Betoog: Death penalty i/t USA
Tuesday, 11/4/2003
PORTFOLIO
DEATH PENALTY IN THE USA
STEFANIE GABRI?LS
JAN GIELIS
Statistics: County uses
death penalty less frequently
HOUSTON - Despite a policy on capital murder cases that hasn't changed in more than a decade, recent statistics from the Harris County District Attorney show that the death penalty is handed out less frequently and prosecutors are less likely to seek the ultimate punishment than in years past.
First Assistant District Attorney Bert Graham said from 1995 to 1999, the district attorney's office requested jurors condemn a defendant in 86 of 372 capital murder trials - about one in four. From 2000 through June 2003, death was sought in 38 of 212 capital murder cases - about one in five.
In the last three years, juries on average have returned about seven death sentences a year compared to about a dozen per year from 1995 to 1999.
The Houston Chronicle reported Saturday that there has been an average of about 260 killings a year since 1996, much lower than numbers reported in decades past.
Bron: http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/081703/tex_countyuses.shtml
(Amarillo Globe News)
King faces execution after inconclusive DNA tests
JACKSONVILLE - New evidence has meant freedom for a few condemned killers in Florida, but DNA evidence that Amos King hoped would prove his innocence was inconclusive.
After 20 years on Death Row and three stays of execution in the past year, time is running out for King. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday for the 1977 rape and murder of a 68-year-old woman who lived near the Tarpon Springs Correctional Center, where King was a work-release inmate.
Florida leads the nation with 24 inmates freed from Death Row after their convictions were overturned by new evidence or legal arguments since 1975. DNA testing helped lead to the release of one of those inmates. It also cleared another, but he had already died on death row.
Gov. Jeb Bush says the state does not need a moratorium on executions to determine if the system is working. In Illinois, Gov. George Ryan halted executions in the state in 2000 and, before leaving office last month, commuted 167 death sentences. He cited concerns about trials, sentencing, the appeals process and a "spectacular failure" to reform the system.
Bush says "a moratorium on the death penalty would be a moratorium on justice and safety."
"The people of Florida have made it clear time and time again that, for especially egregious crimes, the ultimate penalty is the just penalty. I agree," the governor said on his Web site.
While DNA tests for King were inconclusive, they helped free another Death Row inmate.
The state freed Rudolph Holton Jan. 24 after Florida's Supreme Court ordered a new trial because prosecutors failed to share some evidence with his attorneys during his trial for the 1986 murder of a Tampa teen. DNA tests also disproved one piece of evidence on a hair and fellow jail inmates had recanted their testimony.
Prosecutors reluctantly determined that they did not have enough other evidence to retry Holton.
Earlier this month, attorneys for death row inmate Paul Hildwin told a judge that DNA tests results exclude Hildwin as the person whose sperm was found in the body of a 42-year-old woman slain in 1985 in Hernando County. The judge asked Hildwin's lawyers for a written report explaining their new evidence before scheduling a hearing, which could be months away.
Another death row inmate, Frank Lee Smith, had already died in prison when DNA evidence cleared him in late 2000 of the 1985 rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Broward County.
About 90 minutes before King was scheduled to die Dec. 2, Bush agreed to postpone the execution to allow more DNA tests.
Three hairs and scrapings recovered from under the victim's fingernails were tested but yielded no results because they were too degraded. A third round of DNA tests on the nightgown Brady was wearing when she was slain and a pair of knitting needles used in the attack turned up no biological material of the attacker.
Bush rescheduled King's execution for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Florida State Prison near Starke.
King's state-appointed attorney has asked the Florida Supreme Court to stay the execution, arguing that evidence such as vaginal washings was destroyed by the state. "All other evidence has been tested and no evidence demonstrating Mr. King's guilt or innocence has been found," attorney Peter Cannon argued. "Mr. King's conviction is in serious question."
However, attorneys for the state called Cannon's argument "so outrageously editorialized that it should be stricken."
King, in a Feb. 12 letter to The Associated Press, said the inconclusive tests should vindicate him.
"I was just looking over the DNA testing results I regard as further evidence of my innocence through the results are inconclusive to nonexistent," King wrote after Bush had rescheduled his execution.
