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A federal judge in Boston declared, in a death penalty case, "that there was mounting evidence innocent people were being executed." In his decision, he noted that there were "exonerations of over 100 people on death row based on DNA and other evidence." But he refused to declare the death penalty unconstitutional. Nevertheless, the Massachusetts governor, a conservative politician, is considering suspending executions and urging the legislature to rewrite capital criminal law to avoid, insofar as possible, mistaken convictions and executions. The previous Illinois governor commuted many death penalty convicts to life imprisonment without parole just before his term ended. He cited the much exoneration of capital crime convicts as reason for the commutations. Project Innocence, based at Cardozo Law School in New York has won the exoneration of many persons convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Their use of DNA evidence was groundbreaking. On the other hand, the Attorney General of the United States, John Ashcroft, has directed his regional federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in many more murder cases. Mr. Ashcroft has argued that capital punishment is justified in numerous egregious murder cases. However, in the last 20 federal capital cases, federal juries rendered acquittals or life imprisonments in 19 cases. A federal jury recently refused to mete out the death penalty to one of the Washington area snipers and elected to send him to prison for life without parole instead. Since juries are increasingly rejecting the capital punishment in the penalty phase of trials, the Justice Department "may actually be engaging in a counterproductive exercise." The Supreme Court of the United States "has held that courts may take into account evolving standards of decency in deciding whether punishments violate the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment." And now, comes the question of the death penalty for Saddam Hussein and his cohorts. Newschat.org would like your opinion. Simply log onto www.newschat.org, register and give us your comments. Free Membership Click here to join http://www.newschat.org For More Info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe to this Email Please Click Below http://www.newschat.org/newschat/emailAddform.cfm HWHPR Enterprises 2004 _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
