Nebraska moving to conduct its first execution since 1997

The US state of Nebraska is moving to conduct its first execution since 1997. An execution date of 14 June has been set for Carey Dean Moore, who has been on death row for three decades.

Carey Dean Moore was re-sentenced to death in 1995 after his original 1980 sentence was overturned on appeal. He was one of more than 300 people sentenced to death in 1995. Indeed, in 1994, 1995 and 1996, over 300 people were sentenced to death each year in the USA, the most recorded in any years since executions resumed in 1977. In the past decade one of the signs that the USA is beginning to turn against the death penalty is that the number of death sentences passed each year has substantially declined. Since 2006 just over 100 people have been sentenced to death each year. The annual number of executions peaked at 98 in 1999, and has since fallen to around half that number each year. The last execution in Nebraska was in December 1997.

In the past four years, three states – New Jersey, New Mexico and Illinois – have legislated to abolish the death penalty. Signing these bills into law, the three state governors pointed to the death penalty’s flaws, such as the risk of irrevocable error and unfairness, its discriminatory application, its costs and diversion of resources from crime prevention and victim assistance, the lack of any proven special deterrent effect, and its potentially brutalizing effect on society. In 2008, the then most senior member of the US Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens, revealed that his 33 years on the Court had persuaded him that the “imposition of the death penalty represents the pointless and needless extinction of life”. In the 14 years since Nebraska last carried out an execution, some three dozen more countries have abolished the death penalty, and today 139 countries are abolitionist in law or practice. The UN General Assembly has called on all retentionist countries to impose a moratorium on executions. During scrutiny of the USA’s human rights record under the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Process in late 2010, numerous countries called on the USA to end its use of the death penalty.

Carey Dean Moore, who was 21 years old at the time of the crime and is now 53, is not currently seeking executive clemency. While there is therefore no clemency petition before these authorities, Amnesty International nevertheless is urging them to act to prevent Nebraska from taking the backward step of carrying out its first execution in 14 years. Carey Dean Moore is allowing his lawyers to seek a stay of execution in the courts in the context of issues relating to lethal injection, including the state’s recent purchase of drugs from a company in India.

Additional Information

Recommended action

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in English or your own language, in your own words:

Expressing concern that the State of Nebraska is looking to conduct its first execution in 14 years;

Welcoming the growing recognition in the USA of the inherent flaws of the death penalty;

Welcoming the recent abolition of the death penalty in Illinois, New Mexico and New Jersey;

Noting the growing isolation of the USA on the death penalty, and the international calls for a worldwide moratorium on executions;

Urging the authorities to do all they can to prevent any executions in Nebraska, including of Carey Dean Moore.

Please note that as Carey Dean Moore is not currently seeking executive clemency, we are not calling for commutation of his death sentence, as there is no clemency petition before the state executive authorities. However, given our abolitionist policy and the backward step that we consider an execution in Nebraska would constitute, we should still urge these authorities to do all they can to prevent any executions in Nebraska, including that of Carey Dean Moore.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, AND BEFORE 14 JUNE 2011.

Appeals to

Secretary of State John A. Gale,

PO Box 94608,

Lincoln,

NE 68509-4608,

USA.

Fax: +1 402 471-3237 // 471-3237

Email: sos.info@nebraska.gov // sos.intlrel@nebraska.gov

Salutation: Dear Secretary of State

Attorney General Jon Bruning,

Office of the Attorney General,

2115 State Capitol,

Lincoln,

NE 68509,

USA.

Fax: +1 402 471-3297

Salutation: Dear Attorney General

Copies to

Governor Dave Heineman,

Office of the Governor,

PO Box 94848,

Lincoln,

NE 68509-4848,

USA.

Fax: +1 402-471-6031

Salutation: Dear Governor

Ambassade des Etats-Unis d'Amérique,

Sulgeneckstrasse 19,

Case postale,

3007 Berne.

Fax : 031 357 73 44 // 031 357 73 98

Internet: http://bern.usembassy.gov/

_________________________

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56 New Districts Join the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program, Providing Better Educational Opportunities for Students and Families

Trenton, NJ -- Fifty-six new districts will take part in the Interdistrict Public School Choice program in the 2011-2012 school year, increasing and improving educational opportunities for children and families, Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf announced today.