David Menschel, an attorney with The Innocence Project, said failure by the state to preserve important biological material for later testing was inexcusable.
"There are several good arguments for the death penalty," he said, "but there is no argument when the evidence is less than certain."
Bron: The Gainsville sun
http://www.sunone.com
Glossary
Death penalty Doodstraf
A trial Een rechtszaak
Evidence Bewijs
To execute Ter dood brengen
A punishment Straf
An offence Een vergrijp
A prosecutor Een aanklager
Death row De dodencel
To convict Schuldig bevinden, veroordelen
Capital punishment Doodstraf
An inmate Een gedetineerde
Supreme Court De hoge raad, hoogste gerechtshof
To commit a crime Een misdaad begaan
To abolish Afschaffen
Innocent Onschuldig
Conclusion
We don?t agree with the death penalty, for many reasons. First of all, before the discovery of DNA, many people were executed innocent. There are many cases, cfr. the second article, in which killers and rapists, who are condemned to be executed, were released a couple of hours before their execution. DNA evidence proved that they were innocent of their supposed crimes. In times past, it all depended on the opinion of the juries and the judges, who were, mostly, white people. Afro-Americans were often the victim of that racism. Even now, prisoners in death row are mostly black. Though slavery was abolished in the 19th century, black people are still not convicted equal to their white fellow citizens. Only in America, the land of opportunities. In Belgium, juries are always (?) impartial. Everyone is convicted equal and, of course, in Belgium there is no death penalty anymore. (After the second world war, German war criminals, such as the ones in Breendonck, were hanged, though.)
Another reason why we disagree, is because of the cruel way in which way the executions are performed. For instance, the electric chair is one of the cruelest ways to die: your brains are boiled, and if you don?t wear a blindfold, your eyes will jump out of your head, because of the pressure. Death by hanging is also a cruel way to die: if you don?t break your neck immediately, because of the fall, you die suffocating. The firing squad is the best way to die, after the lethal injection (if they aim right, of course. When used the injection, you die in your sleep, without any pain. Doctors often use executed prisoner?s organs as donors, so criminals can help other people. Sometimes it?s even more human to let someone die in a peaceful way, than to let someone lead the rest of his life in a prison, wanting to die. (Lots of lifers commit suicide in prison, or go crazy.
Not much of the convicted criminals are really being executed: some of them waited, and are waiting, several years. The main cause of death, by the way, in death row, is natural death: lots of the criminals die before their execution.
Also, there are to many inmates on death row. To deal with the rising number of new convicts, and to clear the backlog, the United States of America should execute one inmate every day, for the next 25 years! That means 9131 executions.
In the north of the USA, death penalty is rarely used as a punishment. Mostly, killers and rapists get lifelong, but not the capital punishment. But in the south, in states like Texas and Florida, capital punishment is currently used. Texas, for instance, has a leeding position when it comes to death penalty: 38% of the executions in the US are performed in Texas.
President George W. Bush, former gouvernor of Texas and member of the Republican Party, is in favour of capital punishment. His brother, Jeb Bush, is gouvernor of Florida: the two states where the most executions are being performed. Is this coincedence? We don?t think so.
At last, we will compare the Belgian way to deal with crime with the American.
First of all, there is no capital punishment any more in Belgium since 1996. That isn?t a long time ago, but death penalty hasn?t been used here since World War II, to punish German war criminals (as mentioned before). Death penalty is automatically being changed in a lifelong imprisonement. Capital punishment can only be used when a Belgian soldier commits a war crime. In the USA, eight states have already abolished death penalty and four never use it. So, 38 of them still think capital punishment is the solution to stop crime.
Still, the United States don?t perform the most executions in the world. China and Iran are the tragic record holders. In the whole African continent, death penalty is a regular punishment. In Asia, it is only abolished by India, Nepal and Israel. In Europe, only Greece, France, Spain and Russia use death penalty as a punishment, although rarely.
___________________________
questions:
-President Bush is being portraited in the european media as the characteristic ?dumb American?. Do you agree with that? After all, he could become president of the welthiest country in the world, and most Americans just adore him.
-Do you think there is a large gap between the American citizens who went to the universities and the one who haven?t? Is there some kind of isolation of the smarter people, apart from a large ?dumb? majority?
