Archivo etiqueta «Pena de muerte»
By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Andrew Grossman, lawyers in Washington. D.C. Rivkin served in the Justice Department under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 326/10/11):
On the September night that the state of Georgia put Troy Davis to death, a crowd of several hundred gathered at the Supreme Court in Washington to protest America’s continued practice of capital punishment. But they were in the wrong place. The protesters should have assembled 600 miles southeast, in Atlanta. The Constitution does not empower the Supreme Court to proscribe capital punishment or to regulate it out of existence, … Seguir leyendo
Por Peter Singer, profesor de Bioética en la Universidad de Princeton y profesor laureado en la Universidad de Melbourne. Entre sus libros, figuran Practical Ethics (“Ética práctica”), The Expanding Circle (“El circulo en expansión”) y The Life You Can Save (“La vida que podéis salvar”). Traducido del inglés por Rocío L. Barrientos (Project Syndicate, 12/10/11):
Tres acontecimientos significativos relacionados con la pena de muerte se produjeron en los Estados Unidos durante el mes de septiembre. El más publicitado fue la ejecución en Georgia de Troy Davis, quien fue condenado el año 1989 por el asesinato de Mark McPhail, un … Seguir leyendo
By Dahlia Lithwick, a senior editor at Slate who covers the Supreme Court and Lisa T. McElroy, an associate professor of law at Drexel University (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 23/09/11):
On Wednesday night, Troy Davis was executed for a crime he may or may not have committed. But the real crime on Wednesday night was the action — or really the lack of action, the absolute radio silence — of the United States Supreme Court, which, as the nation watched and waited, did nothing for 203 minutes past the scheduled execution time. Or at least nothing anyone could … Seguir leyendo
By Mr. Shemtob, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Central Connecticut State University and Mr. Lat, a former federal prosecutor and the founder of Above the Law, a legal blog (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 31/07/11):
Earlier this month, Georgia conducted its third execution this year. This would have passed relatively unnoticed if not for a controversy surrounding its videotaping. Lawyers for the condemned inmate, Andrew Grant DeYoung, had persuaded a judge to allow the recording of his last moments as part of an effort to obtain evidence on whether lethal injection caused unnecessary suffering.
Though he argued … Seguir leyendo
By Thane Rosenbaum, a novelist and law professor at Fordham University and the author of The Myth of Moral Justice. His forthcoming book is on revenge (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 28/07/11):
Norway, a nation far removed from the wickedness of the world, is now facing one of its greatest moral challenges: What to do with Anders Behring Breivik, the man who has confessed to massacring 76 people, many of them children. Norway does not allow for capital punishment, and the longest prison sentence a killer can usually receive there is 21 years. A country of such otherwise … Seguir leyendo
By David R. Dow, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center and the author, most recently, of a memoir The Autobiography of an Execution (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 09/07/11):
Last week was the 35th anniversary of the return of the American death penalty. It remains as racist and as random as ever.
Several years after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, a University of Iowa law professor, David C. Baldus (who died last month), along with two colleagues, published a study examining more than 2,000 homicides that took place in Georgia beginning in 1972. They found … Seguir leyendo
By Parvais Jabbar and Saul Lehrfreund, both are executive director of The Death Penalty Project at Simons Muirhead & Burton solicitors (THE GUARDIAN, 17/11/10):
Last week, when the high court of Singapore convicted the British author Alan Shadrake for contempt, he knew that he faced the possibility of imprisonment for the offence. Today that became a reality when the 75-year-old was sentenced to six weeks in jail and fined for “scandalising the judiciary” for remarks in his book Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock. The book includes an interview with Darshan Singh, the former chief executioner … Seguir leyendo
By John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based human rights group with an office in Hong Kong (THE WASHINGTON POST, 16/08/10):
In a surprising response to public protests, the Chinese government recently prohibited police from publicly shaming criminal suspects through such devices as parades, used most controversially for parades of prostitutes. This is the latest in a series of developments that portend a more humane justice system, most notably in the area of capital punishment.
