U.S. executions continue steady decline

[XXPANTHAXX]

Death penalty moratorium in New Jersey

By Gloria Rubac
Published Jan 22, 2006 11:17 AM

Amid growing national concern over flaws with capital
punishment, the New Jersey Assembly approved a one-year ban
on executions in the state and said it would study how the
death penalty is administered. And California’s State
Assembly is considering a bill that would enact a two-year
moratorium on executions.

New Jersey became the first state to pass a death penalty
moratorium into law through legislation when its assembly
voted 55-21 on Jan. 9 to suspend executions in the state
while a task force studies the fairness and costs of imposing
capital punishment. The Senate had passed the measure in
December. Gov. Richard Codey signed the bill into law on Jan.
12.

New Jersey’s moratorium will remain in effect until Jan. 15,
2007.

New Jersey is the third state to halt executions since
capital punishment was reinstated. Since 2000, executions
have been halted by executive order in Illinois and Maryland.
Maryland’s moratorium has since been lifted.

The death penalty statutes in New York and Kansas were both
found unconstitutional in 2004, but have not been remedied.

California is speeding up the pace of executions as public
support for the death penalty is waning. A bill now before
the California State Assembly would enact a moratorium on
executions while a commission reviews the problem of wrongful
convictions in the state.

A group of 40 police, current and former prosecutors, and
judges at the state and federal level have urged California
lawmakers to pass the legislation. These agents of the state
machinery do not oppose the death penalty on the basis that
it is a weapon of terror against the impoverished and
oppressed. They argued instead that legal lynchings should
be “just and fair� by killing those they deem “guilty.�

In the letter to the assembly, this group wrote, “Given that
DNA testing and other new evidence has proven that more than
120 people who sat on death rows around the country were
actually innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted,
we agree that a temporary suspension of executions in
California is necessary while we ensure, as much as possible,
that the administration of criminal justice in this state is
just, fair, and accurate.�

Assembly Bill 1121 calls for a moratorium on executions until
Jan. 1, 2009—two years after the newly-established “California
Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice� is set to
submit its findings to the legislature and governor.

The year 2005 was a year of extraordinary changes in the use
of the death penalty in the United States.

There were fewer than 100 death sentences handed down in
2005. This is the lowest number of death sentences since
capital punishment was reinstated in 1976 and it is down 60
percent since the late 1990s.

In 2005 the New York legislature refused to reinstate the
death penalty after the state’s highest court struck it down.
Texas became the 37th out of the 38 states which have the
death penalty to adopt life without parole as an option for
jurors. And the Supreme Court ruled states could not execute
those arrested for capital murder as juveniles and 71
juvenile offenders were taken off death rows, 28 in Texas
alone. The highest court also threw out the Texas conviction
of Thomas Miller-El because of racial bias in jury selection.
Miller-El is now in the Dallas county jail awaiting a new
trial.

The New Mexico House of Representatives passed a bill to
abolish the death penalty and lawmakers in Massachusetts
overwhelmingly defeated a proposal by their governor for
a “foolproof� death penalty.

Public support dropping

In October 2005, a Gallup Poll found 64 percent in support of
capital punishment, the lowest level in 27 years. And a CBS
News Poll found that when given sentencing options, only 39
percent chose the death penalty, 39 percent chose life
without parole and 6 percent chose a long sentence.

Sixty people were executed in 2005, down 39 percent from 1999
when a record high of 98 people were put to death. On Dec. 2,
the U.S. conducted the 1,000th execution since the death
penalty was reinstated in 1976. But this bitter historical
milestone in the history of the death penalty comes at a time
when the use of the death penalty in this country is steadily
declining. Death sentences, the size of death row, executions
and public support for the death penalty are all lower than
they were five years ago.

Editorial writers, even across the South where the vast
majority of executions take place, have recently criticized
the death penalty. The Birmingham News wrote that “after
decades of supporting the death penalty, the editorial board
no longer can do so� based on practical and ethical reasons.

After a series in the Houston Chronicle exposed that Ruben
Cantu, who was executed in 1993 was probably innocent, The
Austin American Statesman editorialized, “We’re not talking
about a few flaws, but rather deep inequities and defects
that deny defendants the basics for a fair trial, including
competent lawyers and investigators and thorough and rigorous
appeals. ... We can’t bring Cantu back. But his case can
yield constructive lessons about how to fix Texas’ capital
punishment system.�

But Texas death penalty activist Njeri Shakur answers, “The
system is working just as it was intended—the racism and the
anti-poor bias is at the foundation of the criminal justice
system.

“The whole system is what needs changing because the one we
now have does not work for us—it works for the rich,
corporate elite. In a just society, people would not be in
prison or be executed because they are poor or they are
people of color. We have a lot of changes to make!�

Rubac is a long-time activist in the struggle to abolish the
racist, anti-poor death penalty.

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NEW YORK CITY

Garnering support for political prisoners

By Anne Pruden
Published Jan 22, 2006 11:07 AM
Workers World Newspaper

Former political prisoner Herman Ferguson chaired the 10th
annual commemoration dinner to support political prisoners.
The event was called by New York’s Malcolm X Commemoration
Committee under the theme “No Surrender, No Retreat.�

With numerous speakers and Jericho’s Preserve musicians to
entertain and inspire, the dinner was a fundraiser to help
prisoners with their needs—stamps, phone call expenses, etc.—
and to build political support.

This year’s dinner paid special attention to the reactionary
abuse of prisoners in Pennsylvania, where they have suffered
repeated attacks by State Correction Institute guards. At SCI
Greene—where Mumia Abu-Jamal is imprisoned on death row and
where Abu Ghraib torturer Charles Grainer worked—prisoners
suffer sleep deprivation with lights on 24 hours a day.

Guards are known to withhold food, showers and water from
prisoners, who are under lock down 23 hours a day. In some
cases they’ve even been denied toilet paper, toothpaste and
writing pens.