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INNOCENCE:
another Inmate is exonerated, after 16 Years on Death Row
On December 5,
a Tennessee jury acquitted Michael Lee McCormick of the
1985 murder of Donna Jean Nichols, a crime for which McCormick spent 16
years on death row. In his first trial, the prosecution introduced hair
evidence from Nichols’ car that the FBI said matched McCormick. DNA
testing later found that the hair did not match McCormick and this
evidence was not permitted in the new trial. McCormick’s attorney, Karla
Gothard said after the trial, "We have been living with this case for
years, and we are immensely relieved. I can't imagine what Michael
McCormick is feeling."
Special Judge Jon Kerry
Blackwood commented, "The way this case has lingered on, there has not
been closure for Michael McCormick for 20 years. This system is not
perfect, but somehow it works itself out." http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
New Jersey Moves Closer to
Abolishing the Death Penalty:
By an 8-4 vote on Dec. 3, the
New Jersey Senate Budget Committee voted to advance a bill to
replace the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison without
parole. The bill would make New Jersey the first state to legislatively
abolish the death penalty since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the
death penalty in 1976.
In January of 2007, a New
Jersey commission began investigating capital punishment and its place
in the state’s criminal justice system. Their report found that not only
was their no clear evidence that the death penalty deterred murder, but
also that it was more expensive than sentencing a person to life in
prison.
The death penalty bill is
expected to be put to a full vote in the New Jersey Senate and Assembly
before the legislative session ends on Jan. 8, 2008. Governor Jon
Corzine supports the bill.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
UN moratorium on death
penalty:
A resolution for a global
moratorium on executions was passed on November 15 by the UN
General Assembly's Third (Human Rights) Committee by a vote of 99-52.
The resolution calls on countries to
restrict the use
of the death penalty and reduce the number of offences for which it may
be imposed. It
establishes a
moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. It
calls upon States which have abolished the death penalty not to
reintroduce it.
The
resolution must still be submitted to the 192-member general assembly
for a vote. If approved, it would be non-binding, but would carry moral
weight.
The
United
States
and China joined many developing countries, notably from the Islamic
world, in voting against the resolution.
More
information:
People of
Faith against the Death Penalty:
http://pfadp.org/index.html
Catholics
against capital punishment:
http://www.cacp.org/ |
