April 13
NEW YORK:
Gangster Executed for Assassination Ordered by Dirty Cop
Harry 'Gyp the Blood' Horowitz was infamous for his penchant for violence;
asked why he threw bombs into people's windows, he would say: 'Because I like
the noise dey make.'
On April 13, 1915, Harry Horowitz, a dapper New York gangster better known as
"Gyp the Blood," died in the electric chair at Sing Sing for his part in the
sensational 1912 murder of gambling boss Herman Rosenthal. The same day, 3
other men who were convicted of participating with Horowitz in the July 16,
1912, shooting of Rosenthal also met their deaths in the chair.
The Rosenthal murder case was one of the most dramatic and sensational criminal
affairs of the early 20th century. Not that much sympathy was lost on "Beansie"
Rosenthal, who ran a number of illicit casinos in New York. But shortly before
he was shot dead in the street, outside the Metropole Hotel, on West 43rd St.,
Rosenthal had very loudly accused Lt. Charles Becker, the head of the police
vice squad, of being on the take, and running his business into the ground with
his extortionate demands.
So incensed was Rosenthal that he had invited representatives of the New York
press corps to listen to his charges; in the wake of his accusations, he was
scheduled to appear before a grand jury the following day. His brazen
assassination just hours before that appearance could not help but be
interpreted as an attempt to silence him.
According to witnesses, four men were present when Rosenthal was shot, and they
quickly jumped into an automobile that was waiting for them - what has been
called the first use of a getaway vehicle in a gangland shooting. Besides
Horowitz, they were Jacob Seidenshner (known as "Whitey Lewis"), Francisco
Cirofici ("Dago Frank"), and Louis Rosenberg ("Lefty Louie").
Horowitz was their leader, the head of a low-level criminal organization in
East Harlem that called itself the Lenox Ave. Gang, which specialized in fairly
straightforward street crime. They were in turn subordinate to Jack Zelig, the
boss of the more sophisticated, downtown Eastman Gang.
Harry Horowitz was probably born in 1889, in New York's Lower East Side. The
first part of his alias, "Gyp," referred to his swarthy complexion, which
supposedly made him resemble a Gypsy, while "the Blood" was a slang term
referring to his natty sartorial style, rather than to his infamous penchant
for violence.
Horowitz was known for taking, and winning, $2 bets from people who didn't
believe his claim that he could break a man's back over his knee. His most
cited quotation, possibly apocryphal, was the response he gave to someone who
once asked him why he threw bombs into people's windows: "Because I like the
noise dey make."
According to the story that came together in the months following the murder,
Lt. Becker had turned to Jack Zelig to get the talkative Rosenthal out of the
way, and Zelig assigned the mission to Horowitz and his team. Seidenshner and
Cirofici were both picked up within days of the killing, but Horowitz and Lefty
Louie Rosenberg remained on the lam for 2 months, when they were finally
arrested while hiding out in a Queens apartment.
Although the defendants all claimed that they hadn't been at the Metropole, and
that as far as they knew, Rosenthal had been whacked by someone they could only
identify as "Itsky," Gyp, Lefty Louis, Frank the Dago and Whitey Lewis were all
convicted on October 12, 1912, and sentenced to death.
A last-minute appeal to the governor of New York for a reprieve fell on deaf
ears, and the sentence was carried out on this day in 1914. According to the
New York Times, when Joseph Horowitz, Harry's father, an observant Jew,
received word that the governor had denied the request for a reprieve, he cried
out, "The Passover week!" Indeed, April 13 turned out to be the 3rd day of the
Pesach festival in 1915.
As for Becker, he too was convicted of murder, and although his conviction was
overturned on procedural grounds, he was convicted in a 2nd trial, and
sentenced to death. When he was electrocuted on August 2, 1915 - having
protested his innocence to the very end - he was the 1st police officer in
American in history to be given the death penalty.
(source: Ha'aretz)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Attorney asks US court to bar death penalty from Ross retrial
A defense attorney for Paul Aaron Ross, facing retrial for the 2004 murder of a
Hollidaysburg woman, has asked the U.S. District Court in Johnstown to bar the
death penalty.