The Interdistrict Public School Choice program allows students the option of attending a public school outside their district of residence without cost to their parents.

“The Christie Administration wants all children to have the same hope and opportunity that comes with attending a school that fits their needs. The Interdistrict Public School Choice program empowers parents to make the best educational choices for their children, so they have the best chance for a successful future,” Acting Commissioner Cerf said.

“I also want to commend the 56 districts for participating in the program. It’s a clear sign that districts are taking steps to make better and more efficient use of their available space,” the Acting Commissioner added. “Choice is good for students because it expands opportunities, and it benefits taxpayers because districts are tapping a new revenue source.”

In the 2011-12 school year, students will be able to choose to go to a school outside their district of residence if the selected school is participating in the choice program.  Transportation of up to 20 miles, or funds to pay for transportation, will be provided by the district of residence to a student going to a choice school.  If the school is outside of the 20-mile radius, transportation will be the responsibility of the student, parents or guardians.

Currently, 15 districts are in the program. Today’s announcement brings the total number of districts participating in the program to 71. The students benefiting from choosing their own public school will nearly triple, from about 1,000 students now to nearly 2,900 students in the fall.

District participation in the program is optional.  The decision to apply to participate is made by the local board of education.  The district then sends an application to the Department of Education for processing and review.

The choice school sets the number of openings per grade level.  If there are more students requesting admission to the school than there are available openings, the school chooses the students by lottery. Any student currently attending New Jersey public schools is eligible to take advantage of this program.

For Immediate Release: Contact: Alan Guenther, Director

Olympian Carl Lewis To Run For NJ Senate

Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis will today announce his intention to run for the New Jersey Senate as a Democrat.

Lewis emailed a media advisory to reporters saying he will be giving a speech at 2 p.m. at the Old County Courthouse in Mt. Holly to "make an announcement regarding his political plans." Democrats have been in talks with Lewis about a potential state Senate run in the 8th Legislative District against incumbent Dawn Addiego (R-Burlington). Lewis, a 49-year-old Medford resident, has never run for office. The 8th District, where Lewis will run, leans Republican. But Democrats feel that a famous and wealthy candidate like Lewis could make the seat competitive.

Although he's one of the most famous athletes in the world, rumors about Lewis' sexuality have been blamed for his lack of post-Olympics endorsement deals. Lewis has always denied that he is gay.

posted by Joe

Effort is on to speed up Nevada death penalty cases

The execution chamber at Nevada State
Prison in Carson City

Reno police undercover narcotics officer Jimmy Hoff was about to make his last and biggest career drug bust before returning to patrol as a K-9 officer.

Instead, the 32-year-old was fatally stabbed June 24, 1979, during an ambush at Idlewild Park that was planned and practiced by 4 young men whose aim was to rob him of $16,000 in cocaine money.

32 years after a 3-judge panel sentenced the ringleader, Thomas Edward Wilson, to death, he remains Nevada’s longest standing death row inmate, to the dismay of Hoff’s surviving relatives and the original police investigators.

The delay is the result of appeals filed on his behalf ­— which for more than 3 decades have been denied by local, state and federal courts. Most, including an oral argument to the state high court last month, seek the same claims for relief.

Wilson pleaded guilty to Hoff’s 1st-degree murder, and his three accomplices are serving sentences of life without parole.

In Wilson’s appeal denials, judges have written there had been “overwhelming” evidence of guilt in the “premeditated” murder that was committed to rob Officer Hoff and receive his money.

State Sen. Don Gustavson, R-Sparks, and a group of retired Reno police detectives will be testifying Friday morning during a state Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on behalf of Senate Bill 283, which Gustavson hopes will help shave at least a few years off of “meritless” death penalty appeals so that inmates like Wilson don’t linger on death row for decades.

