35 states of America have the death penalty, and 34 of them allow face-to-face visits for inmates on death row. Kansas is the cruel exception, forcing inmates to conduct their visits with family, other loved ones, etc via video conference. Now Virginia plans to join them.
The state correction officials favour the policy because it's apparently less intrusive on the visitors, as well as being less labor-intensive on staff (ie. they only have to press a button). They also say it could lead to expanded visitation opportunities. Sounds pretty limited to me - you can't kiss your wife or hold your child's hand through a TV screen. The relatives of inmates on Virginia's death row are calling it a cruel and unnecessary policy. I agree entirely.
Apart from Kansas, as of right now all other death penalty states allow face to face visits. Some states allow contact visits (ie you're allowed to touch), but most have a sheet of glass between inmates and visitors. Ohio has glass but also has a slot to allow inmates and visitors to hold hands.
If you've ever seen something in person and then seen it on film, you might know what I'm talking about when I say that you really lose something when you put a thing on film. In my opinion, this is just cruel. If I was forced to spend 23 hours a day cooped up in a small box, I would spend every waking moment savoring the thought of seeing my loved ones in the flesh, even if it was through a sheet of reinforced glass.
As of September 1st, Virginia's death row population will sadly not have this 'luxury'.
Saturday, 21 August 2010
Sunday, 15 August 2010
CA Governor Schwarzenegger wastes $64 million on new death row
I've always been a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger, not so much on the political side of things as opposed the silver screen, but my opinion of him is dropping rapidly.
It began in Sacramento on Wednesday when the California Governor announced that he planned to 'borrow' an eye-watering $64 millions from the already almost-broke General Fund. Why? Well, to build a new death row facility at San Quentin of course!
It gets worse. $64 million is nothing - the new facility is expected to cost upwards of $400 million in total.
California doesn't need more debts. Even if you're in favour of the death penalty, I bet you can't look me in the eyes and say that this will be $400 million well spent.
California already has the largest and most expensive death row in America - by FAR. There are over 700 death row inmates in California. Los Angeles County alone sends more people to death row than the entire state of Texas. And yet, nearly all of California's death row might as well be sentenced to life without parole - they nearly all die of natural causes as opposed to state-sponsored murder.
And each of those pointless death sentences is costing the state a small fortune. The state could save at least $1.1 million in each trial if it was seeking permanent imprisonment instead of the death penalty. That's just the trial. The annual cost of California's death penalty is $126 million. Per year.
So take that $400 million figure and make it more like $1 billion in five years.
To summarise, Governor Schwarzenegger could save the California taxpayers a heck of a lot of money if he would only chuck the death penalty out of the window and commute all the current death sentences to life imprisonment. No imate gets of lightly. Justice is still served - and quickly - for murder victims and their families; no decades of waiting and having the ordeal dredged up with every new appeal and clemency hearing and execution date set and reset. It is basically a cheaper, quicker and less painful way of doing things for everyone involved.
Thank you to James Clark, Death Penalty Field Organiser of ACLU California, who wrote the report this post is based on.
If you have any ideas how that $64 million could be better spent, why not Tweet Governor Schwarzenegger and let him know. Tweet @Schwarzenegger Say No to Death Row! Spend #64million on [insert your preferred state program] #cabudget.
It began in Sacramento on Wednesday when the California Governor announced that he planned to 'borrow' an eye-watering $64 millions from the already almost-broke General Fund. Why? Well, to build a new death row facility at San Quentin of course!
It gets worse. $64 million is nothing - the new facility is expected to cost upwards of $400 million in total.
California doesn't need more debts. Even if you're in favour of the death penalty, I bet you can't look me in the eyes and say that this will be $400 million well spent.
California already has the largest and most expensive death row in America - by FAR. There are over 700 death row inmates in California. Los Angeles County alone sends more people to death row than the entire state of Texas. And yet, nearly all of California's death row might as well be sentenced to life without parole - they nearly all die of natural causes as opposed to state-sponsored murder.
