Important+events+for+Death+Penalty

Home Timeline History of Action Already Taken People Involved =Events=

In 1948, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Give the right of every individual to protect from deprivation of life. Stating no one shall be subjct to cruel or degrading punishment; the death penalty violate those rights. Still the United States continue to perform death penalties and snice 1973 over 130 people were released from death row due to evidence of their innocence. The world are trying hard to abolish the death pentaly and actions have been taken.

1993: The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia said the death penalty is not an option, even to the most heinous crime known to civilization and it includes genocide 1995: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child went into force and Article 37(a) prohibits the death penalty for persons under the age of 18. May 18, 2009: Gorvenor Richadson signed a bill that ends death penaly in New Mexico November 20, 2009: Russia's Constitutional Court decided to extend the current moratorium on executions, which will expire in January, and recommended abolishing the death penlty completely

Innocents on Death Row
The main causes for puting innocent people on death row are unfair trail, police and prosecutorial misconduct, mistaken eyewitness testimony, political pressure, and racial prejudice.

1997: Illinois halted executions when DNA testing found 52% inmates on death row were innocent. Former Illinois Governor Geogre Ryan, in January 2000, stated //"I cannot support a system which, in its administration, has proven so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare, the state's taking of innocent life... Until I can be sure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty, until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate."//

1970s: Dennis Williams, Verneal Jimerson, Willie Raines, and Kenny Adams, or called the Ford Heights Four, were convicted of double murder and rape of a white couple despite no physical evidence for that claim. Shortly after their arrest, the police was tipped off the true killer's identity, but with four poor black men in custody they thought it was good enough regardless they are guilty or innocent. They remain on death row for 18 years until DNA testing exonerated them.

In Texas there were innocent men executed and found innocent after they got excecuted during Governor Bush's time. These following men are innocent but they are just the few compared to others.

//Frank Basil McFarland// was executed for a rape/murder despite multiple inconsistencies in the state’s case, altered evidence, purchased and coerced testimony, and suppressed evidence of guilt. After execcution, he was found innocent by DNA testing.

//Troy Farris// was convicted of the murder of a police officer. DNA proved he was innocent. Gov. George W Bush deny clemency. Troy Farris was execcuted.

//Jerry Lee Hogue// was convicted of an arson/murder. Another individual later admited to the crime, but was denied further investigation by Gov. Bush. Mr Hogue was execcuted.

//David Stoker// was convicted of capital murder based on the testimony of three witnesses, who later recanted their testimony. Doubts aside, Gov. Bush executed Mr. Stoker.

//Richard Wayne Jones//, was convicted of a murder despite strong evidence that his sister’s boyfriend had committed it. DNA testing was denied by Gov. Bush, and approved his execution.

//Willie Williams// and //Joseph Nichols// both shot at their murder victim, but only one hit him. In order to execute both, Texas argued that each had killed the man; in one trial, the state argued that Mr. Williams had shot the victim and Mr. Nichols had missed, and in the next trial, the state argued that Mr. Nichols had shot the victim and Mr. Williams had missed. Both were convicted of capital murder. Mr. Williams was executed by Gov. Bush; Mr. Nichols is still on death row.

//James Lee Beathard// was convicted of capital murder based on the testimony of the admitted murderer, Gene Hathorn. Still, Gov. Bush executed Mr. Beathard, though he was innovent.

//Gary Graham// was convicted of capital murder on the basis of one eyewitness’s testimony. Despite DNA evidence that provees otherwise, Mr. Graham was executed by Gov. Bush.

//David Wayne Spence// was convicted of capital murder although no physical evidence linked him to the crime and almost every witness against him admitted that his or her testimony had been purchased or coerced. DNA evidence says that another man had committed the triple murder. Nevertheless, Gov. Bush executed Mr. Spence. We may never know how people who were excecuted on death row were innocent. =Death Penalty and Race= = = In 1990 a non-partisan U.S. General Accounting Office made a report that founds a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty. As well a study said the defendant are more likely to be sentence to death if their murder victim is white. Many studies show the race of the victim is the single most reliable predictor of whether someone will be sentenced to death. 2007: The American Bar Association sponsored a report concluded from the African-American death row inmates in Philadelphia that one-third of them would have been sentenced to life of imprisonment if they are not African-American. January 2003 study revealed from the University of Maryland saying race and geography are majors factors for death penalty decisions. 2007: Yale University School, through their studies, reveals African-Americans are 3 times more likely to recieve the death penalty than whites if their victim is white. As well killers of white people are treated more severely than those who kill minorities.

//**"We simply cannot say we live in a country that offers equal justice to all Americans when racial disparities plague the system by which our society imposes the ultimate punishment."** Senator Russ Feingold on Civil Rights as a Priority for the 108th Congress, Senate, January 2003//

=Hear US OUT!= All of the people metion are victims of the death row, innocent, or do against the death penalty. The UN made clear that the death penalty is a vilolation of human rights stated in the UDHR. We must uphold the laws and listen to evidence to find any inmates who are innocent, not ignore. The police will solve the crime in their own time, we must not pressure them so much they just bring in a scapegoat and convict them of murder. The people must be equal to all defendents, who murdered people of different races. It is unfair to treat them more severly to those who killed white people, than those who killed the minorities. There are people from death row who dropped their right to appeal and called, "volunteers," and they don't want to overturn their death sentence. With that drop of appeal, it has become a "state-assisted suicide" or "prisoner-assisted homicide". About 134 volunteer executions occured snice 1977 and it is 11% of all executions. Some say the death penalty is for the most henious crimes, but many times a man went to death row for murdering one person and another went to life without parole is a serial killer. The United States perhaps one of the few countries in the Western world to have the death penalty. Now, with more DNA testing proving their innocence, and movement to prove one person's innocence as well, there will be more innocent people executed if those evidence are ignored. We need to understand death penalty is not fair and just, it is not irreversible and doesn't make it look tough on crime. It is the new lynching, due to the majority going to the death row for killing a white person than killing minorities. We need to bring equal justices to courts and stop the executions. Now over two-thirds of the world's countries, exactly 137, have abolish the death penalty in law or practice. This shows the world is moving foward and we need to move foward with them to protect human rights.

«My brother was mugged for the cash in his pocket. Killing those we condemn does not make a safer world. By cranking the wheel of the cycle of violence we amplify it; we infect us all.» -- **Merida Blanco**, whose brother was murdered.

«I don't think there's any words in the English language to explain what it's--what it's like to--to sit on Texas death row and your thoughts are laying on that gurney, convicted but innocent and being put to death.» -- **Kerry Max Cook**, twice convicted and sentenced to death for the 1977 rape murder of an 21-year-old secretary in Tyler, TX; released after 22 years (Remark: Cook was not formally exonerated; DNA tests later confirmed that semen found on the victim's clothes was not his), NBC, 9/3/2000. = = = = = = = = = = = = =[]= =[]= =[]= =[]= =[]= =[]= =[]= =[] []=