ABA: Freeze executions nationwide

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: CNN/AP

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Serious problems in state death penalty systems compromise fairness and accuracy in capital punishment cases and justify a nationwide freeze on executions, the American Bar Association says.

Problems cited in a report released Sunday by the lawyers' organization include:

Spotty collection and preservation of DNA evidence, which has been used to exonerate more than 200 inmates;

Misidentification by eyewitnesses;

False confessions from defendants; and

Persistent racial disparities that make death sentences more likely when victims are white.

The report is a compilation of separate reviews done over the past three years of how the death penalty operates in eight states: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Teams that studied the systems in Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania did not call for a halt to executions in those states. But the ABA said every state with the death penalty should review its execution procedures before putting anyone else to death.

"After carefully studying the way states across the spectrum handle executions, it has become crystal clear that the process is deeply flawed," said Stephen F. Hanlon, chairman of the ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project. "The death penalty system is rife with irregularity."

The ABA, which takes no position on capital punishment, did not study lethal injection procedures that are under challenge across the nation. The procedures will be reviewed by the Supreme Court early next year in a case from Kentucky. State and federal courts have effectively stopped most executions pending a high court decision....

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/10/29/death.penalty.ap/index.html

[Trillo]

1. K & R - Surely this deserves to be on the greatest page. nt

[Th1onein]

2. They haven't stopped them in Texas.

They're still going on in Texas. This is the state where the court clerk wouldn't stay open for a few more minutes for an appeal to be filed and the execution went on as scheduled.

[ClintonTyree]

3. They DO like their killin' in Texas......

strict anti-abortionists as well. Go figure. :shrug:

And to Texas DUers; I don't mean EVERYONE in Texas. Just the vocal majority.

[WolverineDG]

6. That was the work of Sharon Killer

er,Keller, the presiding justice. The other justices were all shocked that she did this behind their backs. The justice who was responsible for that execution was available in case an appeal was filed & at least one or two others stayed at the office until 7, anticipating the appeal.

Several lawyers have now filed a complaint against Killer Keller, so we'll see how that progresses.

dg

[Broadslidin]

4. Imagine, Committing Brutal Murder(s) and Realizing someone else has been Murdered for the Crime.

While whistling a happy tune,
strutting down a street in Houston....!

Quick and Dirty Blood Acts of Revenge must give Texans,
a feeling of sweet success.

[johnp]

5. Yep, Texans do like their revenge, remember Oklahoma?

Living in Louisiana I am well aware of how Texans think about anyone who tries to kill them. I remember what happened when the Feds killed all those people in Wack-O. Texans did what they always do and got revenge. "Good ol boy Texans, you kill them, they will kill ya back, thats their policy" according to redneck comedian Ron White.

Oh, that reminds me of George Carlin. He made fun of the death penalty too. He said "why not cross it with the lottery and televize it. You could have a guillotine and when they chop the condemned mans head off it could role down a shoot into one of 5 numbered holes and that would select the lotto numbers for tonights game." Yeh George Carlin is about as hilarious as you can get, but seriously speaking the death penalty is the perfect avenue for a corrupt government to use to silence all kinds of people, and I believe Texans have probably killed plenty of innocent people, and will keep on until this sick habit is criminalized in this country. What I have never understood though is how many religious Christians support the death penalty when the 10 commandments clearly state , thow shall not kill. I guess I will never understand religious nuts. Thankfully they are blowing each other up out there in the desert while Bush laughs all the way to the bank.

[Th1onein]

7. Thankfully?

They are blowing up EVERYONE, including the innocents, out there in the desert.

[johnp]

11. I didn't mean innocents

Let me clarify. I don't think its good they are killing innocent people in the process, but I am all for belligerent people to kill each other off because were just not doing enough on our own to get rid of those kinds of people among us and although I realize that crappy people probably make up a small amount of the overall people, they sure cause allot of damage to society.

[0007]

8. This goes up and down like a yo yo. My feeling about capital punishment

have also changed through my 75 years of living.

[Bake]

9. Mississippi has an execution scheduled for today

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071030/NEWS/710300367

Convicted killer Earl Wesley Berry's final request to halt his execution remained unanswered by the nation's high court Monday as Mississippi continued preparations to put him to death tonight.

Attorneys for Berry and the state expected a ruling on his appeal before his 6 p.m. execution at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a separate appeal filed on his behalf by the Mississippi Office of Capital Post Convictions Counsel. That appeal challenged the state Supreme Court's ruling against Berry. But the higher court said it was restricted by state legal procedures that it can't change.

The ruling came hours after Berry's attorneys filed another appeal seeking to overturn a lower federal court's decision.

Berry, 48, confessed to killing Mary Bounds of Houston almost 20 years ago. The 56-year-old was reported missing on Nov. 29, 1987. She was beaten to death after leaving her weekly church choir practice, and her body was found in Chickasaw County.


Bake

[Lautremont]

10. This will irritate DU's "I'm against capital punishment except

in the case of this particular monster whose crime has pushed my easily-triggered emotional buttons" crowd.

[johnp]

12. Just wondering

Do you think what happened to Saddam Hussein, getting executed; do you think that was justified? I mean he was responsible for 1000's of deaths too.

[Lautremont]

13. I don't think anyone should be executed. nt