A death sentence is automatically appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court; all other appeals are voluntary. In 2010, the average time spent on death row in Nevada was about 17 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The U.S. Supreme Court already has ruled that states are not required to provide attorneys in postconviction appeals. Nevada law mandates it, leaving judges no choice but to appoint a new attorney.

Gustavson’s amendment to the state’s law on death penalty appeals would give judges discretion in appointing new lawyers, either when an inmate seeks to raise legal issues that mostly were denied in the past or claims that prior attorneys were ineffective.

“The current system for dealing with capital appeals is dysfunctional, and the limited judicial resources of our courts is promising years of delay at the expense of the families’ victims who deserve finality and closure,” Gustavson said Thursday.

But others said that this bill won’t fix Nevada’s death row problems and could keep innocent people on death row.

“We believe it would likely violate constitutional protections, such as equal protection and the Sixth Amendment,” Washoe County Public Defender Jeremy Bosler said.

Victim’s family

Hoff’s siblings — Patty Rowan of Las Vegas, Dennis George of Reno, and Sandra Hutchison of Woodland, Calif. — support the proposal because they said Nevada’s death penalty does not work, delaying justice.

82 inmates are on death row in Nevada, according to the Nevada Department of Corrections. The state’s last execution was in 2006, and that was only because the executed inmate, Reno serial killer Daryl Mack, gave up his appeals.

“I worry they won’t execute him in my lifetime,” Rowan, 73, said of Wilson.

Rowan said their mother, Lucille, died in 1997 brokenhearted because Wilson had still not faced justice.

“That would make my life worth dying for,” Rowan said. “When he got death, I thought it was a good sentence and he wouldn’t be allowed to live. This has been going on way too long and there’s gotta be a law that says ‘this is enough’ Families have to suffer through this, and it’s horrible for all of them. We’ve got to fix the law."

George and Hutchison said they are disappointed Wilson remains on death row.

“I believe in a life for a life,” Hutchison said. “It’s so annoying to me that here it’s been 32 years and he’s still hanging in there. It makes no sense. I don’t know a lot about the judicial system but it seems that after a certain amount of time something should be done. Nevada doesn’t do anything."

Opponents: This isn’t the fix

But not everyone is convinced that the proposal is the right way to solve the problem.

Washoe County Public Defender Jeremy Bosler said his office supports the need for speedy justice, but there is an even greater need for accuracy.

He said that in recent years, hundreds of death row inmates across the country have been exonerated following a closer look at their cases — even though juries determined there had been overwhelming evidence against them.

State and federal courts also affirmed many of those convictions, yet years later, evidence was discovered that forced prosecutors to dismiss charges, he said.

“The idea that at the end of this complex litigation, a court, or some other government officer, is given the discretion to decide if a person facing execution should have a lawyer to prepare a direct appeal does not comport with our country’s fundamental rights of due process,” Bosler said.

And while Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick, a Republican, said he supports the death penalty for deserving killers, he’s not so sure changing the state law would make a difference. He said the federal 9th Circuit Appeals Court would have to agree the changes are constitutional; otherwise, the cases would continue to be sent back to lower courts for new hearings.

“They’re not even close to solving the problem,” Gammick said of the proposal’s affect on reducing languishing death penalty appeals.

Supporters: Money could be saved, justice served.

Retired Reno police detectives Wayne Teglia, who approached Gustavson to introduce the bill, and Dave Jenkins said the general public likely isn’t aware of inmates languishing on death row for decades, even though juries and judicial panels voted they were the “worst of the worst” and deserve death.

Both said the proposal is not a moral debate about the death penalty. Instead, it’s about carrying out a legal sentence made available by the state Legislature. They also said that in this recession, it’s simply too expensive to allow taxpayer money to be wasted on legal fees associated with senseless appeals.

“It’s a slap in the face of justice when sentences never get carried out,” Jenkins said. “Right now, it’s a system of a process of no ends and a lack of respect for the verdict. How can you have a just process when if 32 years later, you are still on death row? There is something fundamentally wrong with the system."

