virginia comes in at 110, Florida at 90, Missouri at 81, all others scantly above 50 but mostly between 15-0.
“Texas.” deathpenaltyinfo.org. Death Penalty Information Center, n.d. Web. 23 March 2016. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/texas-1
About Source: “The Death Penalty Information Center is a national non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. Founded in 1990, the Center promotes informed discussion of the death penalty by preparing in-depth reports, conducting briefings for journalists, and serving as a resource to those working on this issue. The Center releases an annual report on the death penalty, highlighting significant developments and featuring the latest statistics. … The Center is funded through the generosity of individual donors and foundations, including the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center, the Open Society Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, and the Death Penalty Project, a Proteus Action League initiative” (from Death Penalty Information Center “About DPIC” page).
About the Author/Perspective/Bias: The overall source is strongly credible and backed by legitimate/credible organizations. However, the sponsors tend to be more aligned with commentary on the flaws and errors of the criminal justice system—i.e. anti-death penalty. While I don’t see any direct statements re: being anti-death penalty, I do feel like this is the undercurrent of the site. So, one would need to be careful of any statements made/biased perspectives.
Scope/Summary: yet, I am particularly looking at the “Texas” page which lists various facts about the death penalty. This includes background information, links to current articles, lists of significant cases, etc.
How I’ll Use It: the overall background information is helpful to “set the stage”—I might use some of this in the intro/qualifiers sections of my paper. Yet, I’ll use the list of exonerations or suspicious cases as evidence in a later portion to show there IS incidence of capital error.
Notable Quotes/Information:
- from the “Texas Death Sentences, 1994-2012” graphic: the number of death penalty sentences has declined. the greatest peak in the last three decades was between 1998-2000 (near 50 sentences). There was a sharp decline between 200-2002 (hitting at about 25)—a 50% drop. Sentences continued to decline after 2002, from 2008 and on, they plateau and average under 10.
Meanwhile, and somewhat contradictory, in the “Number of Inmates on Death Row,” it “peaked at 460 in 1999 and has steadily decreased since, leaving the state with 260 inmates today.” The contradiction to the above—I see—is the above information is about sentences given while this information is about inmates still on Death Row—inmates could have been sentenced years, even decades, prior (esp. due to lengthy appeals process).
Other facts:
“One Texas county (Harris) accounts for 280+ death sentences and 116 executions since 1982.” Meaning, the Houston area is one of the primary sources of death sentences. Yet, “Of Texas' 254 counties, 136 have never sent a single offender to death row (1976-present).”
“13 juveniles were executed in Texas before the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roper v. Simmons. 29 juveniles awaiting execution were sentenced to Life In Prison and removed from death row in response to the decision.”
Governor’s Role—Clemency Process “The Texas Governor cannot impose a moratorium” (i.e. the suspension of executions) “on executions, as this authority is not allowed in the Texas Constitution. To give the Governor this power would require a constitutional amendment approved by voters.
“Clemency process: The governor has clemency authority on the advice of the Board of Pardons and Paroles and needs a favorable recommendation from the Board in order to be able to grant
clemency. The governor is not obligated to follow the recommendation of the Board, however. The governor also has the power to grant a one-time 30 day reprieve. The governor appoints the members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles.”
Exonerations:
Anthony Graves “spent 16 years in prison before being released on October 27, 2010.”
Randall Dale Adams – not years are given here, though points out it is dramatized in the movie The Thin Blue Line. Never heard of it…maybe something to check out.
“Several death row inmates in Texas have been executed despite serious doubts about their guilt, but they have not been officially exonerated.”
Cameron Todd Willingham Gary Graham Carlos De Luna Ruben Cantu Frances Newton
“Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for arson in a 1991 house fire that killed his three daughters. The arson theories used as evidence in his case have since be repudiated by scientific advances, and arson experts now believe the fire may have been accidental.”
“The Case Against the Death Penalty.” aclu.org. The American Civil Liberties Union, 2012.
Web. 25 March 2016.
URL: https://www.aclu.org/case-against-death-penalty
About the Organization: “For nearly 100 years, the ACLU has been our nation’s guardian of liberty, working in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country… achieving full equality for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people; establishing new privacy protections for our digital age of widespread government surveillance; ending mass incarceration; or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion… The ACLU was founded to ensure the promise of the Bill of Rights and to expand its reach to people historically denied its protections” (taken from the “About ACLU” page).