Hearing the news last month, I was reminded of scenes I encountered while traveling through the countryside outside Guangzhou … Seguir leyendo
By Maxine Williams, a lawyer with international and human rights experience (THE GUARDIAN, 31/07/10):
Over the course of four days beginning on 4 June 1999, Nankisoon Boodram (aka Dole Chadee) and eight of his criminal gang were hanged in Port of Spain, Trinidad, for the murder of one of their alleged associates and his family. I understand that on the day of Chadee’s hanging, a man was murdered at a gas station one block away from the gallows and another was murdered in the sleepy fishing village of Mayaro. These, and the countless other murders which followed that weekend … Seguir leyendo
Por Brahma Chellaney, profesor de Estudios Estratégicosdel Centro Investigación en Ciencia Política. Nueva Delhi. Traducción: José María Puig de la Bellacasa (LA VANGUARDIA, 22/07/10):
China usa una nueva estrategia para aliviar la presión sobre sus cárceles atestadas: emplear presos como trabajadores en el extranjero en proyectos en marcha en países en desarrollo. Esta práctica provocará, probablemente, nuevas reacciones violentas contra empresas chinas, además de subrayar el escandaloso historial de China en materia de derechos humanos.
El número de personas ejecutadas al año en China triplica el del resto del mundo, según informaciones de Amnistía Internacional, que en el 2008 … Seguir leyendo
Por Pep Parés, presidente de Amnistía Internacional Catalunya (EL PERIÓDICO, 30/03/10):
Delara Darabi, iraní de 22 años, fue declarada culpable de asesinato y robo en un juicio sin garantías durante el que mantuvo siempre su inocencia. Fue ejecutada en la horca el Primero de Mayo del 2009, por unos hechos ocurridos cuando tenía 17 años. Junto con Delara, un total de 714 personas fueron ejecutadas a lo largo del 2009 en todo el mundo (sin contar a China), según los datos que Amnistía Internacional hace públicos hoy en el informe sobre condenas y ejecuciones en todo el mundo.
A … Seguir leyendo
By Michael Traynor, president emeritus of the American Law Institute who lives in Berkeley (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 04/02/10):
Nearly 50 years ago, as concern grew in the country about the fairness of death penalty laws, the American Law Institute published a “model statute” aimed at helping state lawmakers draft laws to ensure that death sentences were meted out fairly and consistently.
Last fall, the institute withdrew its support for the model death penalty law. The decision was a striking repudiation from the very organization that provided the blueprint for death penalty laws in this country.
The institute, with a … Seguir leyendo
Por Bonifacio de la Cuadra (EL PAÍS, 09/01/10):
El presidente del Gobierno, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, declaró en diciembre último que la abolición universal de la pena de muerte “va a ser una de nuestras prioridades”, durante la presidencia española de la Unión Europea (UE) en el primer semestre de 2010. El compromiso fue formulado en la inauguración del Coloquio Internacional sobre la Abolición Universal de la Pena de Muerte, celebrado en el Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales, en el que participaron decenas de penalistas de todo el mundo, convocados por el español Luis Arroyo.
Zapatero explicó que su … Seguir leyendo
By Naseem Rakha, a journalist and the author of The Crying Tree. She is researching victim-offender programs in Oregon (THE WASHINGTON POST, 10/11/09):
Of all the arguments in support of capital punishment, perhaps the most emotionally compelling is that it provides “closure” for the loved ones of murder victims. Prosecuting attorneys, politicians and journalists commonly refer to how executions allow family members to “move on” from their pain, providing a sense of relief at knowing that “justice” was finally served.
With the Supreme Court’s denial Monday of his request for a stay, “Beltway sniper” John Allen Muhammad is … Seguir leyendo
By Claire Cameron, the author of The Line Painter (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 20/09/09):
Last week, reports of executions — one postponed in Ohio, one carried out in Texas — punctuated the news more frequently than usual. These reports prompted me to reflect on an archive of executed prisoners’ last words I found on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Web site while researching parole terms. The archive’s earliest entry dates from Dec. 7, 1982; the most recent was added after Stephen Moody was executed on Wednesday by lethal injection for murder.
What follows are quotations taken from inmates’ … Seguir leyendo