News Update 8.27.07
North Carolina
A victory in Pasquotank County – a jury took just over half an hour to decide that Donald Carlton Lowry does not deserve to die. He was sentenced instead to life without parole.
Love Lived on Death Row will be showing in the multipurpose room of Central Carolina Community College’s Pittsboro Campus on September 20 at 6:45 PM. The documentary tells the story of the children of a man who was executed by the State in 2005.
Elsewhere
According to The New York Times, Alberto Gonzales has resigned the position of Attorney General. CNN is reporting that he will be replaced by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Allegations of perjury before Congress are only the most recent scandal for Gonzales, who has also been accused of firing assistant attorney generals for not being aggressive enough in seeking capital punishment.
A new study by law professors Eric Freedman (Hofstra) and David Dow (U-Houston) shows that the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act has dramatically reduced the number of death sentences overturned in federal court. By denying courts the power to grant relief in most cases, even cases involving innocence, Congress has greatly increased the likelihood of wrongful executions. The DOJ recently proposed new rules that would further increase this risk. (c/o DPIC).
From Florida, plans to involve more medical professionals in executions. Florida currently protects the identity of doctors who perform executions by decking them out in purple hazmat suits that cover them from head to toe. Perhaps the whole team can get together and form a big, space-age rainbow of death. More colorful that hooded black robes, I suppose.
China‘s Supreme People’s Court has OK’d capital punishment for people convicted of sabotaging the power grid. This appears to be directed at people who steal power cables to sell the copper they contain.
