Texas Statistics

Since my last post on October 24, six men have been executed in Texas. There were three others executed in October and there are eleven more executions scheduled in Texas before the end of March. In total, Texas has executed seventeen since resuming executions in May. If they execute all eleven of those with execution dates set before the end of March, they will have executed twenty eight men in less than a year. For perspective, since the Supreme Court decision in May, all other states combined have executed eighteen individuals. That means Texas is a single execution behind the entire rest of the country COMBINED.

Troy Davis Update

Troy Davis will not die on Monday. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on execution for Troy so that lawyers from both sides can draft briefs regarding whether Troy meets the requirements for further Federal review. This is EXCELLENT news!

Troy Davis - Execution Date Set

The State of Georgia wasted no time in setting an execution date for Troy Davis. Troy lost his appeal opportunity with the United States Supreme Court earlier this week and the State has already set his execution date for October 27. There is plenty on this blog regarding Troy's story, so I will not go into it more (tag: Troy Davis). Suffice it to say that the State of Georgia may be executing an innocent man.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has the power to stop this execution. For more on that, see Amnesty International's death penalty blog.

Richard Wade Cooey III - Ohio

The State of Ohio executed Richard Cooey yesterday. He was 41 years old at the time of his death.

Richard Cooey was convicted of the rape and murder of two college women in 1986. The women, Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery were in their early twenties at the time of their murders. Cooey's accomplice, Clint Dickens, was 17 at the time of the crime and, as such, was granted life in prison. Cooey has denied killing the women and claims that Dickens performed the murders.

Richard Cooey was not a repentant man. By most accounts, he was vulgar and obscene to the end. Still, life is fundamental right that no society, not even the State of Ohio, should have the right to take away.

An AP article on the execution is available here.

USCC Ruling on Troy Davis

Here is an article from the Associated Press on the USSC's ruling as to Troy Davis. Troy Davis sits on Georgia's death row. His case has received a lot of attention because of what appear to be credible claims of innocence. I have posted on Troy many times before (tag = Troy Davis), and I believe his case is a prime example of why the death penalty should be abolished.*

Sadly, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear Troy's case. The Court had granted him a last minute (quite literally) stay on September 23 when he was last scheduled to be executed to determine whether it should hear his case regarding his innocence claims. It appears that not enough of the Court's members agree that review is necessary.

In light of the USSC's decision, Georgia will now schedule another execution date for Troy. It remains to be seen if there are any more options for Troy. It may be up to the Governor (or perhaps his defense team has another option in mind). I will keep you posted.

*There are many reasons I believe the death penalty should be abolished. The primary reasons are (1) the fact that State killing is bad public policy, generally, and does not jive with any of the theories of our justice system (save for perhaps retribution and revenge); (2) our justice system is full of too many holes to assure that the death penalty is applied only to the guilty or applied uniformly and consistently (i.e. without concerns over race, class, or other "status"); and (3) the killing of any human being is a moral outrage and no person should be murdered by the government, no matter how guilty. Troy's case is a prime example of the failures of the death penalty for all three of these points (and many more).

Perspective from a Former Warden

I strongly encourage you to read the Op-Ed by Jeanne Woodford in yesterday's LA Times. Woodford is a former warden of California's San Quentin prison, which is where California's death row is housed. She presided over 4 executions as warden and has come to believe that the death penalty does not keep us safer, is more expensive, and is generally not good public policy.

A couple of snippets of the piece stuck out to me in particular:

"As I presided over Massie's execution, I thought about the abuse and neglect he endured as a child in the foster care system. We failed to keep him safe, and our failure contributed to who he was as an adult. Instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to kill him, what if we spent that money on other foster children so that we stop producing men like Massie in the first place?"

What if? Woodford focuses much of the Op-Ed on the outrageous additional expenses involved in imprisoning a death row inmate. Studies show that California alone spends an additional $100M per year to house and process death row inmates than it would if those inmates were merely confined to prison for life. Just imagine how much we could do with $100M! What if we used it to develop programs that might help prevent some of this crime in the first place? What if we used it to feed people, create jobs, develop infrastructure, improve education, or mentor at-risk kids? What if we spent it on programs to rehabilitate those guilty of petty crimes that might be at-risk for escalating to violence? What if...