About the Author & Text: “The Case Against the Death Penalty was first published by the ACLU as a pamphlet in 1973. The original text was written by Hugo Adam Bedau, Ph.D., who
also contributed to several subsequent editions of the pamphlet. This version was most recently revised by the ACLU in 2012.”
The text is massive and includes numerous references to cases, containing 47 footnotes, as well as an expansive Works Cited list.
Use: anti-death penalty language …
Quotes: “…murder demonstrates a lack of respect for human life. Because life is precious and death irrevocable, murder is abhorrent, and a policy of state-authorized killings is immoral. It epitomizes the tragic inefficacy and brutality of violence, rather than reason, as the solution to difficult social problems.”
“A society that respects life does not deliberately kill human beings. An execution is a violent public spectacle of official homicide, and one that endorses killing to solve social problems – the worst possible example to set for the citizenry, and especially children.”
Walpin, Ned. “Why is Texas #1 in Executions?” pbs.org. WGBH educational foundation--
Public Broadcasting Service, n.d. Web. 23 March 3016.
URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/readings/texas.html
About PBS: “PBS and 350 member stations fulfill our essential mission to the American public, providing trusted programming that is uniquely different from commercial broadcasting, treating its audience as citizens, not simply consumers. In fact, PBS has been rated as the most trustworthy institution among nationally known organizations for 13 consecutive years … PBS is a private, nonprofit corporation, founded in 1969, whose members are America’s public TV stations -- noncommercial, educational licensees that operate 350 PBS member stations and serve all 50 states, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa. Of the 160 licensees, 85 are community organizations, 52 are colleges/universities, 19 are state authorities and four are local educational or municipal authorities” (from the PBS “About: Overview” page http://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/overview/)
From PBS Frontline: “American television’s top investigative documentary series since 1983 … won every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 75 Emmy Awards and 17 Peabody Awards” (from PBS “About Frontline” page).
About the Author: Faculty at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico—“B.A., Political Science, Middlebury College, 1987; M.A., English, Middlebury College (Bread Loaf School of
English), 1989; M.A., Political Science, Duke University, 1992; Ph.D., Political Science, Duke University, 1998; National Endowment for the Humanities Dissertation Grant, 1993-94; Exchange Fellow and Instructor, Institut für Politische Wissenschaft, Friedrick-Alexander Universität, Erlangen, Germany, 1994-95; Fellow, Instructor, and Project Coordinator, Kenan Ethics Program, Duke University, 1997-98; Consultant, PBS Frontline, 1998-99; Tutor, St. John's College, Santa Fe, 1999-; Assistant Dean, St. John's College, Santa Fe, 2010- 2014; Interim Dean, St. John’s College, Santa Fe, 2014” (http://www.sjc.edu/about/leadership/faculty/santa-fe/).
Source Summary: Walpin—in a fairly short article—looks at the “Legal” and the “Political/sociological/ cultural explanations for the high execution rates.” He primarily relies on commentary from Brent Newton’s article and the book The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990.
Use: there are a couple of reasons—listed below—that may be useful to help explain the high rate of capital punishment/executions in Texas. Could be helpful for introductory paragraphs.
- Brent Newton, in an article entitled "Capital Punishment: Texas Could Learn a Lot from Florida,"--Newton argues that "[e]specially during the past few years...the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has refused to publish most of its decisions in death penalty cases, including many cases that discuss important issues of first impression. Often these opinions take positions entirely inconsistent with prior decisions by the court and fail to mention the conflict. Generally speaking, there is a hit-and-mostly-miss quality in the Court of Criminal Appeals' death penalty decisions. Only a few judges during the past decade have been capable of or willing to write thoughtful, scholarly decisions, whether granting or denying relief."
- “James W. Marquart, Sheldon Ekland-Olson, and Jonathan R. Sorensen offer a more complex thesis. In their book, The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990, they argue that Texas' execution rate reflects the Southern ‘cultural tradition of exclusion,’ and that ‘[s]uch exclusion was a basic element of the legacy of slavery.’ … the South has a cultural tradition of dehumanizing certain groups of people, which has made it easier for Southerners to separate themselves from those who do not adhere to the normal social (and in this case, legal) code…Executions simply replaced lynchings as the accepted way to sate the popular (white) need to ‘dehumanize’ or ‘exclude’ certain groups from normal society.”