Teglia said Wilson isn’t the only local murderer languishing on death row. He pointed to Ricky Sechrest, who was sentenced to die in 1983 for kidnapping and killing two young girls in Reno; Siaosi Vanisi, sentenced to die in 1999 for the hatchet slaying of a University of Nevada, Reno officer; and serial killer David Middleton, who was sentenced in 1997 for the deaths of 2 women in Reno.

“These guys are guilty as sin, and some have confessed,” said Teglia, an original investigator in the Hoff killing. “The chance of error on death row with a guilty conviction is very hard now that DNA is so advanced. Now, victims’ rights are not considered. The Nevada Legislature created this problem, and only they can fix it."

Source: Reno Gazette-Journal, April 8, 2011

A closer look

Senate Bill 283

What it does: Introduced by state Sen. Don Gustavson, R-Sparks, this bill aims to reduce some death penalty appeals by giving local judges discretion to keep appointing new lawyers to file new appeals, instead of mandating them by law.

Supporters say: Death-row inmates would not be able to abuse the appeal process as much, and would cut down the number of years they would be on death row. It could save the state money — possibly millions — in legal fees associated with endless appeals. A change would help ensure that a legal sentence was carried out for the benefit of victims, their families and the community. The U.S. Supreme Court already has ruled that states are not required to appoint attorneys in post conviction proceedings.

Critics say: Appeals are part of a person’s right to due process and should be left alone. Previous death-row exonerations across the country proved that later appeals provided evidence that proved the person was innocent. Any change in the law would also face scrutiny from the federal 9th Circuit Appeals Court, which could not accept the change and kick the case back to a lower court for more hearings.

What’s next

Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today.

Death row costs

The cost each year of housing Nevada’s 82 death-row inmates is about $2.1 million, said the Nevada Department of Corrections. While no current data were available, it was estimated in 2001 it costs the state between $2.5 to $5 million per death row inmate, compared to about $760,000 for an inmate sentenced to a life in prison without parole.

Death penalty appeals are conducted at state and federal courts. A death sentence is automatically appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, while subsequent appeals are voluntary. According to Nevada Supreme Court appeals filings, Thomas Edward Wilson’s defense fees are more than $3,000 per month when he has an active appeal in that court.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, in 2008, California concluded it spent $137 million a year on its death-penalty system, compared to spending $11.5 million a year to fund an inmate’s life-in-prison term without parole.

Other states, the center said, found that costs to its indigent court services were so extraordinary that there were not enough resources to defend capital cases, such was the case in New Mexico. Other states such as New Jersey and New York also spent millions each year while having no executions.

Last month, Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty, after several death row inmates were exonerated throughout the last several years. Its last execution was 11 years ago.

Source: Reno Gazette-Journal, April 8, 2011

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Illinois Senate Votes To Abolish Death Penalty

Ten years after former Gov. George Ryan placed a moratorium on the practice of capital punishment, Illinois lawmakers have voted to abolish the death penalty in the Land of Lincoln.

The State Senate followed the lead of the House and approved the bill (SB 3539) by a 32-25 margin this afternoon. The legislation, if signed, would end the practice and redirect money the state pays in death row prosecution and defense fees ($100 million in the past seven years alone) to support law enforcement training and programs for the families of murder victims. It now heads to Gov. Pat Quinn, where it faces an uncertain future.

Since 1977, 13 Illinois men since have been exonerated for murders they did no commit; several investigations found that dubious evidence, racial discrimination, and prosecutorial misconduct tainted many of those cases. The use of the death penalty is declining nationwide. Fifteen other states do not sentence criminals to death.

Here's a statement from the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty:

“Lawmakers clearly understood the death penalty is broken beyond repair in Illinois and must end now. They should be applauded for realizing that this system is wrong and can’t be fixed – now and going forward. Now we call on Gov. Pat Quinn to embrace this measure and agree that Illinois is much better off without the death penalty,” said Jeremy Schroeder, executive director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Source: Progress Illinois, January 11, 2011


Illinois death penalty ban sent to Gov. Pat Quinn

A historic measure to abolish the death penalty in Illinois passed the state Senate today after nearly two hours of impassioned debate.