(source: Altoona Mirror)
VIRGINIA:
Virginia's changing death row
Many states in our country have been facing a dilemma that involves death row.
Many prisons that perform the death penalty have been unable to obtain the
ingredients needed for the lethal cocktail, which is the preferred method of
euthanasia now.
Pharmacies and other labs have recently been refusing to sell the necessary
chemicals because their names have been released, and they have since faced
harsh protests.
State legislators have proposed a bill insisting that the electric chair be
used when the lethal injection is not an option; however, our Governor Terry
McAuliffe denied that request.
Instead, he proposed that we keep the names of the pharmacies and labs
completely secret. Genius! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? Oh wait,
they have.
Many states have adopted similar laws and have been in court ever since due to
some people believing that pharmacies should not be allowed to have complete
exemption from the Freedom of Information laws, etc.
Basically those who oppose the death penalty feel the need to place the blame
somewhere, so they place it on the pharmaceutical companies instead of the
inmate who has clearly committed some sort of heinous crime.
McAuliffe has tweeted since that this is the "best path forward."
At least the man is not trying to ban the death penalty like you know he wants
to.
I think I may have an easier solution though. Bullets or the old fashion
electric chair are quicker, more effective and cheaper to the state.
I already have a problem with supporting those who have received the death
penalty, and I find it offensive that the state has to pay even more for these
drugs that aren't even being made readily available to them anymore.
When someone is put to death via the lethal injection, death occurs usually 7
minutes after the initial dose of anesthetic. 7 minutes is a long time, when we
could literally place them in a chair, strap electric nodules to their skull
and leg and be done in milliseconds.
Better yet and even cheaper, let a firing squad take care of it, and the deed
will be done within seconds as well.
Virtually every state that has the death penalty primarily uses lethal
injection. Some states let the prisoner have the option between the injection
and hanging, injection and chair, injection and firing squad, etc.
When a state cannot obtain the drugs needed for the lethal injection, many
death row inmates' death dates are long past, and they are just living the good
life in prison. I would use another method then and there to ensure the victims
and families of the victims get justice.
I just think there are quicker, cheaper and more efficient ways that we can
carry out the death penalty, and a lot of times people forget about the
horrific crimes that landed these people in this position.
They didn't make their victims' deaths easy and pain free, so why should the
state be so worried about making their time of death as easy and painless as
possible?
(source: Opinion, Amanda Long; yourgv.com)
NORTH CAROLINA:
NC jury deliberates in trial of suspected MS-13 gang members
A jury continued deliberation in the trial of 4 alleged MS-13 gang members
Tuesday. In federal court, the jury requested to watch the video of police
interviewing Miguel Zelaya, who is accused of killing Jose Orlando Ibarra in
December 2013.
The video, in which Zelaya tells investigators about his gun, was first
presented last week to the jurors.
Zelaya is looking at the death penalty for murder in the aid of racketeering.
He has also been charged with the use of a firearm in a crime of violence.
The jury began deliberating Friday afternoon. Monday they asked a question
about the firearm charge.
The jury is reviewing the evidence presented in the cases of 4 men.
Jorge Sosa is charged with attempted murder and RICO conspiracy charges. Luis
Ordonez Vega's most serious charge is murder in the aid of racketeering.
Investigators say Ordonez Vega killed Noel Navarro Hernandez in June 2014.
William Gavidia is facing RICO conspiracy charges.
Last year, 37 alleged MS-13 gang members were indicted on racketeering
conspiracy charges, according to Jill Westmoreland Rose, acting U.S. Attorney
for the Western District of North Carolina.
The majority of the people rounded up in May 2015 have pleaded guilty to
conspiracy charges. The FBI, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) and
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were involved in the arrests. A
few of those arrested were witnesses in the trial.
Investigators are still looking for 3 fugitives: Miriam Barilles-Escamilla,
Luis Villalta, and Salvador Ruiz.
