Uncategorized
All Murder Victims are Not Equal
originally posted by Suzanne Ito, ACLU for Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union [click here]
Mar 9th
Yesterday, UPI reported on a new study by Scott Phillips, associate professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Denver. Professor Phillips analyzed data from 504 death penalty cases in Harris County, Texas, between 1992 and 1999, and found:
the probability of being sentenced to death is much greater if a defendant kills a white or Hispanic victim who is married with a clean criminal record and a college degree, as opposed to a black or Asian victim who is single with a prior criminal record and no college degree.
While Professor Phillips’ research was limited to Texas, this mirrors a national trend, as the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project’s Brian Stull wrote last year:
Nationally, studies consistently demonstrate that, everything else being equal, a defendant is approximately four times more likely to get the death penalty for killing a white person than for a black person. The racial configuration by far the more likely to result in a death sentence is a black defendant and a white victim. Studies of jurors from across various death penalty states demonstrate that in "black on white" murder cases with six or more white male jurors, juries issue a death sentence 78.3 percent of the time. But if three or more jurors were black males, the overproduction of death sentences disappears.
This problem is exacerbated by the fact that there are likely many innocent men on death row. Brian points to the case of ACLU client Levon "Bo" Jones, was exonerated in 2008 after 14 years on North Carolina’s death row. Jones, who is African-American, was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury.
h/t: StandDown
Executing on a Technicality
originally posted by Brian Stull, Capital Punishment Project for Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union [click here]
Mar 9th
When a person accused of a crime goes free, we often hear the refrain, "He got off on a technicality." In reality, these technicalities often involve a violation of a person’s constitutional rights. In the case of Holland v. Florida, argued before the Supreme Court last week, a technicality may determine whether Albert Holland lives or dies.
In the Holland case, the court will decide a technical question about the rules that govern federal habeas corpus review, which is a federal court appeal of a death sentence handed down in state court. A federal habeas corpus review assesses a case for violations of the U.S. Constitution. Every death-sentenced defendant has the right to this review, and it’s crucial, because studies show (PDF) that in 37 percent of cases, federal courts throw out death sentences after finding serious constitutional violations.
The first thing to know about federal habeas corpus review is that there are many complexities to filing a petition. There are rules about precisely when, where, and how a federal constitutional claim must be raised in the state courts. And those rules are also bound by Supreme Court case law and federal law. If a lawyer violates any of these rules, the client risks execution even if his death sentence violates the federal constitution.
One such rule took Albert Holland to the Supreme Court. Albert Holland was assigned an attorney by the State of Florida to appeal his death sentence (also known as a "capital appeal"). Florida has a statute saying attorneys assigned in such cases must be "competent." But Holland’s appointed attorney was far from competent: despite Holland’s repeated requests to his attorney to file the petition and keep him updated on the status of his case, his attorney failed to file the petition in a timely manner, prompting the federal district court to dismiss the petition without deciding its merits. Holland even attempted to have the attorney removed from his case because he appeared to be incompetent and unconcerned, and Holland made every possible effort to obtain necessary information about his case so that he could file the petition himself.
In the Supreme Court, Holland argued that he should not forfeit his right to federal review based on his attorney’s gross negligence. We supported his argument with a friend-of-the-court brief demonstrating that the deadline should be forgiven in certain narrow circumstances. But this case presents a more basic question of fairness: why should a death-sentenced inmate who does everything he possibly can to follow these complex rules, lose his life due to the gross negligence of an attorney assigned by the state? At Thursday’s oral argument (PDF), the lawyer representing the State of Florida suggested that only in instances of "extreme attorney incompetence" should missing the federal deadline be forgiven. This suggestion prompted Chief Justice Roberts to ask, "[W]hy isn’t it extreme attorney incompetence to miss a deadline?"
For Albert Holland, much hangs on how the court answers the Chief Justice’s question. Whether a federal court ever rules on the merits of his constitutional arguments against his death sentence should not depend on a technicality. We can only hope the Supreme Court agrees.
105,000 Tattoos: Iraqi Artist Wafaa Bilal Turns His Own Body into a Canvas to Commemorate Dead Iraqis & Americans
originally posted by Democracy Now! [click here]
Mar 9th
Watch on AWARE-LA TV on the date of the post. After that, watch in the Democracy Now! archives.
The official death toll from the war is 100,000, but it is widely estimated to be much higher, perhaps even as high as one million. In his latest piece of artwork, Iraqi American artist Wafaa Bilal tries to grapple with the enormity of these numbers. It’s a twenty-four-hour live tattooing performance called “..and Counting” that began at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts gallery in New York Monday night. By tonight Bilal’s back will be tattooed with the names of Iraqi cities, 5,000 red dots representing dead American soldiers and 100,000 dots in invisible ink representing the official death toll for Iraqis. The dots representing the Iraqi death toll will only be visible under ultraviolet light. [includes rush transcript]
The Real Climategate: Conservation Groups Align with World’s Worst Polluters
originally posted by Democracy Now! [click here]
Mar 9th
Watch on AWARE-LA TV on the date of the post. After that, watch in the Democracy Now! archives.
Major environmental groups are coming under criticism from within their own ranks for taking positions that some say are antithetical to their stated missions of saving the planet. In the latest issue of The Nation magazine, the British journalist Johann Hari writes, “As we confront the biggest ecological crisis in human history, many of the green organizations meant to be leading the fight are busy shoveling up hard cash from the world’s worst polluters—and burying science-based environmentalism in return…In the middle of a swirl of bogus climate scandals trumped up by deniers, here is the real Climategate.” [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for March 9, 2010
originally posted by Democracy Now! [click here]
Mar 9th
Watch on AWARE-LA TV on the date of the post. After that, watch in the Democracy Now! archives.
- Obama Campaigns for Healthcare Reform
- Former Rep. Massa Claims He Was Forced Out over Healthcare Bill
- Protests Planned Outside Health Insurance Company Meeting
- Gates: “More Dark Days” Ahead in Afghanistan
- Claim: Pentagon Peddled Misinformation about Attack on Marjah
- Nigerians Bury Dead After Massacre
- Greek PM Calls for Crackdown on Financial Speculators
- Biden: US Ties to Israel Are “Unshakable”
- Burmese Refugees in Bangladesh Face Starvation
- UN Official Warns Against Full Body Airport Scanners
- Midwestern Towns Sue Manufacturer of Atrazine Weedkiller
- Interior Dept. Puts Off Listing Sage Grouse as Endangered Species
- Obama Criticized for Adding Just Two Species to Endangered List
- Conservationist Edgar Wayburn, 103, Dies