The ban on executions goes to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who must sign the legislation for it to become law. During last fall's campaign, Quinn said he supports "capital punishment when applied carefully and fairly," but also backs the 10-year-old moratorium on executions.

The Senate voted 32-25 to approve the ban, with 2 members voting present. The measure passed the House last week.

Sponsoring Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, urged his colleagues to "join the civilized world" and end the death penalty in Illinois.

Raoul spoke of how authorities were certain when they prosecuted Jerry Hobbs and Kevin Fox for killing their own little girls. Both confessed under coercion and both were exonerated by DNA evidence. The senator spoke of is 10-year-old daughter and how he could not imagine what a wrongly accused father would go through.

Illinois "ought to be embarrassed" by its track record of wrongful convictions, Raoul said, "because if an execution were to take place, it takes place in the name of the people of Illinois."

Sen. John Millner, R-Carol Stream, a former Elmhurst police chief with experience of interviewing more than 1,000 defendants, called for making more reforms to the system before eliminating the death penalty. He also called for more training of police officers, including how to avoid false confessions.

"I ask you all, please," Millner said, to consider a crime victim's families.

Sen. Willie Delgado, D-Chicago, a former parole agent, cited how he worked in the attorney general's office when the wrongful convictions of Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez were examined.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the system is broken," Delgado said. He maintained "death is too good for some folks" and said they should be allowed to sit in prison for natural life, where they can "rot and think about what they have done."

Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican who worked on death penalty reforms now in place, said the people of his district believe in executions for mass murderers and killers of police, prison guards and children.

"I think there's still a place for the death penalty for the worst of the worst of our society," Dillard said.

Dillard and Sen. Bill Haine, an Alton Democrat and former Madison County state's attorney, called for putting the question before Illinois citizens.

But Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, said lawmakers are elected to make the tough decisions, and she called on colleagues said Illinois should break company with Afghanistan, China, Iran, Iraq, Congo, Saudi Arabia and other countries that allow the death penalty.

"We're here because we've seen countless examples of the fact that the system has failed," Hutchinson said. "This question is not about the people who we know did it. It's about the people who were convicted who didn't. It's about our system of justice is actually predicated upon the protection of the innocent and executing one innocent person is too high a price to pay."

Sen. Dan Duffy, R-Lake Barrington, argued that 20 people sent to death row in Illinois have been exonerated and the taxpayer costs have been too great to be left with an ineffective and expensive use of scarce resources.

"What we have learned after all this time is that the system cannot be fixed," Duffy said.

Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, D-Evanston, said he has long prayed over the death penalty issue but that the system in Illinois "is not marginally flawed. It is irretrievable broken."

The action comes 10 years after then-Gov. George Ryan placed a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois following revelations that several people sent to death row were later exonerated.

Quinn has not said whether he would sign the ban, but during last year's campaign said the moratorium should stay in place to see whether reforms have worked.

Gordon "Randy" Steidl, who spent 17 years in prison, including 12 on death row, after he was wrongfully convicted of a 1986 double-murder, pleaded with the committee to end a death penalty system in Illinois that could have had him executed.

"How can you possibly give the power of life and death to a prosecutor, who even if he does everything correctly, there's still that possibility that you're going to strap an innocent person to a gurney?" Steidl said. "And we know we have in this country, we know we have executed innocent people in the past. The problem is, after they're executed, the state no longer cares. The evidence is there, we have an alternative, and that's life without parole and we do not risk the possiibility of executing an innocent person. Because you know sooner or later if we have this system we will."

The panel voted in favor of the proposal despite concerns raised by opponents who cited the need for the death penalty to be in place. They pointed to the shooting of a congresswoman in Arizona over the weekend and murder of six people, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl. The vote in Springfield also comes against the backdrop of six Chicago policemen killed over the last year.

Sen. William Haine, a former Madison County state's attorney, argued fervently to keep the death penalty in place.

