June 1
USA:
2 in 3 Favor Death Penalty for Convicted Murderers----Public divided over
death penalty or life imprisonment as better punishment
Gallup's latest update on support for the death penalty finds most
Americans continue to support the execution of convicted murderers. When
given an explicit choice between the death penalty and life imprisonment
with no possibility of parole, however, Americans divide evenly as to
which is the better penalty for murder. Even though Americans believe
innocent people have been executed in the last 5 years and doubt that the
death penalty deters people from committing murder, most Americans believe
it is applied fairly in this country and say it should be used more often.
Basic Support for the Death Penalty
65 % of Americans say they favor the death penalty for convicted
murderers, according to a Gallup Poll conducted May 5-7, 2006. This level
of support is similar to what Gallup has found over the past 3 years.
Since 2000, roughly 2 in 3 Americans have favored the death penalty, with
2 slightly higher 70% readings in May 2003 and October 2002.
The current level of support is on par with what Gallup measured in the
late 1970s and early 1980s, just after the death penalty was reinstated in
this country. Support was higher from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s --
consistently above 70% and reaching a high of 80% in September 1994.
More Americans have favored than opposed the death penalty each time this
question has been asked since 1936, with just one exception. In a May 1966
Gallup poll, the public opposed the death penalty by a 47% to 42% margin.
That reading came as the country was debating the legality of the death
penalty. The 1972 Supreme Court ruling in Furman v. Georgia voided all
state death penalty statutes. No executions took place in the United
States from 1968 to 1976. In 1976 the Court ruled in Gregg v. Georgia that
newly written state statutes that addressed the Court's early concerns
were constitutional.
Although in principle roughly 2/3 of Americans are supportive of the death
penalty, they divide evenly in their preference of life imprisonment with
no possibility of parole versus the death penalty as the better punishment
in murder cases. Given these explicit alternatives, 47% prefer the death
penalty and 48% life imprisonment. Americans have typically shown a slight
preference for the death penalty on this measure -- usually just above
50%.
In general, Republicans are more likely to support the death penalty than
Democrats, and men are more likely to support it than women. A majority of
all these groups say they favor the death penalty for those convicted of
murder (84% of Republicans, 63% of independents, and 52% of Democrats; 69%
of men and 61% of women).
However, when given the choice of the death penalty or life imprisonment,
Republicans choose the death penalty by a 64% to 31% margin, while
Democrats choose life imprisonment by a 63% to 31% margin. A majority of
men believe the death penalty is the better punishment for murder (56% to
39%), while a majority of women disagree and believe life imprisonment is
the better option (55% to 39%).
The Death Penalty in America
In addition to gauging basic public support for the death penalty, Gallup
routinely asks questions designed to assess the way Americans feel about
some of the specific controversies associated with the death penalty. The
public clearly recognizes some of the problems with the use of capital
punishment in this country, but on balance still views it positively.
For example, a majority of Americans, 63%, agree with critics of the death
penalty that innocent people have been executed under the death penalty in
recent years. Only 27% believe this has not happened in the past 5 years.
In 2 previous measurements, at least 59% of Americans said they think that
people have been executed for crimes they did not commit.
Additionally, Americans dispute the notion, espoused by some death penalty
proponents, that it deters people from committing murder. Just 34% believe
it does, while 64% believe it does not. Americans' attitudes on this have
changed dramatically over time -- in the 1980s and early 1990s, most
Americans believed the death penalty did act as a deterrent to murder.
Previous Gallup polls have shown Americans support the death penalty
because they believe it provides justice ("an eye for an eye") and
revenge, not because of its practical effect in deterring future murders.
Despite recognizing that innocent people may have been executed, most
Americans still say the death penalty is applied fairly in this country.
60 % say so in the most recent poll, conducted May 8-11, and a majority
has held this view since Gallup first asked about it in 2000.
Only about 1 in 5 Americans believe the death penalty is imposed too
often. That sentiment has been consistent over the past 6 years. Americans
are much more likely to believe that the death penalty is not imposed
often enough -- 51% hold that view in the current survey, and close to 1/2
have done so since 2002. That leaves about 1 in 4 Americans who believe
the death penalty is used about the right amount of time.