And each of those pointless death sentences is costing the state a small fortune. The state could save at least $1.1 million in each trial if it was seeking permanent imprisonment instead of the death penalty. That's just the trial. The annual cost of California's death penalty is $126 million. Per year.
So take that $400 million figure and make it more like $1 billion in five years.
To summarise, Governor Schwarzenegger could save the California taxpayers a heck of a lot of money if he would only chuck the death penalty out of the window and commute all the current death sentences to life imprisonment. No imate gets of lightly. Justice is still served - and quickly - for murder victims and their families; no decades of waiting and having the ordeal dredged up with every new appeal and clemency hearing and execution date set and reset. It is basically a cheaper, quicker and less painful way of doing things for everyone involved.
Thank you to James Clark, Death Penalty Field Organiser of ACLU California, who wrote the report this post is based on.
If you have any ideas how that $64 million could be better spent, why not Tweet Governor Schwarzenegger and let him know. Tweet @Schwarzenegger Say No to Death Row! Spend #64million on [insert your preferred state program] #cabudget.
Alabama executes Michael Jeffrey Land
Michael Jeffrey Land (41) was put to death on Saturday August 14th by the state of Alabama.
Land was convicted of the 1992 murder of Candace Brown, a 30 year old mother who was kidnapped from her home and later found dead on Ruffner Mountain. She had been shot in the head.
When asked if he had any final statements, Land said: "No. Thank you though."
Chris Summers, the Chaplain of Holman Correctional Facility, then got on one knee and held Land's hand. He prayed with him until Land became unconscious.
Land was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m. at Holman Prison, Atmore. He had been on Alabama's death row for 17 years. He is the third inmate to be put to death in Alabama this year, the 47th overall since Alabama resumed the death penalty in 1983, and the 1223rd in the USA since the nation resumed executions in 1977.
Land was convicted of the 1992 murder of Candace Brown, a 30 year old mother who was kidnapped from her home and later found dead on Ruffner Mountain. She had been shot in the head.
When asked if he had any final statements, Land said: "No. Thank you though."
Chris Summers, the Chaplain of Holman Correctional Facility, then got on one knee and held Land's hand. He prayed with him until Land became unconscious.
Land was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m. at Holman Prison, Atmore. He had been on Alabama's death row for 17 years. He is the third inmate to be put to death in Alabama this year, the 47th overall since Alabama resumed the death penalty in 1983, and the 1223rd in the USA since the nation resumed executions in 1977.
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Ohio executes Roderick Davie
Roderick Davie (38) was executed by lethal injection in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility on Tuesday morning.
Family of Davie's two victims sat quietly together as the execution proceded.
Davie was convicted of the 1991 murder of a man and a woman at his former workplace in Trunbull County. In the attack he also shot a man three times who lived to attend the execution.
After making a final statement in which he apologized to the family members of his victims and the survivor of his attack, as well as thanking his own family for their love and support, the lethal cocktail was administered. The warden pronounced him dead at 10:31a.m.
Davie is the seventh death row inmate to be executed by Ohio this year, and the 40th since 1999.
Family of Davie's two victims sat quietly together as the execution proceded.
Davie was convicted of the 1991 murder of a man and a woman at his former workplace in Trunbull County. In the attack he also shot a man three times who lived to attend the execution.
After making a final statement in which he apologized to the family members of his victims and the survivor of his attack, as well as thanking his own family for their love and support, the lethal cocktail was administered. The warden pronounced him dead at 10:31a.m.
Davie is the seventh death row inmate to be executed by Ohio this year, and the 40th since 1999.
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Taliban flogs and executes pregnant woman
35 year old pregnant widow Bibi Sanubar was publicly flogged and then executed by the Taliban in Afghanistan on Sunday.
The Afghan woman was accused of having had an "illicit affair" which left her pregnant. She was kept in captivity for three days, punished with 200 lashes in public, and was then shot three times in the head.
Taliban commander Mohammad Yousuf is said to have carried out the execution before the woman's body was dumped in an area under government control.