"To call for perfection necessarily involves speculation about a future faulty case." Haine argued. "We have in our hands 15 cases of the worst on death row now. 15 muderers, that's not speculation. The people of Illinois should be a part of this and we should not be removing what they believe is justice."

Sponsoring Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, said he has confidence that Quinn will come around and sign the bill once he hears from Steidl and other wrongfully convicted former death row inmates.

Outside of the hearing room, Raoul choked up and his eyes welled up as he talked about the historic breadth of the legislation, particularly in a state where unethical means have been used to squeeze defendants into false confessions.

"It's an emotional debate," Raoul said, his voice breaking as he took several seconds to gather himself. "I talk to my kids and their friends in their school about this. My kids attend Catholic school, and they get their values-based education, and they understand it better than some adults do."

35 states now have the death penalty, and Illinois would become the 16th state to not have the death penalty if Illinois approved abolishing it. 3 other states - New York, New Jersey and New Mexico - have eliminated the death penalty in recent years, according to the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Before last week, no abolition legislation had passed either house in Illinois since executions were reinstated in 1977. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down death penalty guidelines in 40 states, including Illinois, in 1972.

Support for abolishing executions in Illinois has grown since Ryan declared the moratorium. His action followed a Tribune series that pointed out flaws and inequities in the prosecution and defense of Illinoisans facing a death sentence and the exoneration of several people placed on death row.

Illinois followed up with a number of steps to reform the death penalty process, including taping interrogations under a proposal forged by President Barack Obama when he served in the Illinois Senate. More money was made available to help provide resources to beef up the defense of alleged offenders in death penalty cases, but the millions of dollars being spent raised additional questions.

Only days before he left office in January 2003, Ryan granted clemency to 164 death row inmates even though sources on the Illinois Prisoner Review Board said the panel recommended clemency for no more than 10.

There are 15 people on death row in Illinois, officials said.

Source: Chicago Tribune, January 11, 2011


Illinois Poised to Become 16th State to Ban Capital Punishment

WASHINGTON, DC – The Illinois Senate today joined the House in voting to repeal the state’s death penalty and re-allocate funds remaining in the Capital Litigation Trust Fund to a fund for murder victims' services and law enforcement. If signed into law, Illinois would become the 16th state to abandon capital punishment and would mark the fewest states with the death penalty since 1978. The bill must be signed by Governor Pat Quinn in order to become law.

"This vote demonstrates a growing concern about the death penalty and public willingness to replace this punishment with alternative sentences," said Richard Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "The problems of the death penalty are not unique to Illinois. Widespread frustration with capital punishment and its high costs have led to a sharp decline in its use."

Since 1976, Illinois has carried out 12 executions. In the same period, 20 inmates have been exonerated from the state's death row, the 2nd highest number in the United States. The state has not had an execution since 1999, the year before former Republican Governor George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions after a series of exonerations exposed flaws in the system. In 2003, Governor Ryan issued a blanket commutation, reducing the sentences of 167 death row inmates to life and pardoning four inmates. Since then, use of the death penalty has declined sharply in Illinois. In the 1990s, the state averaged over 10 death sentences a year. In 2009 and 2010, the state imposed only one death sentence each year.

Many murder victims’ families were among the strongest supporters of the repeal bill. In a letter to the Illinois General Assembly, murder victims‘ families and friends said, "A legal system that wasn't bogged down with committing tremendous resources on capital cases could prosecute and sentence countless other crimes and take dangerous people off the streets before they commit murder. Dollars saved could be put toward counseling for victims of crime or other services we desperately need as we attempt to get on with our lives." The letter was signed by more than 20 individuals who had loved ones murdered in Illinois.

The high cost of the death penalty was a concern highlighted in the legislative debate. Since 2003, the state has spent over $100 million on the Capital Litigation Trust Fund, a sum that represents only a portion of the costs associated with implementing the death penalty in Illinois.

The Illinois vote is in line with a broader trend away from the death penalty around the country:

* New Mexico and New Jersey recently voted to abolish the death penalty in 2009 and 2007, respectively. Many other state legislatures have considered bills to abolish the death penalty.

