By Denny LeBoeuf, Capital Punishment Project at 11:44am
After fifteen years on Louisiana's death row, Damon Thibodeaux was exonerated, the courts finally recognizing his innocence. He has moved to Minneapolis and is getting on with his life.
Damon's birthday and mine are two days apart, and for many years we would "celebrate" together while he was on death row. When I visit him this summer in Minneapolis to carry on our tradition, I expect we will have a MUCH better party.
By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 11:38am
Hooray for Maryland! Expressing concerns about the risk of deadly error, the exorbitant and ever-increasing cost, racial bias and the unending torment of murder victims' family members, today Maryland Governor, Martin O'Malley, signed into law repeal of that state's death penalty. We applaud the legislature and the Governor on their decision to end state-sponsored homicide in Maryland. We are a better nation for it.
Part of a noticeable trend – as Dr. King might say, the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice -- Maryland is the sixth state in six years to repeal the death penalty, joining New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Illinois and Connecticut.
By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 4:09pm
In taking control of Puerto Rico, in 1898, the United States introduced its brand of capital punishment; in 1927, Puerto Rico undertook its last execution; in 1929 it abolished the death penalty. The people wrote "the death penalty shall not exist" into its Constitution in 1952, a decision which was approved by the United States Congress and the President (who, by the way, cannot receive votes from the people of Puerto Rico, given that it's a "nonincorporated territory," inferring fewer rights than the people of territories). The people of this impoverished and proud island agreed long ago that life imprisonment is an appropriately just and harsh punishment for the worst crimes in Puerto Rico; the majority of the people today oppose the death penalty.
An international human rights body is set to question the United States on its obligations under a key human rights treaty. The U.N. Human Rights Committee, an independent body of experts tasked with monitoring compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), this week released its list of issues, which will serve as the basis for its upcoming review of U.S. compliance with the treaty. The U.S. ratified the ICCPR in 1992 and is obligated to submit to periodic reviews of its treaty implementation efforts.
By Brian Stull, ACLU Capital Punishment Project at 11:58am
"A life in Cameron County [Texas] is worth just the same as a life in other parts of the United States."
This pointed sentence came in Judge Elia Corenjo Lopez's 63-page order this week, in which she recommended that former death-row prisoner and ACLU client Manuel Velez be given a whole new trial.
By Brian Stull, ACLU Capital Punishment Project at 10:44am
Welcome to March Madness at the ACLU! We know you usually turn to other sources for this kind of coverage, but we've got something important to add. As you're filling out winning brackets, imagine this scenario: the tournament selection committee decides that squads who fly blue as a team color are three times more likely to be invited to the tournament than non-blue teams. Duke, Kansas, and Michigan are likely in, but say goodbye to most of these powerhouses: Louisville (red & black), Indiana (red & white), Miami (green & orange), and Michigan State (green & white).
One year ago, the ACLU's Amy Fettig stood before the United Nations Human Rights Council to condemn the use of solitary confinement in the United States. In a written statement also submitted to the Council last year, the ACLU expressed serious concern over the imposition of the death penalty across the nation. Sadly, we find ourselves this year once again at the same body, imploring the U.S. to live up to its human rights obligations with regard to these practices.