(source: WNCN news)
**************
Joe Freeman Britt, Called America's 'Deadliest D.A.,' Dies at 80
His family confirmed his death but did not specify the cause.
As the district attorney for Robeson and Scotland Counties from 1974 to 1988,
Mr. Britt oversaw cases that led to more than 40 death sentences. Only 2 of the
defendants were executed - appeals court rulings led to many altered sentences,
and some suspects were later exonerated - but his courtroom record ranked him
at one point among the country's most prolific advocates for capital
punishment.
"What is the most precious right that any of us have?" Mr. Britt asked in 1985.
"The right to live. We all have that right, unless we forfeit it by our
conduct."
Mr. Britt, who opposed the death penalty as a college student, was an
extraordinarily effective prosecutor. Guinness World Records, in naming him the
"deadliest prosecutor" in 1978, noted that he had obtained nearly 2 dozen death
sentences in 28 months.
At 6 feet 6 inches, Mr. Britt was a thundering, theatrical presence in the
courtrooms of eastern North Carolina. Before juries, and to the consternation
of defense lawyers, Mr. Britt was prone to riffs of flamboyant oratory that he
augmented with props like the bloodied clothing of a victim. In at least one
case, he raised a Bible and recited Scripture that he said supported the death
penalty.
"You've got to use every argument in your arsenal because you never know what's
going to convince a jury," Mr. Britt told United Press International during his
final term as district attorney.
Joe Freeman Britt Sr. was born on July 22, 1935. He enlisted in the Army,
retiring from the Reserve as a colonel. He completed undergraduate studies at
Wake Forest University and earned a graduate degree at the University of
Tennessee.
He received his North Carolina law license in August 1963, soon after he
received his law degree from Stetson University in Florida. He was appointed
district attorney in 1974 and subsequently elected 4 times, after which he
became a Superior Court judge.
Mr. Britt's candidacy for the court seat was not without controversy. His
opponent, a Native American, died in what the authorities concluded was a
domestic dispute. The death essentially guaranteed a victory for Mr. Britt, and
it prompted a period of unease and suspicion. Investigators, however, never
accused Mr. Britt or his supporters of wrongdoing.
Mr. Britt retired in 2006 after a stint in private practice, and he remained a
stern critic of the people he prosecuted. Months after forensic evidence led to
the exoneration and release of 2 death row prisoners in 2014, Mr. Britt was
unbowed.
"There is no doubt in my mind that they're not innocent, that they're not
entitled to a pardon and that they're not entitled to compensation by the
taxpayers," he said in an interview in March 2015, adding, "You don't devote
your whole life to the courtroom unless you believe that truth should prevail."
He is survived by his wife, Marylyn; 2 children, Joe Jr. and Natalie; and 4
grandchildren.
(source: New York Times)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Dylann Roof Death Penalty Trial Delay? Accused Charleston Church Shooter's
Attorneys Request More Time
The defense attorneys for alleged Charleston, South Carolina, church shooter
Dylann Roof have asked a state judge for a delay in the death penalty trial,
according to the Associated Press. The judge in the case is expected to make a
decision on the request Wednesday.
Roof is charged with nine counts of murder in last year's killing of 9
worshippers participating in a Bible study at the historic black Emanuel
African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The defense attorneys argue they don't have enough time to mount a proper
defense with the current state trial date of July 11. Circuit Judge J.C.
Nicholson set the trial date last summer, allowing both the prosecution and
defense less than a year to prepare. The 600-person jury pool is slated to
report June 28 for initial screenings, while the questioning/seating of
individual jurors is set for July 11.
The defense attorneys have not requested a specific new date for the trial,
rather saying they needed "additional time for adequate preparation," according
to the Charleston Post and Courier.
(source: ibtimes.com)
OHIO:
Ohio House passes 'Justin's Law'----Measure named after slain Warren County
teen allows tougher murder penalties.
The Ohio House of Representatives passed House Bill 57, also known as 'Justin's
Law," on Tuesday.
The law was named for Justin Back, an 18-year-old Warren County man, murdered
in 2014 by 2 teens from Montgomery County.
