Dec. 15 USA: Capital punishment opponents say death penalty is 'on the defensive' An organization working to end the death penalty in the United States released a report yesterday showing that while state governments have put 59 people to death so far this year, the numbers of both death sentences and executions are steadily declining. In its annual year-end report looking at capital punishment statistics and policies, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) found that the number of people sentenced to death in the US has been cut in half since 1990. The group also projects a 10 % decrease in the number of executions from last 2003 to 2004. "The events of the past year and the statistical evidence all point in one direction," said Richard Dieter, executive director of DPIC, in a press statement. "The publics confidence in the death penalty has seriously eroded over the past several years. Because of so many failures, the death penalty is rightly on the defensive." While DPIC cited growing public skepticism over the fairness of the death penalty -- five people were exonerated this year and 117 have been proved innocent since its reinstatement in 1976 -- others attributed the decline to lower violent crime rates and state budget deficiencies. But DPIC also pointed out several changes on the policy level that affect capital punishment. This year the New York Supreme Court found that states death penalty statute unconstitutional, New Jersey has put all of its executions on hold due to questions about method, and California lawmakers have asked for a study on the matter. At the federal level, the US Supreme Court agreed this year to consider whether putting juveniles to death is constitutional and the US Congress passed the Innocence Protection Act to help those convicted obtain DNA testing, competent legal services, and if proved innocent, compensation for unjust incarceration. (source: The NewStandard) ****************************************** USA Executions 2004 (as of 11/17/04) 2004 Overall Date Name State Method -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 886 01/06/04 Ynobe Matthews TX Lethal Injection 2 887 01/06/04 Charles Singleton AR Lethal Injection 3 888 01/09/04 Raymond Rowsey NC Lethal Injection 4 889 01/13/04 Tyrone Darks OK Lethal Injection 5 890 01/14/04 Lewis Williams OH Lethal Injection 6 891 01/14/04 Kenneth Bruce TX Lethal Injection 7 892 01/21/04 Kevin Zimmerman TX Lethal Injection 8 893 01/28/04 Billy Vickers TX Lethal Injection 9 894 02/03/04 John Glenn Roe OH Lethal Injection 10 895 02/04/04 Johnny Robinson FL Lethal Injection 11 896 02/11/04 Edward Lagrone TX Lethal Injection 12 897 02/12/04 Bobby Ray Hopkins TX Lethal Injection 13 898 02/17/04 Norman Cleary OK Lethal Injection 14 899 02/17/04 Todd Willingham TX Lethal Injection 15 900 03/03/04 Marcus Cotton TX Lethal Injection 16 901 03/09/04 David Jan Brown OK Lethal Injection 17 902 03/18/04 Brian Lee Cherrix VA Lethal Injection 18 903 03/19/04 David Hill SC Lethal Injection 19 904 03/23/04 Hung Tranh Le OK Lethal Injection 20 905 03/26/04 Lawrence Colwell NV Lethal Injection 21 906 03/30/04 William Wickline OH Lethal Injection 22 907 03/31/04 Dennis Orbe VA Lethal Injection 23 908 04/16/04 Jerry McWee SC Lethal Injection 24 909 04/23/04 Jason Byram SC Lethal Injection 25 910 05/18/04 Kelsey Patterson TX Lethal Injection 26 911 05/26/04 John Blackwelder FL Lethal Injection 27 912 05/28/04 James Tucker SC Electric Chair 28 913 06/08/04 William Zuern OH Lethal Injection 29 914 06/08/04 Robert Bryan OK Lethal Injection 30 915 06/17/04 Steve Oken MD Lethal Injection 31 916 06/30/04 David Harris TX Lethal Injection 32 917 07/01/04 Robert Karl Hicks GA Lethal Injection 33 918 07/14/04 Stephen Vrabel OH Lethal Injection 34 919 07/19/04 Eddie Crawford GA Lethal Injection 35 920 07/20/04 Scott Mink OH Lethal Injection 36 921 07/22/04 Mark Bailey VA Lethal Injection 37 922 08/05/04 James Hubbard AL Lethal Injection 38 923 08/12/04 Terry Dennis NV Lethal Injection 39 924 08/18/04 James Hudson VA Lethal Injection 40 925 08/25/04 Jasen Busby TX Lethal Injection 41 926 08/26/04 Windel Workman OK Lethal Injection 42 927 08/26/04 James Allridge TX Lethal Injection 43 928 09/09/04 James Reid VA Lethal Injection 44 929 09/21/04 Andrew Flores TX Lethal Injection 45 930 09/30/04 David Hocker AL Lethal Injection 46 931 10/05/04 Edward Green III TX Lethal Injection 47 932 10/06/04 Peter Miniel TX Lethal Injection 48 933 10/09/04 Sammy Perkins NC Lethal Injection 49 934 10/12/04 Donald Aldrich TX Lethal Injection 50 935 10/13/04 Adremy Dennis OH Lethal Injection 51 936 10/20/04 Ricky Morrow TX Lethal Injection 52 937 10/22/04 Charles Roache NC Lethal Injection 53 938 10/26/04 Dominique Green TX Lethal Injection 54 939 11/02/04 Lorenzo Morris TX Lethal Injection 55 940 11/04/04 Robert Morrow TX Lethal Injection 56 941 11/09/04 Demarco McCullum TX Lethal Injection 57 942 11/10/04 Frederick McWilliams TX Lethal Injection 58 943 11/12/04 Frank Chandler NC Lethal Injection 59 944 11/17/04 Anthony Fuentes TX Lethal Injection Methods of execution and numbers executed by that method in the USA are: electrocution (152), firing squad (2), gas chamber (11), hanging (3), and lethal injection (776). (source: Rick Halperin) NEW YORK: Manhattan DA speaks out against the death penalty Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, saying the death penalty drains public resources while doing nothing to deter crime, urged legislators Wednesday to drop efforts to restore capital punishment in New York. Morgenthau, who has never sought death for a defendant, said "capital punishment merely allows proponents to convince themselves that they have done something to fight crime. It is a mirage that distracts society from more fruitful, less facile answers." Speaking at the New York City Bar Association before the state Assembly Standing Committees on Codes, Judiciary and Correction, Morgenthau said "that the death penalty does not deter crime, that it is far more expensive than life imprisonment, that the wrong person can be executed." The state enacted a death penalty law on Sept. 1, 1995, after more than 30 years without one. The Court of Appeals in Albany, the state's highest tribunal, struck down the statute on June 24, 2004, saying it was constitutionally flawed. The court said the jury instructions in capital punishment trials violated the Constitution because they could coerce jurors into voting for death when they did not want to. The decision spared the lives of the four prisoners on death row. Republican Gov. George Pataki campaigned successfully in 1994 against anti-death penalty Gov. Mario Cuomo on the promise to get a death penalty law passed. Pataki has criticized Assembly Democrats in recent months for not addressing a legislative fix, designed to satisfy the Court of Appeals, that he introduced and that the Republican-controlled state Senate has passed. In its application, Morgenthau said, the death penalty "most closely resembles a lottery where the winners are losers. The only honest justification for the death penalty is vengeance." "I urge all of our lawmakers, in the strongest terms, not to reinstate the death penalty in New York," the district attorney said. (source: Newsday)