A Taliban spokesman on Monday denied that the militia was responsible for Sanubar's death:
"We have not done anything like that in Badghis or any other province" said Qari Yosuf Ahmadi. He called the report "propaganda" by foreigners and the Western-backed Afghan government.
The execution has been confirmed by Mohammad Nasir Nazaari, head of Badghis provincial council. He said the Qadis district, where the execution was carried out, was entirely under Taliban control.
Since their ouster in 2001, hardline Taliban militants have executed many people accused of spying for foreign forces, including children as young as 7 or 8, and another woman, a mother of five, whose death has been watched by millions after secret film of her publicly being dragged out, forced to kneel and shot in the head was leaked.
Abdul Qadir Rahimi, head of the Afgan Independant Human Rights Commission in western Afghanistan, condemned Sunday's killing:
"Any such trial is unacceptable and is a violation of human rights. All trials must take place in an authorised court observing every single measure of justice."
Any execution is a violation of human rights, I believe. But this... If this is what the world has come to, we ought to hang our heads in shame.
The Afghan woman was accused of having had an "illicit affair" which left her pregnant. She was kept in captivity for three days, punished with 200 lashes in public, and was then shot three times in the head.
Taliban commander Mohammad Yousuf is said to have carried out the execution before the woman's body was dumped in an area under government control.
A Taliban spokesman on Monday denied that the militia was responsible for Sanubar's death:
"We have not done anything like that in Badghis or any other province" said Qari Yosuf Ahmadi. He called the report "propaganda" by foreigners and the Western-backed Afghan government.
The execution has been confirmed by Mohammad Nasir Nazaari, head of Badghis provincial council. He said the Qadis district, where the execution was carried out, was entirely under Taliban control.
Since their ouster in 2001, hardline Taliban militants have executed many people accused of spying for foreign forces, including children as young as 7 or 8, and another woman, a mother of five, whose death has been watched by millions after secret film of her publicly being dragged out, forced to kneel and shot in the head was leaked.
Abdul Qadir Rahimi, head of the Afgan Independant Human Rights Commission in western Afghanistan, condemned Sunday's killing:
"Any such trial is unacceptable and is a violation of human rights. All trials must take place in an authorised court observing every single measure of justice."
Any execution is a violation of human rights, I believe. But this... If this is what the world has come to, we ought to hang our heads in shame.
Thursday, 29 July 2010
DNA clears innocent man in Houston... after 27 YEARS behind bars
In 1983, Green was sentenced to 75 years in prison for the rape of a Houston woman. His conviction was based on faulty eyewitness identifation, says his attorney, Bob Wicoff.
27 years in prison is the longest time that any innocent Texan has spent in prison before being exonerated. If he is freed, Green will become the second innocent man from Harris County to be released from prison THIS WEEK. Last Friday, Allen Wayne Porter was also released based on new DNA testing after serving 19 years behind bars for a rape he didn't commit.
In this case, justice prevailed. Hallelujah. It's terrible that an innocent man spent such a large portion of his life jailed for someone else's crime, but at least this story has a happy ending. If this had been a death penalty case, the reality is he probably would have been executed 20 years ago. This is Harris County's second exoneration in a week. How many more innocent men are sitting in unjustified prison cells? I wonder. How many are on death row right now? If we want to see justice prevailing like this and innocent men being handed their lives back, we must have a moratorium on the death penalty. The next innocent man might not be so lucky.
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Ohio executes William L Garner
Ohio executed William L Garner (37) at 10:38 this morning at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.
Garner died by lethal injection for the 1992 arson in Cincinnati which resulted in the deaths of 5 children. The lone survivor of the crime, Rod Mack, who was just 13 at the time, was amongst the witnesses at Garner's execution.
Garner is the 6th man to be executed in Ohio this year, and the 31st to be put to death so far this year in the US.
Garner died by lethal injection for the 1992 arson in Cincinnati which resulted in the deaths of 5 children. The lone survivor of the crime, Rod Mack, who was just 13 at the time, was amongst the witnesses at Garner's execution.
Garner is the 6th man to be executed in Ohio this year, and the 31st to be put to death so far this year in the US.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
