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After acquittal of ex-death row inmate, debate needed on Japan's death penalty

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Japan should be ensuring the safety of its citizens, but instead it is taking people's lives. Is it acceptable to maintain the ultimate penalty under such circumstances? This is a serious question for society. The acquittal of 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada, who had been handed the death penalty, has been finalized after prosecutors decided not to appeal the verdict issued by the Shizuoka District Court during his retrial.

Arizona's barbaric death penalty has got to go

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Arizona Death Chamber
The "What if..." on last Sunday's Opinions page certainly caught my attention ("What if Arizona repealed the death penalty?")

I thought Bishop Thomas Olmsted's response mild.

Other Catholic religious leaders have encouraged participation in efforts to suspend and abolish Arizona's death penalty, to relegate it to the boneyards of history along with child labor, indentured servitude and slavery, stating unequivocally that capital punishment has no place in our civilized world.

I found Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery's statement to be exactly what one might expect from an elected prosecutor.

Supreme Court justices Lewis Powell, Potter Stewart and John Paul Stevens believe arbitrariness in the imposition of the death penalty is prohibited by the Constitution. One source of arbitrariness is the decision of prosecutors to seek a death sentence. It is a discretionary call that may be influenced by the prosecutor's estimate of the impact of his decision on his chances for re-election or for election to higher office.

Arizonans will save money. Attempting to execute is many times more expensive than incarcerating for life. Consider the increased cost of the trial (two attorneys, expert witnesses, complex investigations) and the expense of solitary confinement.

Opposition to state executions is not being "soft on crime" but rather is being smart on crime. Our limited financial resources can be directed to greater priorities: hiring more police, reopening unsolved crimes, rehabilitating offenders, improving treatment programs and intervening with troubled youths.

Arizonans will eliminate the possibility of executing an innocent man. According to a study appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, about one in 25 people imprisoned under a death sentence is likely innocent. Life without parole is more humane and does not put Arizona in the position of playing God and taking life.

Arizonans will no longer carry the angst of our judicial system. The spiritual and psychological burden of capital punishment will be lifted from the jurors, guards, executioners and indeed all citizens. Although state executions are within the law, they represent the collective failure of our moral compass and a clinging to the archaic vestiges of the hangman's gallows. It is a tragic and monumental failure in every respect. Most major faith communities, including the Catholic Church, oppose the death penalty.

Arizonans will realize that stopping state-sponsored killing creates an environment for healing for the victim's family and does not offer "discounted justice," as mentioned by Mr. Montgomery. Moreover, it does not create more victims among the perpetrator's family. Violence begets violence; so, too, does compassion beget compassion. States without capital punishment have a lower rate of capital crime.

Arizonans will be proud of our leadership for displaying courage to the nation and the world as we join the other 32 states and most of the first-world nations who have outlawed this barbaric, ineffective and costly practice. It is time to change the culture of death in Arizona.

I ask you to join Death Penalty Alternatives, Pax Christi, the Arizona Ecumenical Council and other concerned citizens as we stand in vigil in the Capitol courtyard on the eve of the next scheduled execution.

Source: AZ Central, