Death Penalty

Death Penalty Issues - Death Penalty

Washington Post Opinions: I prayed Virginia would end the death penalty. It finally did — and gave other states hope. Tim Kaine

Submitted by OADPEditor on Sun, 02/21/2021 - 7:34pm

February 19, 2021 Tim Kaine, a Democrat, represents Virginia in the U.S. Senate and was governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010.

I met my wife, Anne, a native Virginian, in law school in the early 1980s. Idealistic youngsters, we grappled with whether to live in Richmond or my hometown of Kansas City. A key consideration in our choice of Virginia was the Biblical phrase “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” There seemed to be so much work to be done here.

Executioners sanitized accounts of deaths in federal cases

Submitted by OADPEditor on Thu, 02/18/2021 - 12:13am

February 17, 2021 CHICAGO (AP) — Executioners who put 13 inmates to death in the last months of the Trump administration likened the process of dying by lethal injection to falling asleep and called gurneys “beds” and final breaths “snores.”
But those tranquil accounts are at odds with reports by The Associated Press and other media witnesses of how prisoners’ stomachs rolled, shook and shuddered as the pentobarbital took effect inside the U.S. penitentiary death chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana. The AP witnessed every execution.

Virginia House joins Senate in voting to end death penalty

Submitted by OADPEditor on Sat, 02/06/2021 - 9:43pm
Virginia State Capitol

Feb 5, 2021 RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia moved another step closer to ending capital punishment on Friday when the state House joined the Senate in voting to abolish the death penalty.

Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam supports the legislation, which would make Virginia the 23rd state to stop executions. It's a dramatic shift for Virginia, which has put more people to death over its centuries-long history than any other state.

Despite the surge of executions, the collapse of capital punishment is inevitable

Submitted by OADPEditor on Sat, 02/06/2021 - 9:28pm

" To abolish the death penalty, we must create a movement that is grounded in relationship building and truth telling. The movement to abolish the death penalty is gaining ground, despite the recent rush to execute several people living on federal death row. To reach this goal, we must create a movement that is grounded in relationship building and truth telling. How we get to abolition is as important as the hopeful inevitability we will get there."
The following article was published by Friends of Reconcilation after the federal executions.

South Dakota Former Prosecutor Introduces Bill to Limit the State’s Death Penalty

Submitted by OADPEditor on Wed, 01/27/2021 - 3:34am

A South Dakota state senator who previously served as a prosecutor and a state court judge has introduced a bill to limit the breadth of the state’s death penalty statute. Senate Bill 98, introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arthur Rusch (R – Clay, pictured) on January 25, 2021, would restrict capital punishment to a single aggravating circumstance, premeditated murders in which a defendant killed a police officer, corrections officer, or firefighter during the performance of their official duties.

Committee advances bill to end death penalty to Virginia Senate floor

Submitted by OADPEditor on Wed, 01/27/2021 - 3:27am

1/26/2021 (The Center Square) – A Virginia Senate committee voted Tuesday to advance legislation that would abolish the death penalty in the commonwealth.

Senate Bill 1165, sponsored by Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, would eliminate the use of the death penalty in Virginia, including for those who are on death row.

Four people are on death row in Virginia, and the state’s last execution was in 2017. Since 2010, eight people have been executed in the state.

Iowa lawmakers propose reinstating death penalty

Submitted by OADPEditor on Wed, 01/27/2021 - 3:25am

'They deserve death': Iowa lawmakers propose reinstating death penalty for people who rape and murder children
Iowa outlawed the death penalty in 1965.

Updated: 7:25 PM CST January 26, 2021

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa lawmakers proposed a bill that would allow death sentences for people convicted of murdering a child after raping them. 

It's been almost six decades since Iowa last executed a state prisoner, but a group of Republican senators feels one crime in particular merits a death sentence.

MLK Day 2021: The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Death Penalty

Submitted by OADPEditor on Wed, 01/27/2021 - 3:21am

From the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC)

On Martin Luther King Day, DPIC looks at the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King’s views on capital punishment.

In a November 1957 article in Ebony, Dr. King was asked “Do you think God approves the death penalty for crimes like rape and murder?” He responded, “I do not think that God approves the death penalty for any crime, rape and murder included…. Capital punishment is against the better judgment of modern criminology, and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God.”

Clemency

Submitted by OADP on Wed, 02/26/2020 - 2:19am

Years of carrying out death row executions are taking a toll on Warden Bernadine Williams. As she prepares for another one, Williams must confront the psychological and emotional demons that her job creates.

Join Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, as we view CLEMENCY, Sunday March 1, 2020, at 1:00 pm, at the Salem Cinema, 1127 Broadway NE, Salem.

Candidate for Multnomah County DA pledges to never seek the death penalty if elected

Submitted by OADPEditor on Fri, 10/11/2019 - 7:31pm

“When the death penalty is on the table, the number of motions filed by the state and by the defense is way higher than cases where it’s not on the table,” he said. “The estimates I’ve seen with aggravated murder cases with the death penalty average $800,000 to $1 million — and that doesn’t even take into consideration if the person’s sentenced.”

Oct 01, 2019 A former prosecutor has announced his run for the soon-to-be vacant Multnomah County district attorney seat.

Schmidt is running for Multnomah County District Attorney.

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