-Do you think something like that could happen also here, in Belgium?
PORTFOLIO
DEATH PENALTY IN THE USA
STEFANIE GABRI?LS
JAN GIELIS
Statistics: County uses
death penalty less frequently
HOUSTON - Despite a policy on capital murder cases that hasn't changed in more than a decade, recent statistics from the Harris County District Attorney show that the death penalty is handed out less frequently and prosecutors are less likely to seek the ultimate punishment than in years past.
First Assistant District Attorney Bert Graham said from 1995 to 1999, the district attorney's office requested jurors condemn a defendant in 86 of 372 capital murder trials - about one in four. From 2000 through June 2003, death was sought in 38 of 212 capital murder cases - about one in five.
In the last three years, juries on average have returned about seven death sentences a year compared to about a dozen per year from 1995 to 1999.
The Houston Chronicle reported Saturday that there has been an average of about 260 killings a year since 1996, much lower than numbers reported in decades past.
Bron: http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/081703/tex_countyuses.shtml
(Amarillo Globe News)
King faces execution after inconclusive DNA tests
JACKSONVILLE - New evidence has meant freedom for a few condemned killers in Florida, but DNA evidence that Amos King hoped would prove his innocence was inconclusive.
After 20 years on Death Row and three stays of execution in the past year, time is running out for King. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday for the 1977 rape and murder of a 68-year-old woman who lived near the Tarpon Springs Correctional Center, where King was a work-release inmate.
Florida leads the nation with 24 inmates freed from Death Row after their convictions were overturned by new evidence or legal arguments since 1975. DNA testing helped lead to the release of one of those inmates. It also cleared another, but he had already died on death row.
Gov. Jeb Bush says the state does not need a moratorium on executions to determine if the system is working. In Illinois, Gov. George Ryan halted executions in the state in 2000 and, before leaving office last month, commuted 167 death sentences. He cited concerns about trials, sentencing, the appeals process and a "spectacular failure" to reform the system.
Bush says "a moratorium on the death penalty would be a moratorium on justice and safety."
"The people of Florida have made it clear time and time again that, for especially egregious crimes, the ultimate penalty is the just penalty. I agree," the governor said on his Web site.
While DNA tests for King were inconclusive, they helped free another Death Row inmate.
The state freed Rudolph Holton Jan. 24 after Florida's Supreme Court ordered a new trial because prosecutors failed to share some evidence with his attorneys during his trial for the 1986 murder of a Tampa teen. DNA tests also disproved one piece of evidence on a hair and fellow jail inmates had recanted their testimony.
Prosecutors reluctantly determined that they did not have enough other evidence to retry Holton.
Earlier this month, attorneys for death row inmate Paul Hildwin told a judge that DNA tests results exclude Hildwin as the person whose sperm was found in the body of a 42-year-old woman slain in 1985 in Hernando County. The judge asked Hildwin's lawyers for a written report explaining their new evidence before scheduling a hearing, which could be months away.
Another death row inmate, Frank Lee Smith, had already died in prison when DNA evidence cleared him in late 2000 of the 1985 rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Broward County.
About 90 minutes before King was scheduled to die Dec. 2, Bush agreed to postpone the execution to allow more DNA tests.
Three hairs and scrapings recovered from under the victim's fingernails were tested but yielded no results because they were too degraded. A third round of DNA tests on the nightgown Brady was wearing when she was slain and a pair of knitting needles used in the attack turned up no biological material of the attacker.
Bush rescheduled King's execution for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Florida State Prison near Starke.
King's state-appointed attorney has asked the Florida Supreme Court to stay the execution, arguing that evidence such as vaginal washings was destroyed by the state. "All other evidence has been tested and no evidence demonstrating Mr. King's guilt or innocence has been found," attorney Peter Cannon argued. "Mr. King's conviction is in serious question."
However, attorneys for the state called Cannon's argument "so outrageously editorialized that it should be stricken."
King, in a Feb. 12 letter to The Associated Press, said the inconclusive tests should vindicate him.
"I was just looking over the DNA testing results I regard as further evidence of my innocence through the results are inconclusive to nonexistent," King wrote after Bush had rescheduled his execution.
David Menschel, an attorney with The Innocence Project, said failure by the state to preserve important biological material for later testing was inexcusable.