* New York's death penalty law was declared unconstitutional in 2004. Since then the legislature has repeatedly rejected attempts to reinstate capital punishment.

* Death sentences in the United States have dropped by over 60% since the mid-90s. Even in Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state, death sentences have declined significantly during the past decade. Executions have also dropped sharply.

For more information on the Illinois repeal bill, contact Jeremy Schroeder, Executive Director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, at (312) 673-3816 or jeremy@icadp.org.

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, January 11, 2011

Related articles:

"Repealing death penalty is the right thing to do": police chief

As a police chief with more than 40 years of law enforcement experience, I commend the Illinois House of Representatives for passing SB 3539 to repeal the death penalty. This is a bill that is a long time in the making, and deals with an issue I have long worked on and struggled with. As former President of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and former President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, I have worked with National organizations to devise reforms to make the death penalty effective and fair. However, after watching Illinois attempt reforms for nearly 11 years, it is clear to me we cannot get the death penalty right. There will always be the possibility of executing an innocent person; there will always be a tremendously long trial that subjects victims' families to an excruciating process; and there will always be tremendous costs involved. All of this might be justified if the death penalty was a deterrent or helpful law enforcement tool in any way, but this is not the case. My professional experience has shown that the death penalty does nothing to keep us safe, and my colleagues confirmed this in a 2009 national poll of police chiefs in which the death penalty was ranked the least effective tool for deterring violent crime.

I am grateful that SB 3539 not only gets rid of a system that has proven itself too flawed to fix, but that also puts the savings from the death penalty where they are desperately needed: law enforcement training. The best thing we can do to ensure the safety of our communities and men and women in uniform is to see that law enforcement have the resources and training they need to do their job well. SB 3539 does just that. I am proud that Illinois is taking a step away from pouring a disproportionate amount of time and money into a few capital cases, and moving toward ensuring all law enforcement have the resources they need. This bill is not just tough on crime, it's also smart on crime.

Chief Charles A. Gruber, St. Charles
Source: Letter to the Editor, Chicago Tribune, January 9, 2011

January 6, 2011: Illinois House voted to abolish the death penalty

Late Thursday afternoon, the House voted 59-58 against SB3539, a bill to repeal the death penalty and use the money saved to assist victims' families and improve law enforcement, 1 vote short of passing the proposal. 1 representative, Rosemary Mulligan (R-Des Plaines) did not vote at the time. But the chief sponsor, Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) used a parliamentary maneuver to pull the bill from the House floor to allow for a second vote and less than two hours later, the House approved the measure 60-54.

The measure now goes to the Senate for a vote. If the bill is approved in the state senate it still must go to Governor Pat Quinn, who has said he continues to favor the death penalty for the worst crimes, according to local media reports.

During a lengthy debate on the House floor, supporters said the death penalty needs to be abolished because too many innocent people have been sent to death row. Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago), who said she has long been a staunch supporter of capital punishment, said she believes the death penalty should end because courts cannot correct a mistake if an innocent person is put to death. "I could administer the death penalty myself to a cop killer or a baby killer without remorse," Mendoza said. "But this debate for me is no longer about whether guilty killers deserve to die for their crimes. They do deserve to die." However, Mendoza added that, "we must accept the possibility of executing an innocent person and I'm not okay with that. None of us should be okay with that. … I can no longer stomach the idea of executing a potentially innocent person in order to make sure the guilty pay for their crimes." 

Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs), a former prosecutor, said he believes death penalty reforms have worked to ensure a fair trial in capital cases. "I am confident that these individuals were given more than due process. They were given super-process," Durkin said. "We need to let this process work its way through the course."

But supporters of repealing capital punishment said that numerous studies have showed that the death penalty is applied randomly across the state and that minorities and poor defendants are more likely to be sentenced to death than whites and the affluent. "The decision to have the death penalty in one case and not another, that is a random decision in the state of Illinois," House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago) said. "That is no way to run a criminal justice system." Currie also noted that studies have shown that the death penalty has not served as a deterrent to violent crime.

