Some good news about the death penalty

There has been some good news about the death penalty. Please use this as encouragement to write your state legislators to inform them of your concerns about the death penalty. As many of us learned at the recent TCADP workshop, legislators pay attention to letters from constituents and even a few letters on any issue can make a difference.

The execution of David Eugene Johnston that was scheduled for today in was stayed last week by the Florida Supreme Court: Read More

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Equal Justice USA

This is an excellent source for information nationally. Recommended by Shelia Meehan.

Group Gives Up Death Penalty Work New York Times Sidebar

Adam Liptak’s column about the legal world appears weekly. Columnist Page »

Times Topics: Capital Punishment

Last fall, the American Law Institute, which created the intellectual framework for the modern capital justice system almost 50 years ago, pronounced its project a failure and walked away from it.

There were other important death penalty developments last year: the number of death sentences continued to fall, Ohio switched to a single chemical for lethal injections and New Mexico repealed its death penalty entirely. But not one of them was as significant as the institute’s move, which represents a tectonic shift in legal theory. Read More

Important forum event. Plan to attend.

ANOTHER FLORIDA DEATH ROW EXONERATION!

Friends,

On July 9, 2009, the Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Herman Lindsey be acquitted and released from Death Row.  The court said that “the state failed to produce any evidence in this case placing Lindsey at the scene of the crime at the time of the murder,” and that the evidence presented was “equally consistent with a reasonable hypothesis of innocence.”

From the Death Penalty Information Center, “According to DPIC’s Innocence List, Lindsey is the 135th person to be exonerated from death row since the death penalty was reinstated and the fifth person exonerated from death row in 2009.  Lindsey is the 23rd exoneration in Florida — the state that leads the country in death row exonerations.”

“DPIC’s Innocence List consists of former death row inmates who have been acqu itted of all charges related to the crime that placed them on death row; had all charges dismissed by the prosecution; or been granted complete pardon based on evidence of innocence.”

Shine the light,

Mark

Sent by:

Mark Elliott
Executive Director
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, FADP.org

2840 W. Bay Drive, #118
Belleair Bluffs, FL 33770
727-215-9646

High Court lays low an important path to justice

Supreme Court rules on DNA requests by prisoners.

Mark Elliot sent the following message regarding the Mark Schwab case

Friends,

The U.S. Supreme Court is meeting today on lifting the stay of
execution for Mark Schwab.  Insiders say that if the stay is lifted, a
new execution date may be announced as early as Monday.

—-Mark

Mark Elliott
Executive Director
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, FADP.org

TINKERING WITH THE MACHINERY OF DEATH

April 16, 2008 — Today the U. S. Supreme Court voted 7 – 2 to reject the latest challenge to capital punishment. The issue at hand was not the death penalty itself, but the legality of the methods used to kill people. I am reminded of former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun’s words written shortly before his retirement: “The death penalty experiment has failed. From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.” Clearly, that is all the Court was doing. Until they take up the real question of the death penalty, it will all just be tinkering. Read More