"There are several good arguments for the death penalty," he said, "but there is no argument when the evidence is less than certain."
Bron: The Gainsville sun
http://www.sunone.com
Glossary
Death penalty Doodstraf
A trial Een rechtszaak
Evidence Bewijs
To execute Ter dood brengen
A punishment Straf
An offence Een vergrijp
A prosecutor Een aanklager
Death row De dodencel
To convict Schuldig bevinden, veroordelen
Capital punishment Doodstraf
An inmate Een gedetineerde
Supreme Court De hoge raad, hoogste gerechtshof
To commit a crime Een misdaad begaan
To abolish Afschaffen
Innocent Onschuldig
Conclusion
We don?t agree with the death penalty, for many reasons. First of all, before the discovery of DNA, many people were executed innocent. There are many cases, cfr. the second article, in which killers and rapists, who are condemned to be executed, were released a couple of hours before their execution. DNA evidence proved that they were innocent of their supposed crimes. In times past, it all depended on the opinion of the juries and the judges, who were, mostly, white people. Afro-Americans were often the victim of that racism. Even now, prisoners in death row are mostly black. Though slavery was abolished in the 19th century, black people are still not convicted equal to their white fellow citizens. Only in America, the land of opportunities. In Belgium, juries are always (?) impartial. Everyone is convicted equal and, of course, in Belgium there is no death penalty anymore. (After the second world war, German war criminals, such as the ones in Breendonck, were hanged, though.)
Another reason why we disagree, is because of the cruel way in which way the executions are performed. For instance, the electric chair is one of the cruelest ways to die: your brains are boiled, and if you don?t wear a blindfold, your eyes will jump out of your head, because of the pressure. Death by hanging is also a cruel way to die: if you don?t break your neck immediately, because of the fall, you die suffocating. The firing squad is the best way to die, after the lethal injection (if they aim right, of course. When used the injection, you die in your sleep, without any pain. Doctors often use executed prisoner?s organs as donors, so criminals can help other people. Sometimes it?s even more human to let someone die in a peaceful way, than to let someone lead the rest of his life in a prison, wanting to die. (Lots of lifers commit suicide in prison, or go crazy.
Not much of the convicted criminals are really being executed: some of them waited, and are waiting, several years. The main cause of death, by the way, in death row, is natural death: lots of the criminals die before their execution.
Also, there are to many inmates on death row. To deal with the rising number of new convicts, and to clear the backlog, the United States of America should execute one inmate every day, for the next 25 years! That means 9131 executions.
In the north of the USA, death penalty is rarely used as a punishment. Mostly, killers and rapists get lifelong, but not the capital punishment. But in the south, in states like Texas and Florida, capital punishment is currently used. Texas, for instance, has a leeding position when it comes to death penalty: 38% of the executions in the US are performed in Texas.
President George W. Bush, former gouvernor of Texas and member of the Republican Party, is in favour of capital punishment. His brother, Jeb Bush, is gouvernor of Florida: the two states where the most executions are being performed. Is this coincedence? We don?t think so.
At last, we will compare the Belgian way to deal with crime with the American.
First of all, there is no capital punishment any more in Belgium since 1996. That isn?t a long time ago, but death penalty hasn?t been used here since World War II, to punish German war criminals (as mentioned before). Death penalty is automatically being changed in a lifelong imprisonement. Capital punishment can only be used when a Belgian soldier commits a war crime. In the USA, eight states have already abolished death penalty and four never use it. So, 38 of them still think capital punishment is the solution to stop crime.
Still, the United States don?t perform the most executions in the world. China and Iran are the tragic record holders. In the whole African continent, death penalty is a regular punishment. In Asia, it is only abolished by India, Nepal and Israel. In Europe, only Greece, France, Spain and Russia use death penalty as a punishment, although rarely.
___________________________
questions:
-President Bush is being portraited in the european media as the characteristic ?dumb American?. Do you agree with that? After all, he could become president of the welthiest country in the world, and most Americans just adore him.
-Do you think there is a large gap between the American citizens who went to the universities and the one who haven?t? Is there some kind of isolation of the smarter people, apart from a large ?dumb? majority?
-Do you think something like that could happen also here, in Belgium?