Free Republic

CHICAGO - Calling the death penalty process "arbitrary and capricious, and therefore immoral," Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of 167 condemned inmates Saturday, clearing Illinois' death row in a move unprecedented in scale in U.S. history. Ryan's action, just two days before he leaves office, drew immediate angry reaction from prosecutors, the incoming governor and relatives of some of the victims. Ryan said he sympathized with the families of the men, women and children who had been murdered, but he felt he had to act. "I am not prepared to take the risk that we may execute an innocent...

<p>NEW YORK -- Robert Blecker sat quietly as other professors ticked off their reasons for opposing the death penalty: It's unfair to blacks. It doesn't really deter crime. Innocent people could be executed.</p> <p>But Blecker, a professor at New York Law School, was having none of it. When it was his turn to speak at the recent death-penalty forum at John Jay College, he summed up his support for executions in three words: ''Barbara Jo Brown.''</p>

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico said Thursday it has asked the World Court in the Hague to resolve the case of 54 Mexicans on death row in the United States who allegedly were denied their rights to consular representation under an international treaty. Mexico's foreign relations department has made such allegations against the United States in the past -- one recent case led President Vicente Fox to cancel a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush last summer. But this is the first time officials have brought the matter to an international court. In a news release, the foreign relations...

I am looking for a picture of an afghan woman being executed in the afghan soccer stadium. It is for a college project. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Friday November 29, 15:49 PM Outside pressure unlikely to halt China's rise in executions: experts China executes more people than the rest of the world combined and, despite growing international criticism, rising crime and a government keen to show its toughness means its execution numbers will continue soar, experts say.A bullet in the back of the neck is a routine part of China's criminal justice system -- even for certain thefts or pimping -- meaning the country will be a main target of Saturday's inaugural World Day Against the Death Penalty.But mainland experts say this pressure will do little to...

Amnesty says two Chinese Internet users were executed US firms "colluding" in State clamp down claim By Mike Magee: Tuesday 26 November 2002, 19:05 HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATION Amnesty International issued a warning today on its Web site that Internet users in mainland China could be killed by the State for expressing their opinion online. Thirty three people were named as "prisoners of conscience" today, for apparently doing little more than expressing their opinions online. Two "subversives" have already died in custody, it claimed. And the statement, which it released today, also warns that overseas companies were colluding in a crack...

State plans to execute three killers this week Texas on pace to log capital punishment in 34 cases for '02 11/18/2002 Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A convicted cop killer and two men condemned for multiple murders face execution this week on three consecutive nights as the Texas death chamber is readied for its busiest week in almost two years. "It's become an assembly line of death," said Craig Ogan, the first of the three men set to die. If the three injections are carried out, and if two other punishments set for December take place, Texas would finish...

Jessie Derrell Williams is expected to be the second inmate in the state to die by lethal injection this year. Other death row inmates talked about the day of an execution in letters to The Sun Herald. Below is a list of the inmates we quoted, followed by an explanation of their crimes: Alan Dale Walker - On Sept. 8, 1990, Walker kidnapped, raped and drowned Konya Rebecca Edwards, 19, of Long Beach, at Crystal Lake in Harrison County. Stephen Virgil McGilberry - McGilberry, at 16, used a baseball bat to kill his family as they slept in their St....

Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, formed a special unit within the IRA which was responsible for the execution of a mother of 10 in 1972 and it was "inconceivable" that he was unaware of the order to kill her, a book claims. Mr Adams has always distanced himself from the "disappearances" of 10 people by the Republican terrorists in the 1970s, victims who were snatched from their homes or off the streets of Belfast, killed and buried in locations kept secret from their families for more 20 years. According to the revelations in A Secret History of the IRA,...

Judge Finds Federal Executions Unconstitutional Mon Jul 1, 6:29 PM ET By Gail Appleson, Law Correspondent NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. trial judge on Monday declared the federal death penalty unconstitutional, calling it tantamount to "state-sponsored murder of innocent human beings." The ruling by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff was the first by a federal trial judge to find the current federal death penalty law unconstitutional. It comes at a time of growing national debate about capital punishment, sparked partly by recent exonerations of death-row inmates because of DNA evidence. Although it was unclear whether the decision would be...

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - China marked U.N. anti-drug day by executing 64 people accused of drug crimes, officials and state media said Wednesday. Many of the executions on Tuesday and Wednesday came immediately after public rallies where thousands watched judges condemn the accused. China usually marks International Anti-Drug Day on June 26 with a wave of publicized executions, underscoring authorities' belief that harsh punishments are an effective weapon against the spread of drugs. Officials from the United Nations ( news - web sites) have said they do not condone the practice. Another 188 people also accused of drug crimes were...

Mixed reaction in Texas to Supreme Court decision 06/20/2002 Associated Press AUSTIN - Supporters of a ban on executing the mentally retarded in Texas were jubilant Thursday after a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such executions are unconstitutionally cruel. Opponents, meanwhile, initially reacted with silence, saying they needed more time to review the high court decision. "I'm elated," said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat who last year filed a bill to ban the execution of the mentally retarded in Texas that was vetoed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry. Ellis told The Associated Press that he planned...