"Alternative Sentencing Summary" Nov. 1993, published by the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "Life-Without-Parole" Julian H. Wright, Vanderbilt Law Review 43, pp. 530-568.
"An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation. Justice is never advanced in the taking of human life. Morality is never upheld by legalized murder." Coretta Scott King
The only way to demonstrate that killing is wrong is to abolish the death penalty. Amnesty International calls for the immediate and unconditional global abolition of the death penalty. It also calls on all states within the United States to abolish the death penalty. Please join Amnesty International in working to end the death penalty. Call or write your governor and legislators to change the laws.
ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY NOW!
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Taken From The Book:
DEAD MAN WALKING by Sister Helen Prejean
According to research conducted by the National Coaliation to Abolish the Death Penalty, as of August 1992, seventeen death-penalty sates have "true" life-sentences-without-parole:
Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Washington.
Twelve death-penalty states have "life-without-parole" sentences where parole is possible after a minimum number (at least twenty) of years served:
Arazona, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
Of non-death-penalty states eight have "true" life-sentences-without-parole:
Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, RHode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia.
Three have minimum time served statutes:
Alaska, Kansas, and North Dakota.
Ten states have unspecified life sentences. Of these the death-penalty states are:
Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Mexico, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
The non-death-penalty states are:
Minnesota, New York, and Wisconsin.
If a D.A. knows he's up against a top notch defense attorney, he'll think twice about prosecuting for the "max" and maybe losing, and so be much more amendable to a plea bargain - reducing the charge in exchange for admission of guilt - and there won't even be a trial.
The application of the death penalty is like a lottery because such a small percentage of murderers get the death penalty - 1 or 2 percent of the thousands who commit homicide every year. And of those receiving death sentences, only a fraction are executed.
Most people think this 1 or 2 percent who go to death row must have committed the most heinous, premeditated, cold-blooded murders, but you see in many, many of these cases panic murders by defendants who have a history of child abuse or have had head injuries or who are mentally retarded or outright insane. Or kids... Some juveniles get caught in the net too.
Race, poverty, and geography determine who gets the death penalty - if the victim is white, if the defendant is poor, and whether or not the local D.A. is willing to plea-bargain.
The public has no idea how much discretionary power the D.A. has in determing indictments. Grand juries, which state constitutions provide to guarantee that the charge matches the crime, generally go along with the indictment the D.A. wants. At grand jury hearings only government witnesses appear, defense is excluded, and the presentation of exculpatory evidence - evidence that points to innocence - is not required.
In 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court in Furman had found the death penalty "arbitrary and capricious" in its appication and hence unconstitutional.
any less arbitrary and copricious today."
www.amnestyusa.org/abolish
A recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977, Amnesty International works for the abolition of the death penalty as part of its continuing efforts to protect human rights around the world.
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