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Death Penalty Update (7/27/2004)
DEATH PENALTY UPDATE: JULY 23, 2004
A Publication of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project
Contents
I. News
1. Amicus Briefs Filed In Support Of Ending Juvenile Death Penalty
2. North Carolina Moratorium Efforts Wrap-Up
Action Alert
1. Don't Fix NY's Flawed Death Penalty, Abolish It
Upcoming Executions
Employment & Volunteer Opportunities
1. Soros Justice Fellowships
Resources
1. NBC To Air Award Winning Documentary 'Deadline', July 30th
2. Study Finds High Risk Of Error In Eyewitness Identification
3. Death Penalty Information Center Offers New Useful Web Resources
Featured Events
1. Washington, DC Phone Banking on NY Abolition Efforts, July 27th
2. World Congress Against the Death Penalty, Montreal, October 6-9th
3. National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Annual Conference, Washington, DC October 14-17th
4. National Weekend of Faith in Action on the Death Penalty: October 22-24th
We need your help
We want to continue to build the list of people (currently thousands of national and international subscribers) receiving this bi-weekly Death Penalty Update, an excellent overview of death penalty news stories, scheduled executions, and new resources. Please take a minute to let your colleagues, friends, and family members know that they can now subscribe simply by sending an email to dpupdate@dcaclu.org and type and include your name, city, state and any experience working on the death penalty or special interests.
News
Amicus Briefs Filed In Support Of Ending Juvenile Death Penalty (July 22, 2004)
A number of organizations representing scientific, international, religious, child advocacy and other communities along with prominent individuals including former U.S. Diplomats and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, have filed amicus briefs expressing their opposition to the juvenile death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to weigh the constitutionality of the death penalty for juvenile offenders in Roper v. Simmons this fall. The Missouri Supreme Court overturned Christopher Simmons death sentence in August 2003 on the grounds that it violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In their friend-of-the-court-briefs, lawyers for Simmons along with a large number of organizations have asked the Supreme Court to uphold the lower court's decision.
National leading medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, National Mental Health Association, along with many others submitted briefs. Because adolescents cannot reason or control their behavior as well as adults, these organizations maintain that juveniles should not be held to the same level of culpability.
Briefs filed from organizations in the United States include nearly 30 religious organizations, an overwhelming number of child advocacy groups, and a number of legal organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association.
The Simmons Briefs are available at:
http://www.abanet.org/crimjust /juvjus/simmons/simmonsamicus
Learn More About The Juvenile Death Penalty http://www.deathpenaltyinfo .org/article.php?did=205&scid =27
North Carolina Moratorium Efforts Wrap-Up (July 21, 2004, From People of Faith Against the Death Penalty)
The NC General Assembly adjourned last Sunday morning at dawn and did not take up the bill for a moratorium on executions. The bill is dead.
The disappointment we all feel is outweighed by our sense of hope for next year. As this legislature ended, we had a solid majority of votes for a moratorium in both the House and the Senate. Overall, the campaign for a moratorium this year involved:
* More than 30 community forums on the need for a moratorium, most featuring exonerees Alan Gell and Darryl Hunt, innocent and exonerated men who together spent 28 years on North Carolina's death row and in prison, and others
* In May, 400 people, including eight busloads, coming to Raleigh from all corners of the state for Moratorium Day, holding meetings with at least 75 lawmakers
* A special statewide poll showing North Carolinians overwhelmingly support a moratorium by a more than 2-1 ratio
* The creation and maintenance of the NC Coalition for a Moratorium's website http://www .ncmoratorium.org/
A special thanks to Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, who stands out from the 2003-2004 session of the legislature as a courageous and steadfast champion of the bill.
We all owe a great debt of thanks to Darryl Hunt and Alan Gell who this time last year were condemned to die in prison by serving life and death sentences respectively. Neither Alan nor Darryl had any obligation to struggle for a moratorium upon their releases this past winter. Let their hope and courage and generosity be an inspiration to us all.
Here's what you can do to help:
(1) Executions will commence soon. Send a note to your legislator thanking him (or her) for his stated support of the bill, if appropriate, and mentioning that the state will likely start poisoning a record number of its prisoners to death soon and that you are counting on his support for the new moratorium bill when the new legislature begins on January 26, 2005.
(2) Visit our website, www.pfadp.org, to join one or two of the listservs listed.
Our deep thanks to all for your support. Onward!
Sincerely,
Aisha, Alan, Bill, Jennifer, Jeremy, John, Lynette, and Steve
-The staff of PFADP and the NC Moratorium Now Campaign
Learn More About People Of Faith Against The Death Penalty http://www.pfadp.org/
North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium http://www.ncmoratorium.org /site/default.asp
ACTION ALERT
If there was ever a time to oppose the death penalty, this is it! This is NY specific, but action from around the country and world is needed!
New York's Court of Appeals effectively suspended the death penalty last month. For now, New York has no death penalty!
Notwithstanding their inability to work together on almost anything else, each of the three most powerful figures in Albany (NY's state capitol) - Governor George Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno - will try to bring the death penalty back to NY with a "quick fix." They already tried once this week, but our calls, emails, and faxes stopped them! They'll try again when they go back in session August 2.
***Please send 5 emails, calls, or faxes before August 2.***
If you've already called, call again.
