[amc] [Fwd: TCADP Releases Annual Report]
- From: Garland Robertson <pastor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Austin Mennonite Church <amc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:38:16 -0600
Members and Friends of Austin Mennonite Church
I am sending the information below for your awareness.
May it go well with you. Sincerely,
Garland Robertson
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: TCADP Releases Annual Report
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 11:06:04 -0800 (PST)
From: Kristin Houlé <khoule@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Kristin Houlé
<reply.314333.249412668.9121892389677012736-pastor_mennochurch.org@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pastor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
**
* *
<http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=249412668&u=2649365>
TCADP Annual Report * *
*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE* Thursday, December 4, 2008
*CONTACT*: Kristin Houle, Executive Director
512-441-1808 (office); 202-494-3578 (cell), khoule@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:khoule@xxxxxxxxx>
*Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Releases Report on
Death Penalty Developments in 2008*
**
/ "Average" Number of Executions Carried Out in Record Time as New Death
Sentences Reach Lowest Level in Texas in 30 Years/
//
(Austin, Texas) - Today the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
(TCADP) released its annual report on death penalty developments
statewide, in advance of the December 7 anniversary of the resumption of
executions in Texas in 1982. According to the report, Texas juries
newly condemned nine individuals (eight men and one woman) to death in
2008, the lowest number of new death sentences since official
reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. Juries also resentenced two
people to death.
A de facto moratorium on executions nationwide existed from September
26, 2007 until April 16, 2008 while the U.S. Supreme Court considered
the constitutionality of the lethal injection protocol used by the
majority of death penalty states. On April 16, the Court ruled in Baze
v. Rees that the current protocol used by Kentucky (and other states,
including Texas) does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The
decision lifted all stays in effect at the time and paved the way for
the resumption of executions. Texas' first execution of the year took
place on June 11, 2008, when Karl Chamberlain was put to death. The
State went on to execute 17 more people in the latter half of 2008,
accounting for 50% of all executions in the United States this year.
Seven of those executed had been convicted in Dallas County.
"2008 can only be characterized as yet another rollercoaster year for
the death penalty in Texas," said TCADP Executive Director Kristin
Houle. "The state carried out a 'typical' number of executions in a
record amount of time - averaging nearly one per week over a five-month
period. Yet officials' zeal for executions was not matched by public
desire for new death sentences, as evidenced by the continued steep
decline in the number of new inmates arriving on death row."
This past year also was notable for the executions that did not occur.
Six inmates with execution dates in 2008 received last-minute stays, due
to concerns about possible innocence, the fairness of their trial, or
issues related to mental retardation or mental illness. The case of
Charles Hood, in particular, challenged the integrity of the Texas
judicial system, after solid evidence confirmed that the judge who
presided over his original trial was romantically linked to the
prosecutor who sought his death sentence. Hood received a stay from the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on September 9 on an issue unrelated to
the improper relationship; his attorneys continue to seek a new trial.
Other highlights of TCADP's report, Texas Death Penalty Developments in
2008, include the following:
*
In 2008, the State of Texas carried out 18 executions in 5
months. Only eight other states carried out executions this year;
none executed more than four people. Texas has executed 423
people since 1982. Currently there are 354 inmates on death row
in Texas - 344 men and 10 women.
*
Michael Blair became the 9th inmate exonerated from death row in
Texas after DNA testing failed to connect him to the crime for
which he was convicted and sentenced to death.
*
Seven other inmates were removed permanently from death row in
2008; their sentences were commuted to life in prison. This
includes Thomas Miller-El, Johnny Paul Penry, and LaRoyce Smith,
whose convictions and/or death sentences had been overturned at
various junctures by the U.S. Supreme Court.
*
Jurors rejected the death penalty in at least four capital murder
trials in 2008, opting instead for the punishment of life in
prison without the possibility of parole.
*
Harris County, which accounts for more executions than any state
in the country (besides Texas), did not send a single person to
death row in 2008.
*
Texas defied federal officials and the International Court of
Justice when it executed Mexican national Jose Medellin on August
5, 2008, despite the fact that he had been denied the right to
contact his consular office upon his arrest in 1993 as afforded by
the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
*
The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana on June
25, 2008 invalidated the death penalty provision of "Jessica's
Law," which the Texas Legislature passed in 2007. The Justices
ruled 5-4 that the death penalty is unconstitutional as a
punishment for the crime of raping a child and they effectively
barred its imposition for any crime that does not take the life of
the victim.
Texas already has scheduled 11 executions for the first 3 months of
2009. "Despite continued concerns about the flaws and failures of the
Texas death penalty system - and growing public awareness of its
fallibility - the 'conveyor belt to death' continues to operate on high
gear," said Houle. "TCADP urges all elected officials to take a hard
look at this costly, broken government system - a system that produces
wrongful convictions and most likely wrongful executions - and to
support alternatives that protect society and punish the truly guilty."
TCADP is a statewide, grassroots organization based in Austin, Texas.
Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2008: The Year in Review is
available online at
http://www.tcadp.org/uploads/documents/2008annualreport.pdf
<http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=249412668&u=2649366>.
Contact Kristin Houle at khoule@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:khoule@xxxxxxxxx> to
receive a copy directly via email.
Please help us track media coverage of the report in your area! Send
any articles, news briefs, etc. that appear in your local newspaper
(either in print or online) to khoule@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:khoule@xxxxxxxxx>. Letters to the editor based on the
information in the report and online comments in response to articles
are also encouraged. Contact Kristin if you have any questions or would
like to receive talking points. Thank you!
**
**
<http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=249412668&u=2649367>
TCADP 2009 Annual Conference* *
*/Raising our Voices for Abolition,/ Saturday, February 21, Austin, TX*
Keynote Speaker: Celeste Fitzgerald of New Jerseyans for Alternatives
to the Death Penalty
Mark on your calendar and plan to attend. Support the work of your
local chapter and the state organization of TCADP by attending the
annual conference and learning more about ending the death penalty in Texas:
Download Flyer
<http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=249412668&u=2649368>
and/or Register
<http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=249412668&u=2649369>
**
Join the work of TCADP NOW!
Become a member of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and
support the education and advocacy work we are doing to end the death
penalty in Texas. Your support is vital. *Join!*
<http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=249412668&u=2649370>
Your membership supports our many educational opportunities working to
end the death penalty in Texas: the mental illness and the death
penalty campaign, religious outreach, "At the Death House Door" film
screenings, and more. You also receive a quarterly newsletter
<http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=249412668&u=2649371>
that keeps you up to date on what is happening on the death penalty in
Texas. We appreciate your generosity!
----------------------------------------------------------
*For more information on TCADP's activities consult the TCADP website at
**www.tcadp.org*
<http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=249412668&u=2649372>*,
or call us in Austin at 512 441-1808!*
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