The law would expand the eligibility for a judge to grant parole for offenders
found guilty of aggravated murder. Currently, judges can grant parole after 20,
25 or 30 years, whereas HB 57 would add parole eligibility after 35, 40, 45, 50
or 55 years.
House Bill 57 also expands the list of aggravated circumstances under which
murders committed "purposely and with prior calculation and design" are
classified as aggravated murders.
Under current law, such murders are not eligible for a death penalty sentence.
The new law also permits such cases to be considered for capital punishment.
The legislation was introduced by State Rep. Ron Maag (R-Salem Twp.)
Maag was approached by a Back's mother, Sandy Cates, who was concerned her
son's 19-year-old murderers could be released by the time they turned 44 years
old. In Back's case, Justin Myers was sentenced to the death penalty and
Timothy Mosley a life sentence.
The legislation now goes to the Ohio Senate for consideration.
(source: Dayton Daily News)
***********
Denison announces Class of 2016 commencement speaker
With the class of 2016's graduation only about a month away, Denison has
officially chosen Sister Helen Prejean as the keynote speaker for the 175th
Commencement Ceremony. Prejean has made great efforts to bring the death
penalty into dialogue and she travels globally giving talks about her ministry.
Along with her significant work with the Catholic Church, she has lectured at
Denison as a featured speaker in the college's Spectrum Series, as well as
joining various classes, engaging with students and faculty.
President Adam Weinberg said, "Sister Helen Prejean has inspired Denison
students and faculty through her work with the disadvantaged, the voiceless and
the powerless.
Her remarkable commitment to civic responsibility is a terrific example of the
difference 1 person can make."
Prejean's address to the graduates and their families is titled, "Dead Man
Walking: The Journey Continues."
PJ Fallon '16 said "It's always fun anticipating, and ultimately finding out,
who the college will bring in as the commencement speaker.
I think Sister Prejean is a greatly unique choice, and whether you're religious
or not, will offer an insightful perspective that aligns with Denisonians being
discerning moral agents."
"I'm excited to see what she has to say, and will no doubt pose our graduating
class with a great challenge. What that challenge is, I guess we'll have to
wait and see."
During Prejean's time spent working at the Hope House in New Orleans from 1981
to 1984, she was asked to correspond with death row inmate Patrick Sonnier.
She later became his spiritual adviser, and after witnessing his execution she
wrote a book about her experience called Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness
Account of the Death Penalty in the United States. In the United States, this
book was number 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List for 31 weeks, was an
international bestseller and has been translated into 10 different languages.
Since being exposed to a death row inmate, Prejean has dedicated her time to
educating citizens about the death penalty and counseling individual death row
inmates, more specifically accompanying 6 men to their deaths.
The accounts with these 6 men lead to The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness
Account of Wrongful Executions, her 2nd book, released in 2004.
Audrey McPartlin '16 said, "She's a really inspiring woman, leading the fight
against the death penalty, an archaic and inhumane practice that continues to
thrive in the United States, one of the few industrialized countries in the
world that continues to use it in the law and practice."
"Not only is she helping to redefine a religious or spiritual perspective on
the issue, but she encourages love and empathy in people wherever she goes,"
said McPartlin.
Each year the college broadens its horizon with thought provoking speakers, who
dedicate their lives to changing, and bettering the world we live in.
With Prejean's past work with the Denison community, she will offer our
community a fresh view on spirituality, the death penalty, and the poor of New
Orleans, who she has worked so closely with.
All students attending graduation are strongly encouraged to delve deeper into
her work by visiting her website, http://www.sisterhelen.org.
(source: The Denisonian)
CALIFORNIA:
Brutal murder spurs sister's advocacy
Serial killer Leonard Lake wrote Ohio native Paul Steven Costner provided the
1st resistance he and partner Charles Ng encountered in their years of robbery,
torture and murder.
The admission was made in a diary found after Lake committed suicide while in
police custody in June 1985.
Cosner, originally of Reynoldsburg, eventually established a California car
dealership, according to his sister, Sharon Sellitto, of Granville.