Survey Methods
These results are based on telephone interviews with randomly selected
national samples of approximately 500 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted
May 5-7 and May 8-11, 2006. For results based on this sample, one can say
with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and
other random effects is 5 percentage points. In addition to sampling
error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys
can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
[see: http://poll.gallup.com/content/default.aspx?ci=23167&pg=2]
(source: Gallup News Service)
OKLAHOMA----impending execution
74-year-old death row inmate to be executed
A 74-year-old Oklahoma death row inmate will be executed this evening
unless the U-S Supreme Court steps in.
John Boltz is to be put to death at 6 p-m for killing his 22-year-old
stepson in 1984 and would be the oldest person ever executed in Oklahoma.
But Boltz's attorneys are asking the Supreme Court to block the execution
while he challenges the constitutionality of the lethal injection used to
execute inmates in Oklahoma.
Boltz was convicted of stabbing Doug Kirby to death when Kirby went to
Boltz's home to talk about threats Boltz had made to Pat Kirby. Pat Kirby
was Doug Kirby's mother and was married to Boltz at the time.
Medical examiners say Doug Kirby was stabbed eight times and nearly
decapitated.
Boltz claims he acted in self-defense.
****************************
Convicted killer gets death sentence
A man convicted in the February 2004 stabbing death of his girlfriend in
Oklahoma City is being given the death penalty.
Judge Twyla Mason Gray followed the jury's recommendation and formally
sentenced Randal Ray Hunt to die for killing Wynona Reames.
Reames' mother found her daughter's body after Reames failed to show up
for work and didn't answer phone calls.
Hunt testified during his trial that he stabbed Reames ten times, but
never meant to kill her.
(source for both: Associated Press)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Court Clears Way for Execution
The state Supreme Court has decided a 38-year-old death row inmate who
kidnapped, raped and murdered a 6-year-old boy is mentally competent to
agree to be executed.
The justices will issue a death warrant and set an execution date unless
William Downs, Jr., decides in the next two weeks to appeal the court's
ruling.
Downs has asked to die since he pleaded guilty in 2002.
Circuit Judge Casey Manning sentenced Downs to death after he told the
judge it would be disrespectful to the family and world not to impose a
death sentence.
The body of Keenan O'Mailia of North Augusta was found in 1999 covered
with debris. The boy disappeared the evening before, when he was riding
his bicycle along a dirt path near his home.
(source: Associated Press)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Execution date set for killer
A Kunkletown man convicted of murdering 2 men in Polk Township in 2001 is
scheduled to be put to death on July 27 after Gov. Ed Rendell signed an
execution warrant Tuesday.
Manuel Sepulveda, 27, is 1 of 2 Pennsylvania death row inmates scheduled
to die by lethal injection in July. Mark Spotz of Schuylkill County,
sentenced for kidnapping, robbing and killing a woman in 1995, is slated
for July 25.
Sepulveda's execution would be Pennsylvania's 4th since 1978, when the
death penalty came back into law in the state, according to the state
Department of Corrections. Sepulveda would be the 1st Monroe County
resident, at least in recent history, to be executed.
(source: Pocono Record)
WISCONSIN:
Wisconsin reconsiders the death penalty
The Wisconsin State Assembly recently voted to include an advisory
referendum on the November ballot on whether Wisconsin should reinstate
the death penalty, which was abolished in 1835. As of press time, the
State Senate has yet to take up the matter, but is expected to pass it.
The Legislature would still then have to vote the bill into law.
A recent poll conducted by the St. Norbert College Survey Center and
Wisconsin Public Radio found that 61 % of Wisconsinites favor reinstating
the death penalty. So it would seem that public opinion is firmly in favor
of capital punishment. But is this a good reason to reinstate the death
penalty?
Proponents like to refer to the death penalty as the ultimate punishment.
