Posted on 01/08/2007 11:45:42 PM PST by trumandogz
America's attachment to the death penalty is well-rooted but there are significant signs that US courts, politicians and public opinion may be turning against capital punishment.
On Friday, the US Supreme Court agreed to set a new standard for when a death row prisoner is too mentally ill to be executed without violating the constitution. On Monday, the justices will consider whether to force attorneys representing death row prisoners to take extraordinary measures to persuade juries to spare their lives. And next week the court will hear three cases that could have a significant impact on the imposition of the death penalty in Texas - the heartland of capital punishment - where nearly half of last year's executions took place.
The Supreme Court's scrutiny of the practice comes against a background of growing public unease about the way prisoners are executed in many states, and the possibility that some might be innocent. A nationwide Gallup poll last year showed a big drop in public support for the death penalty. It showed Americans divided over the best punishment for murder - death or a life sentence without parole - after many years in which capital punishment was strongly preferred.
Executions last year fell to their lowest level in a decade and, in the past few weeks, several states have temporarily halted the practice. Jeb Bush, the outgoing Florida governor, suspended the death penalty in that state after a botched execution underlined widespread fears about the cruelty of lethal injection, the most common execution procedure.
Shortly afterwards, a federal court ruled that California's lethal injection procedures violated the rules against cruel and unusual punishment in the US constitution - though the judge in that case left open the possibility that California could comply with the constitution by changing its procedures.
Last week, a legislative commission in New Jersey recommended that the state abolish the death penalty, after it found "no compelling evidence" that capital punishment served a legitimate purpose, and increasing evidence that it "is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency".
Death penalty opponents say there are several reasons for this trend, including publicity about DNA testing that has exonerated some prisoners and recent Supreme Court decisions that improve legal representation for capital defendants.
In recent years, America's top court has been chipping away at the edifice of the death penalty. It has declared unconstitutional the execution of mentally impaired defendants and those who committed murder before the age of 18.
On Monday the court will consider the duty of defence attorneys to find mitigating evidence that could persuade a jury to spare a capital defendant's life.
The case before them involves a death row prisoner who refused to let his lawyer present testimony from his mother and ex-wife to mitigate his sentence. Now he is claiming that his lawyer did not do his job because he did not advise him of other ways that he could improve his case - without the testimony of his relatives. The justices must decide how much to require of defence attorneys in such circumstances: must they ferret out mitigating evidence, even when the defendant appears not to want them to do so?
And later this term, the court must decide how severe a defendant's mental illness must be to spare him a death sentence. They agreed on Friday to rule whether the execution of a schizophrenic death row prisoner in Texas would breach his constitutional rights given that he seems unable to appreciate why he has been sentenced to death.
Horsepoop. Politicians, maybe. Real Americans...hang em high
I did not write the article. Moreover, I live in Texas where we line them up like no place else.
While today most people support the death penalty, I think that number will fall greatly if it is found that a state executed an innocent person.
Who cares? I would prefer death to a life of being someone's b*tch.
Politicians and JUDGES, maybe, but regular Americans? I can't think of one person I know who has changed their mind on capital punishment. If anything, they are even more adamant in supporting it! A law was considered here in Oklahoma to reestablish child rape as a capital crime. It has my complete approval.
I know you did not write it. Still, if it made it to the ballot, 95% would vote death penalty for rapists.
Mine too.
Murder rate in the blue state cities is soaring.
But I believe the poll is accurate.
We have Pelosi as speaker of the house with
the most liberal of democrats assuming committee
chairs.
The majority of Americans are in a state of denial.
They can't stomach or face difficult issues.
Nah, AMerica is the same. The GOP just pissed on the plums and made may conservatives sit this one out.
Can you provide a source?
How about the murder rate in Texas, a Red State with the most executions?
The problem with capital punishment is that it takes too long and is too expensive to taxpayers for evil to meet it's maker.
We're stuck with 'humanity' in the meantime.
And liberal courts.
The problem with capital punishment is that it takes too long and is too expensive to taxpayers for evil to meet it's maker.
I am in agreement with capital punishment but you hit the nail on the head.
I never understood the point of a death penalty.
On the one hand you want to have people living a christian live with the according values on the other you demonstrate that you can only be strong and just if you spat on the bible and be an arrogant and cynical bastard of a state by beeing so.
Having people prepared to shoot perpetrators on-site if they feel threatened is kind of solution to that issue though.
The aim cannot be to get even but must be to prevent crime.
Last poll I saw had 64% of Americans supporting the death penalty. I think it's just the media's wishful thinking.
We may have the most executions, but our recidivism rate is ZERO.
It's not wishful thinking. It's perception manipulation. Propaganda.
The problem is the "politically correct" element takes away the "commonsense" element on the issue of capital punishment. In fact, political correctness all over the world and within all of the issues makes everyone who believes in it very goofy!
" A nationwide Gallup poll last year showed "
How did they ask the question?,
to get the answer they wanted.
With all the prison break-outs lately,
the death penalty is the only way to insure they don't re-commit crimes,
I'd perfer to protect the innocent,
even if it meant I may lose my spot in Heaven.
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