Sharon followed Paul west. She was still living there when her brother
disappeared from his apartment the night of Nov. 2, 1984.
Paul's disappearance - his body remains missing, believed buried in a grave
somewhere in Calaveras County - placed his sister on a decades-long quest
fighting for victim's rights.
This week marks National Crime Victims' Rights Week. Sharon, who spent years
lobbying in California to enhance victims' rights, feels more should be done to
mark the occasion "than just stringing a banner in a gazebo."
Sharon said, "There are no rights for victims. At the beginning, it's all about
the perpetrator and their rights, all the way through. The perpetrator has 3
hots and a cot, but your loved one and you have nothing. Surviving family
members should reach out and insist on their rights. If the people they go to
don't help them, then you go over their heads.:
When Sharon tried to file a missing person's report within hours of Paul's
death, she met resistance and derision from police who said he'd probably gone
off with a woman.
Sharon said she and Paul's girlfriend - who lived in the same complex, 1 floor
below Paul - dug through his closet, trying to determine what he was wearing
when he left the apartment to provide a better missing person's description.
As Sharon and Paul's girlfriend talked, a picture of what might have happened
to Paul emerged.
Paul had been talking to a potential buyer for his car, an unusually colored
orange-gold 1980 Honda Prelude. "It was the only year in decades that Honda
made that color," Sharon said, next reciting from memory plate number, "592
ZWX."
She said a man named Leonard Lake came to Paul on Halloween night 1984, and
took a test drive. The night of his disappearance, Lake and Charles Ng came to
his place and Paul buzzed them in, Sharon said. She said Paul told his
girlfriend, "Oh that weird guy is coming over to buy the car."
His girlfriend actually called Paul while the pair are believed to have been in
his apartment. In retrospect, she came to believe Paul was trying to signal her
something about the meeting was going wrong.
Sharon said it was the prospect of a stolen car that finally got police moving.
"The police finally took an interest in a $5,000 car missing rather than a
missing person."
She eventually hired a private investigator to whom she paid thousands of
dollars with no results. She also maintained her brother's apartment, paying
its rent because, "I didn't know if he wouldn't return."
Seizing on the interest the stolen car generated, Sharon said, "I reported his
car stolen every 28 days so it was always on the hot sheets that are put front
of the police. That's why they caught the bastards."
Lake, a survivalist, pornographer and gun enthusiast, was arrested after it was
realized that Lake's license plates were registered to another car.
Sharon said, "They (Lake and Ng) took him at gunpoint from his building. Paul
is the only victim Lake wrote about in his diary. He said, 'We met resistance
for the 1st time.'"
"They had pre-dug a hole to bury him," Sharon said. "They killed him for that
car, and called him a 'fat cat' in the diary and tried to make him withdraw
money from the bank, but he wouldn't do it."
While in custody, Lake asked for a glass of water, then bit into the collar of
his shirt, where he'd sewn a cyanide pill in case he was ever captured, Sharon
said.
Charles Ng was eventually deported from Canada to which he'd fled and was in
jail for "shooting a man in the finger," Sharon said.
Ng's been on San Quentin???s death row since 1999.
Together, Lake and Ng are believed to have killed between 11 and 25 people.
Several female victims were taken to a bunker on Lake's remote ranch where
their rapes and killings were video-taped by the pair.
When Paul's Honda was eventually recovered, there were bullet holes in the head
rest, the door and the radio.
"They drove a 150 miles with a dead and bleeding person to Calaveras County and
buried him up at Lake's property," Sharon said.
Recently, she's been in touch with experts after reading about a new search
technique involving the use flora and fauna to assist in locating unmarked
graves.
Her biggest regret, she says, is her mother didn't live to see Paul's body
recovered and returned to Ohio.
After years of advocacy in California, once Ng was convicted and sentenced to
death, Sharon returned to Ohio and settled in Granville so her tax dollars
wouldn't contribute to the care and feeding of her brother's killer.
She remains committed to finding Paul. "I've gone to psychics, I've sent his
toothbrush to Chicago ... I've tried everything. Finding him would mean
everything to me."