She ends with this poignant statement:

"To say that I have regrets about my involvement in the death penalty is to let myself off the hook too easily. To take a life in order to prove how much we value another life does not strengthen our society. It is a public policy that devalues our very being and detracts crucial resources from programs that could truly make our communities safe." (emphasis added)

What do we have when the executed are gone? Are we safer? Are we more at ease? Right now, as Woodford notes, what we have is a public policy "that devalues our very being."

Woodford's piece is well taken and gut wrenching. It is well worth the read.

Kennedy v. Louisiana Take II

The United States Supreme Court "affirmed" its decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana earlier this week by refusing to rehear the case. As you may recall, the Kennedy case reviewed the constitutionality of executing someone who was "only" guilty of child rape and had not also committed a related murder. The Supreme Court found such executions unconstitutional during its last session. It now upholds that decision. You can read about the update on CNN here.

I despise child rape with everything in my core and, in some cases, I believe its punishment should equal that of many forms of murder. Still, as you know, I vehemently oppose the death penalty. I believe the death penalty should be abolished. As such, I am pleased with the Court's decision in this case. It will make fewer individuals eligible for State murder, and the fewer murders the State commits, the better.

Letter from Troy Davis

Amnesty International published a letter Troy Davis wrote to his sister for her to share with his supporters. He wrote the letter the night before his scheduled execution. It provides a nice glimpse of the man Troy Davis is today. You can find the letter here.

Troy Anthony Davis

Breaking news: The United States Supreme Court has issued a stay of execution for Troy Davis (Georgia). See below for more information on Troy's case and his credible claims of innocence. This is great news!

Update 9/25/2008: Here is a link to a good column by Amy Goodman (Democracy Now) on Troy Davis's case and why he deserves a new trial.

Paul House Moved to Mother's Home

Hat tip to Emily at Amnesty International for a well-written blog about Paul House's return to his mother's care. As those of you who have read this blog over the years know, I have written about Paul's case and the travesty of his continued confinement many times. Paul is now at his mother's home and is - temporarily at least - out of prison and off death row. The DA is planning to retry Paul but he is out on bail for the time being. I'm so pleased that Paul can be at home in his mother's care. He has credible claims of innocence and has been on death row for over 23 years. The last several of those years, Paul has endured death row while suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. I applaud the donor that assisted Paul's mother in posting his bail.

Please see the Amnesty blog here.

Kennedy v. Louisiana

I don't have time to comment (darn meetings!), but the United States Supreme Court ruled today (5-4) that it is unconstitutional to execute someone for a child rape where the child was not murdered. Although no one has been executed in the US for a crime other than murder in many years, there were two men on death row in Louisiana awaiting execution for rape of a child. Additionally, this clears the laws for other states and will prevent future executions.

Here is a link to an article from the NY Times.

Clifton White

Hat tip to Jeralyn at TalkLeft (who's blog I read every day, by the way -- I encourage you to do so as well) for noting this case.

Ohio will not get the chance to kill Clifton White. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the lower court judge in White's case had overstepped his authority when he substituted his own expertise for that of experts in finding that Clifton White was not mentally retarded and, therefore, could be subject to execution.

Jeralyn provides links to the opinion and some snippets in her post so I won't bore you with more, but this is a big deal. Judges are not experts on everything. They should not get to decide who lives and who dies against the recommendations of those who are, in fact, experts on a subject.

Here's an article from the New York Times.

Troy Davis

I've come out of the shadows for a moment to pass on this bit of devestating news about Troy Davis. As you may have heard, the Georgia Supreme Court denied his request for a new trial. Please see this posting at Amnesty International and take action if you are able. As you can see below in my prior postings, Troy has a credible claim of innocence. Without a new trial, its possible the State of Georgia will execute an innocent man.