They argue that capital punishment is a strong deterrent to crime and that
it costs taxpayers less than life sentences. The truth of the matter,
though, is that the research on capital punishment as a crime deterrent
indicates that states that have capital punishment and account for most of
the state-sanctioned executions in the country have higher homicide rates
overall than states that do not allow capital punishment or use it less
frequently. Death penalty cases are also not less expensive than non-death
penalty cases.
Then there is the question of race. Nationwide, a disproportionately hight
number of inmates on death row are African-American. Will Wisconsin be
able to administer capital punishment without such a racial bias? Lastly,
and most importantly, theres the larger moral question of whether the
state should be in the business of putting its citizens to death.
Crime and punishment
There is much disagreement over whether capital punishment is a deterrent
to violent crime, but when one compares the crime rates of states with the
death penalty and those without, the argument in favor appears weak.
According to 2003 FBI Uniform Crime Rates Data, 10 of the 12 states
without capital punishment have homicide rates below the national average
- 4.74 homicides per 100,000 people. Wisconsin came in at just under 3.5.
Texas, the poster child for capital punishment, had a homicide rate almost
twice that of Wisconsin, just under 6.5.
As a whole, the South tends to execute more inmates than any other region
of the country. However, the South also tends to have the highest homicide
rate. Consider also that the homicide rate in Wisconsin has been on the
decline since 1993.
Proponents of capital punishment also advance the argument that life
sentences cost taxpayers far more than executions. In actuality, death
penalty cases cost taxpayers more than non-death penalty cases. A 2003
Kansas legislative audit found that death penalty cases were costing the
state 70 % more than non-death penalty case average, $1.26 million from
trial to execution. The average cost for a non-death penalty case from
trial to the end of incarceration was $740,000. But cost is not an
acceptable argument for or against capital punishment as far as I am
concerned. There is something patently vulgar about reducing human life to
dollars and cents. Taking all this into account, it is difficult to
understand just why we need capital punishment or even why we are having
this debate.
Racial disparity
There can be little dispute that African-Americans make up a
disproportionately high percentage of the death row population. According
to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2004, 1,390 - or 42 % - of the
3,315 total death row inmates were African-Americans. Whites made up 1,850
- or 56 percent - of total inmates on death row. African-Americans, I
remind you, make up only 12 % of the total population.
In Wisconsin, the incarceration rate of African-Americans far exceeds that
of whites. According to a 2002 U.S. Bureau of Justice report, Wisconsin
leads the nation in incarceration of African-Americans. This is true
despite the fact that African-Americans make up only 5 % of the population
of Wisconsin.
As much as we'd like to believe that justice is blind, it is not. It is
certainly not color blind. The unfortunate truth is that the race of the
victim and the race of the offender matters. A 2001 University of North
Carolina study found that the odds of being sentenced to death increased
by 3.5 percent if the victim was white. A Department of Justice study
conducted in 2000 found that between 1995 and 2000, 80 % of federal cases
seeking the death penalty involved people of color. In light of all this,
do we really believe that Wisconsin will be able to administer the death
penalty more fairly? 10 years from now, will we be talking about the
disproportionate number of African-Americans on death row in Wisconsin?
An eye for an eye
The larger question about capital punishment is whether the state should
execute its citizens. The ethical issues are clear. If we as a society
believe that murder is wrong, how do we reconcile this belief with capital
punishment? There are those who say that heinous homicides warrant the
execution of the offender. I can appreciate this argument. It is a natural
emotional reaction to want to kill those who kill, particularly for the
family of the victim. I imagine this is one reason we dont allow people
emotionally invested in a case to sit on the jury. But in the end, it is
simply hypocritical and ironic to punish people for murder by murdering
them.
Let's be honest about why we're having this discussion over capital
punishment. Its not about deterring crime or making the streets safer for
law-abiding citizens. It's about retribution. If Wisconsin overturns its
more than 150-year-old ban of capital punishment, it will be clear that
we'd prefer to dispense vengeance rather than justice.
(source: Commentary, Vital Source Magazine----Frizell Bailey - Frizell
Bailey is a freelance writer and reporter currently pursuing his Masters
of Journalism at UWM. He also writes for The Guardian.