While it was considered offering Ng a deal for more information regarding his
crimes, Sharon said the family members of victims staunchly refused to take the
death penalty off the table. "He killed babies, killed whole families."
As the family member of a crime victim, Sharon said, "You sure learn a lot.
When Paul first disappeared and I started to get into the victims' movement,
San Quentin had a stinking trailer in the middle of the yard for death row
inmates to have conjugal visits. We got that taken care of. We changed a lot of
laws in California."
She said, "Fighting for victims' rights has to do with giving Paul's death some
positive meaning, instead of him just being a victim of crime who nobody cared
about."
In addition to her continuing efforts to support victim's rights - and the
ongoing effort to return her brother's remains to Ohio - Sharon's other goal is
seeing Ng put to death.
She's promised notification if and when a date for execution is finally set.
"I want Charles Ng dead by injection," she says. "I've been on death row, been
in a gas chamber and sat in the chair, while I was doing that, I was picturing
Ng in there."
When the time finally comes, she vows to witness his death. "I'll be there if I
have to go in a wheelchair."
(source: Newark Advocate)
*****************
Prostitute Testifies Against Oakland Man Facing Death Penalty
A veteran prostitute testified Tuesday that a man charged with 2 counts of
murder for the fatal shootings of an 8-year-old girl in Oakland and a
22-year-old man in Berkeley in separate shootings in 2013 told her that he had
killed the girl and wanted to kill the man.
Laquana Nuno, 30, said she met 25-year-old Darnell Williams of Oakland after
reputed gang member Jermaine Davis, 26, who was her boyfriend, was fatally shot
in the 1800 block of Derby Street in Berkeley at about 6:52 p.m. on July 17,
2013.
Prosecutor John Brouhard told jurors in his opening statement 2 weeks ago that
Williams had been a close friend of Davis and carried out a shooting at an
apartment in the 3400 block of Wilson Street at about 11:15 p.m. that night
that claimed the life of 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine in retaliation for Davis'
death.
Brouhard said Williams believed Davis had been killed by Antiown York and he
fired shots into the apartment on Wilson Street because York's ex-girlfriend,
the mother of York's children, lived there.
The mother wasn't home when Williams opened fire but Williams fired 13 shots
that struck Alaysha, York's 2 young children and their grandmother, according
to Brouhard.
Brouhard also alleged that Williams fatally shot Anthony Medearis in the 1400
block of Eighth Street in Berkeley in an unrelated incident at about 5:45 p.m.
on Sept. 8, 2013, because he thought that Medearis had "snitched" about
Williams' involvement in a previous robbery.
Brouhard said Williams also wanted to rob Medearis, who he confronted at a dice
game, because he was out of money.
Nuno, who has dyed blonde hair and was wearing a gray sweatshirt, said Williams
told her that he wanted "revenge" for Davis' death and admitted that he carried
out the shooting that claimed Alaysha's life.
Nuno said that she began working as a prostitute at the age of 13 because she
didn't have any other way of earning money after she left home and said that
after Davis was killed, a mutual friend, Joe Carroll, introduced her to
Williams so he could be her "protector."
Carroll, who was Davis' cousin, also was charged with murder for Alaysha's
death but the charges against him were later dismissed because of a lack of
evidence.
Nuno said Williams told her he wanted to kill Medearis "because he was a snitch
and didn't like him."
Nuno said she told Williams that it was "stupid" to try to kill Medearis. She
said that the day before Medearis was fatally shot she rescued him from a
potentially fatal encounter with Williams by giving Medearis a ride home.
But Nuno said Williams persisted with his plan to kill Medearis and called her
to ask for a ride after he carried out the crime because he didn't have a car
and wanted to flee the area.
Nuno said she picked up Williams near the shooting scene but after a short
period he jumped out of her car in an attempt to flee from police, although
officers arrested him nearby a short time later.
She said she drove for another block and a half but then got out of her car and
ran away. Nuno was arrested several weeks later and was also charged with
murder for helping Williams try to flee after Medearis was killed.
