Updates from the Capital Punishment Project

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12/18/08 - Death Penalty Information Center Releases 2008 Year End Report on the Death Penalty
The year 2008 saw the lowest number of executions in 14 years, 37, according to the Death Penalty Information Center's 2008 Year End Report on the Death Penalty. Although the murder rate remained approximately constant across the nation, the number of death sentences continued its eight year decline, falling to 111 on the day the report was issued, the lowest number in three decades. The sub-heading of the report reads: "Marginalization of the Death Penalty Deepens With 95% of Executions in the South." All but two of this years executions occurred in southern states. The report emphasizes the economic concerns that are being voiced in death penalty jurisdictions from California to Maryland. The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that unless the legislature comes up with additional funding that death penalty prosecutions would have to be abandoned. The Utah Supreme Court unanimously ruled in November that "Without a sufficient defense, a sentence of death cannot be constitutionally imposed." The DPIC site is the best available resource for facts on the death penalty.

7/1/2007- Indiana State Senate to Study Use of Death Penalty for Mentally Ill Defendants
In Panetti v. Quarterman, the Supreme Court found that a mentally ill person is entitled to Eighth Amendment protection if he does not have a rational understanding of the reason for his execution. The Indiana State Senate is taking that finding a step further to consider whether the death penalty should be considered for mentally ill defendants at all. Read More >>

6/2/2007 - Todd Boggess Found Guilty in 1995 Durham Slaying
Todd Boggess was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in the 1995 slaying of Danny Pence. Boggess was first convicted in 1997 and sentenced to death but the conviction was later overturned by the North Carolina Supreme Court. At the retrial, the prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in part because the victim's mother did not want to monitor the lengthy appeals process associated with capital cases. "It's so sad that someone is going to spend the rest of their life in prison, but it was justice for Danny," the mother, Sharlene Pence, told the judge. "There have been two tragedies; my son has lost his life as well as Todd Boggess." Read More >>

5/22/2007 - Court Upholds Death Penalty for Child Molestation
On May 22, 2007, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Patrick Kennedy for allegedly sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in 2003. Louisiana authorizes the death penalty for aggravated rape of someone less than 12 years old. Although a few other states have the death penalty for child molestation, Louisiana is the only state that has sentenced a person to death for this offense. Many victim rights' groups, national child advocacy organizations and prosecutors oppose this radical expansion of the use of capital punishment.

3/21/2007 - Far Reaching Events in the First Quarter of 2007
Far reaching events in the first quarter of 2007 represent serious efforts to repeal the death penalty in many States across the United States.

In Montana, with enormous efforts of Scott Crichton and the Montana ACLU and after passage of the repeal bill in the Montana Senate, legislation died in State House committee by a single vote. In New Mexico, after passage of a death penalty repeal bill in the New Mexico House, the bill died in Senate committee by one vote. A repeal bill in the Nebraska legislature also failed by one vote on March 20. In each state, the ACLU was actively engaged in the effort. The Maryland repeal bill also died in Senate committee by one vote.

The New Jersey Study Commission has recommended repeal of the death penalty, legislative committees in Colorado have passed repeal legislation, and there are serious repeal efforts underway in Connecticut.

By our count, seven states — Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey and New Mexico have dealt with or will deal with the death penalty debate. Many of these decisions were lost by one vote. Just one vote in these forums would have advanced the demise of the death penalty not only in those states but in the country.

The ACLU Capital Punishment Project energetically continues its public education goals to deliver the knockout blow to the death penalty in the U.S. We cannot take a single vote for granted.

2/20/2007 - Supreme Court Shortens Filing Deadlines for Death-Row Inmates
On February 20, 2007, in a 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court significantly shortened the amount of time that death-row inmates have to challenge their convictions and death sentences in federal court. (See Lawrence v. Florida, __ U.S. __, No. 05-8820). The Court also held that death-row inmates must forfeit their right to file a federal habeas petition if their state-appointed and state-monitored attorneys miss the filing deadline.

Death-row inmates are often poor and uneducated, and many (like Mr. Lawrence) are mentally impaired. Holding death-row inmates responsible for their lawyers' errors is to ignore reality and is fundamentally unfair.

The result of decisions like Lawrence is the unacceptable risk of executing a person who is innocent or whose trial was unconstitutional without a federal judge ever considering the case.

1/18/2007 - N.C. Medical Board Deems Physician Participation in Executions Unethical
On January 18, 2007, the North Carolina Medical Board voted unanimously to approve a policy that would declare physician participation in executions unethical, but still allows physicians to observe of executions. This conflicts with the policy of the American Medical Association, that both participation and observation are unethical.

1/9/2007 - Poll Finds Minority of Pennsylvanians Support Death Penalty
The Penn State poll released on January 9, 2007 establishes that more Pennsylvanians prefer long incarceration sentences rather than the death penalty even for the worse murders. Read more >> (off-site, ACLU of Pennsylvania)

1/4/2007 - Texas Victim Rights' Groups, Prosecutors, Oppose Death for Repeat Child Molesters
Victim rights' groups and prosecutors in Texas have come out against a bill currently pending in the state's legislature that would authorize the death penalty for repeat child molesters, according to a story in the Dallas Morning News.

1/2/2007 - N.J. Commission Calls for Repeal of Death Penalty
On January 2, 2007, the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission called on the Governor and the Legislature to repeal the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Read the report >> (off-site)