Former Gov. George Ryan instituted a moratorium on executions in Illinois in 2000 after 13 Death Row inmates were exonerated and no death row inmates have been executed since then. Ryan is serving a 6-1/2 year sentence in federal prison for corruption charges and is trying to get an early release or temporary furlough in order to visit his wife, Lura Lynn Ryan, who has been hospitalized with a severe infection. Doctors have said she likely has, at best, 2 weeks to live.

Source: CBS News, January 6, 2011

Police officials argue death penalty doesn't make us safer

Over the past decade, executions have dropped by more than 50 percent and the number of death sentences has steadily declined, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. As police and law enforcement officers with decades of experience in fighting crime in the United States and Europe, we believe that societies are better off without the death penalty. We recently came together in Washington, D.C., for the 1st international dialogue among law enforcement professionals about the death penalty and found important areas of agreement.

Deterrence

Europe has abandoned the death penalty, but European countries have lower murder rates and higher rates of solving homicides than the United States. In the United States, states with the death penalty generally have higher murder rates than states without it. For example, southern states have the highest murder rates and account for 82 % of all U.S. executions. The deterrence argument is weak and it goes against our experience investigating serious crimes: the majority of offenders do not think through the consequences of their actions. In fact, they do not think they will ever be caught.

The death penalty, as it is applied, is too random to effectively deter potential offenders. If you execute a contract killer, for example, it would not deter a terrorist. If you execute a terrorist, it would not deter a young man who breaks into a house, gets startled, and shoots the owner.

Closure

U.S. politicians sometimes argue that the death penalty is needed to deter the killing of police officers. But if one of us were murdered, we would not want the perpetrator to receive the death penalty. The most important thing would be taking care of our families and helping them heal. We have seen how painful it is for families to go through years of death penalty trials and appeals and that would be the last thing we would want for our own families. The idea that the death penalty provides "closure" for victims' families is a myth.

Innocence

Another myth is that only the guilty are executed. We can tell stories about times experienced officers were certain they had the right guy, only to find out later they were wrong. Even when police do their jobs professionally and in good faith, mistakes will be made and innocent people will be convicted. It is hard to imagine a greater tragedy. At least with life without parole, there is a chance to reopen cases if new evidence becomes available. Death is irreversible.

Costs

Especially as budgets tighten in the United States and around the world, the death penalty may be a system governments can no longer afford. The death penalty costs far more than the alternatives. In California, for example, the death penalty costs $125 million more -- every year -- than life without parole, which also takes the offender off the streets permanently. All of the money that states spend on the death penalty could be used to hire more police officers, train them better, solve cold cases, and prevent crimes from occurring in the first place. We should spend our limited resources on programs that work.

Europe vs U.S.

Europe has the same violent offenses that the United States has, but has found ways to protect its citizens without capital punishment. For example, Portugal abolished the death penalty in 1864 and has never seriously considered reinstating it. Even when the country experienced political violence and organized terrorism during a revolution in 1974, the death penalty was not brought back. Had the terrorists been sentenced to death, they might have become martyrs and the violence might have continued.

Do some murderers deserve the death penalty? Maybe so, but that is an emotional reaction. It is not the basis for creating public policy or finding the best ways to keep citizens safe. More states should follow New Jersey's lead, and the example of 15 U.S. states, repeal the death penalty, and adopt life without parole in its place. As a growing number of Americans recognize, life without parole is a harsh punishment, protects the public, and eliminates the risk of an irreversible mistake, while freeing up funds for more effective crime-fighting programs. This is a better way to serve victims' families and prevent violence.

Source: James Abbott is the police chief of West Orange, N.J., and served on the state's Death Penalty Study Commission. António Cluny is the senior attorney general and public prosecutor in Portugal. Bob Denmark is a 30-year veteran of the British police force and a former detective superintendent of Lancashire Constabulary, England. Ronald Hampton is the executive director of the National Black Police Association International Leadership Institute and a 23-year veteran of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, Opinion, Mercury News, January 9, 2011