OHIO:
Ohio high court voids Tenace death penalty
By a single vote, the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday overturned the death
penalty sentence of Troy Tenace for the killing and robbery of a
76-year-old Toledo man in 1994.
The high court upheld the conviction of Tenace for the murder of Edward
Kozlowski during a robbery at the victim's Wamba Avenue home.
However, the justices, in a 4-3 vote, set aside the death sentence that
was twice imposed in Lucas County Common Pleas Court on Tenace, who had
done home repair work for the victim.
The court said a lesser sentence of life in prison was appropriate, in
part, because of mitigating factors in the defendant's upbringing,
including an abusive home and drug usage, and that those factors
outweighed the brutality of the crime.
In writing for the majority, Justice Judith Lanzinger said Tenace was
raised by a mother who was addicted to drugs and that his childhood was a
"tutorial for criminal behavior."
"Tenace was doomed from the start," she wrote.
The court also said the defendant showed remorse for the crimes and
cooperated with police.
Justice Lanzinger was joined in the ruling by Chief Justice Thomas Moyer
and Justices Paul Pfeifer and Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, who wrote a
separate concurring opinion.
"One cannot imagine a more terrible, depraved, and damaging childhood than
that which the defendant suffered. He was victimized constantly as a
child. The only skills taught to him by the adults in his life were how to
commit a crime and how to abuse drugs," Justice Stratton wrote.
Tenace, 44, who is on death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution,
will be returned to Lucas County, where he will be resentenced by Judge
Denise Ann Dartt.
"The Supreme Court did the right thing," said Tenace's attorney, Jeffrey
Gamso. "When you take into consideration the facts of his truly horrific
background that this man had growing up. It is the only right conclusion."
Mr. Kozlowski was found dead Jan. 28, 1994, by his brother.
Tenace, then 31 and a drug addict, went to the victim's home 2 days
earlier under the guise of returning an overpayment for repair work on a
chimney. He gained entry to the home, overcame the victim, and then
gagged, strangled, and stomped on him with heavy boots. Mr. Kozlowski
suffered a broken nose, head injuries, fractured ribs, and severe bruising
to the neck, consistent with being strangled.
Justices Alice Robie Resnick, Maureen O'Connor, and Terrence O'Donnell
concurred with the court in upholding the convictions, but dissented in
reversing the death penalty.
Justice O'Connor agreed that the defendant's background was "lamentable,"
but she didn't believe it was enough to overcome the fact that Tenace
brutally killed the victim to conceal the robbery.
Tenace also was convicted in New York and sentenced to 25 years to life
for killing a 42-year-old woman about six weeks before he killed Mr.
Kozlowski.
Then-Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Christiansen sent Tenace
to death row in 1994 after a jury convicted him of aggravated robbery and
aggravated murder.
However, the state 6th District Court of Appeals said Tenace should have
been allowed to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and
reversed the conviction.
At the second trial in 1999, a jury again convicted him of the crimes and
recommended death, which Judge Christiansen imposed.
According to the ruling, Tenace would be 96 years old before he would be
eligible to go before the parole board if he received the maximum
sentences for the crimes.
J. Christopher Anderson, an assistant county prosecutor who tried the
case, said reversing a death sentence based on childhood background
creates a precedent that would impact many similar cases.
(source: Toledo Blade)
**************
Death penalty reversed over a bad childhood
In Columbus, the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed the death
penalty for a man who strangled and stomped a 76-year-old man during a
robbery, saying his chaotic childhood with abusive parents along with
other factors outweighed the brutality of the crime.
The 4-3 opinion also noted that Troy Tenace, 44, expressed remorse when he
confessed in 1994, and that he would not be eligible for parole until age
96 if he received the maximum sentence along with a 25-year sentence for
crimes in New York.
Any one factor alone wouldn't reverse the death sentence, but the
combination of the 3 is enough to argue for prison over execution, the
majority said.
The justices upheld Tenace's conviction for robbing and killing Chester
Kozlowski in his Toledo home.
The ruling sends the case back to Lucas County for resentencing.
(source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA, OKLA., S.C., PENN., WIS., OHIO
Rick Halperin Thu, 1 Jun 2006 09:16:06 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