But on Dec. 12, 2013, prosecutors agreed to allow Nuno to plead guilty to the
lesser charge of being an accessory after the fact and promised her a light
sentence if she testifies truthfully against Williams.
Williams' lead attorney, Deborah Levy, told jurors in her opening statement
that Nuno and Williams' former girlfriend, Britney Rogers, who testified 2
weeks ago, aren't credible because they are prostitutes.
"These women are not believable," she said.
But Nuno said she told authorities about Williams statements to her about his
plan to kill Medearis because, "I just want to get this over and be truthful
about the whole situation."
She said, "I didn't want him (Williams) to do it (kill Medearis)." Nuno said
she's "haunted" by Medearis' death and has received threats for testifying
against Williams, who has a prior conviction for assault with a semiautomatic
firearm.
The prosecution is seeking the death penalty for Williams, who faces 2 counts
of murder for the deaths of Alaysha and Medearis, 3 counts of attempted murder
for the shooting on July 17, 2013, assault with a semi-automatic firearm for
accidentally shooting his nephew in the face in the Berkeley incident and 2
counts of being an ex-felon in possession of a gun.
Williams also faces 3 special circumstance allegations: committing multiple
murders, lying in wait in the shooting that claimed Alaysha's life and killing
Medearis during the course of an attempted robbery.
(source: CBS news)
USA:
Time's Up on the Death Penalty----Capital punishment is barely used anymore,
and should be repealed
A recent analysis of last year's data on the death penalty worldwide brought
news of 2 opposing trends: while 2015 saw a disturbing surge in executions
globally, here in the United States executions and death sentences both reached
historic lows.
The United States remained among the top 5 executing countries in the world,
but the data also showed that despite the increase in executions globally, in
2015 the United States was responsible for the fewest number of death sentences
since 1977, and the fewest executions since 1991. Those executions that did
occur were isolated to just 6 states.
There was an even more dramatic data point: for the 1st time ever, a majority
of U.S. states - 27, to be exact - have either abolished the death penalty or
simply have not carried out executions for a decade or more.
While it's true that the majority of states still have the death penalty on the
books, what we have seen in recent years is a growing uneasiness about actually
implementing it. And with good reason: the system of capital punishment is
simply unworkable.
Some of these states have gone decades, even more than 1/2 a century, without
an execution. New Hampshire's last execution was in 1939, and Kansas hasn't put
a prisoner to death since 1965. Here, the death penalty has simply fallen away
as communities have come to the conclusion that they don't need to resort to
such extremes in the name of justice.
Yet only 18 states have formally abolished the practice; views in other states
remain deeply divided. In some, state officials still try to resume executions
but are unable to find a workable system that complies with the Constitution's
eighth amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment.
This should not come as a surprise. Though only 13 % of the U.S. population is
black, African-Americans make up 42 % of those on death row. Of the 28
prisoners put to death in the U.S. in 2015, 60 % were either black or Hispanic,
groups that make up less than 30 % of the U.S. population. Some cases remain
mired in claims that racism led to unfair verdicts. Some of those executed
contended they suffered from intellectual disability - like Warren Hill,
executed by Georgia despite 7 mental health experts agreeing with his claim. In
Virginia, Salvadoran national Alfredo Prieto was put to death in defiance of
international law.
We've also seen the execution process itself go horribly wrong. Several states
have carried out executions described as "botched," in which human beings were
subjected to unthinkable agony before dying. Some states have responded by
putting executions on hold because they just can't find a "humane" way to kill
a human being.
The majority of countries of the world have already abolished capital
punishment. By stubbornly holding on to the death penalty, the United States
undermines its claim that it stands for human rights. There can be no
"improving the system" - the system is broken beyond repair and must be
abandoned once and for all.
Which is why all 50 states and the federal government must repeal capital
punishment. The trend of diminishing use of the death penalty in the United
States has held strong for years and shows no signs of abating. In more than
half of U.S. states, the system has either been abolished or has ground to a
halt.
(source: James Clark is the senior campaigner on the death penalty at Amnesty
International USA----US News & World Report)
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