For more information and ways to take action, visit: http ://www.aclu.org/DeathPenalty/DeathPenalty.cfm?ID=16158&c=17
For additional info: www.nyadp.org
Executions
There have been 36 executions in 2004, and 3 in the past week (Georgia, Ohio, Virginia) The entire list of 2004 executions can be found at http://www.deathpenaltyinfo .org/article.php?scid=8&did =839:
Upcoming Executions
AUGUST
08/01/04 KY Benny Hodge
08/05/04 AL James Hubbard
08/09-13/04 NV Terry Dennis - Abandoned Appeals
08/18/04 VA James Hudson
08/19/04 TN Gregory Thompson - Stayed
08/25/04 TX Jasen Busby
08/26/04 OK Windel Workman
08/26/04 TX James Allridge III
08/26/04 PA Wilfredo Ramos - Stayed
SEPTEMBER
09/21/04 TX Andrew Flores
09/22/04 TN Philip Workman
NCADP Execution Alerts
Employment & Volunteer Opportunities
Soros Justice Fellowships Available
Applications for Soros Justice Advocacy, Senior and Media Fellowships are now being accepted by the Open Society Institute from lawyers, advocates, organizers, scholars, journalists and documentarians seeking to make advancements in criminal justice. The deadline for applicants is September 22, 2004. Proposed work should focus on reducing the nation's over reliance on policies of punishment and incarceration, encouraging the successful resettlement of people returning from prison, eliminating race and class disparities in the criminal justice system, and restoring judicial discretion. More information about the fellowship is available on the 'Open Society Institutes Web site.
Resources
NBC To Air Award-Winning Documentary 'Deadline' On July 30 (DPIC) The award-winning documentary "Deadline," which takes viewers directly into the emotional and legal storm surrounding former Illinois Governor George Ryan's extraordinary decision to commute the death sentences of all those on death row, will air on NBC during a special 2-hour "Dateline" program at 8 p.m. on Friday July 30th. Renowned film critic Roger Ebert notes, "'Deadline' is all the more effective because it is calm, factual and unsensational...It makes an irrefutable argument: Our criminal justice system is so flawed, especially when it deals with the poor and the nonwhite, that we cannot be sure of the guilt of many of those we put to death. George Ryan, not running for re-election, faced that truth and commuted those sentences, and said he could live with his decision."
Read More About 'Deadline'
Study Finds High Risk Of Error In Eyewitness Identification (DPIC) A study conducted by the U.S. Navy and Yale University found that eyewitness testimony is often largely inaccurate, even when victims get a long look at violent criminals, and police and juries may be giving this evidence too much credibility. After a unique study of 509 Navy and Marine officers undergoing high-level and low-level stress during elite hostage survival training at Fort Bragg, N.C., researchers discovered that few of the participating top officers could accurately identify their "interrogators" and "guards" during a line-up conducted 24 hours after the grueling sessions. In fact, officers who were absolutely positive that they had selected the right person were no more likely to be correct than officers who expressed some doubt. "Memory in healthy people is not inherently terribly accurate. There's a substantial amount of error. Maybe we should demand more evidence," said Charles A.. Morgan III, a Yale psychiatrist and lead author of the study. One explanation for these identification errors may be the high levels of hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline that result from stress and may degrade spatial memory. (New Hampshire Register, Science Section, June 21, 2004)
Death Penalty Information Center Offers New Useful Web Resources (DPIC) The Death Penalty Information Center has new Web resources to assist educators and those following recent court developments related to capital punishment:
1) DPIC's revised Educational Curriculum on the Death Penalty is an excellent tool for TEACHERS planning to involve their students in the upcoming national focus on juveniles and the death penalty. See also DPIC's Web page on Roper v. Simmons and an Overview of the Juvenile Death Penalty.
2) The Supreme Court recently added three death penalty cases to its docket for next term. See a summary of the issues in these cases on DPIC's Supreme Court page.
3) DPIC has prepared a summary of the New York Court of Appeals' decision that held the state's death penalty law unconstitutional. See the summary of People v. LaValle.
Additional Resources From DPIC: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo .org/getcat.php?cid=5
Featured Events
Phone Banking in Washington, DC on NY Death Penalty Legislation. Volunteers are needed for Tuesday, July 27th. The calls will be about halting legislative efforts to fix NY's flawed death penalty system and therefore to abolish the death penalty in NY.
This will be the last phone banking session for the summer in Washington, DC, so please come out if you are able. To RSVP for phone banking, and to get more information, contact Josh Noble: jnoble@dcaclu.org, 202-675-2319
If you'd like help setting up a phone banking effort where you live, let us know: jnoble@dcaclu.org
World Congress Against the Death Penalty, Montreal, October 6-9th http://www.montreal2004.org /indexb.php
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Annual Conference, Washington, DC October 14-17th http://www.ncadp.org/2004 _conference_home.html
National Weekend of Faith in Action on the Death Penalty: October 22-24th http://www.amnestyusa.org /abolish/faithinaction_form .html
For past editions of Death Penalty Update, please visit the ACLU online.
2004 death penalty events calendar can be viewed at: <http://www.aclu.org/DeathPenal ty/DeathPenalty.cfm?ID=13387&c =17>.
For additional questions, comments, or feedback: dpupdate@dcaclu.org
© 2004 American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project
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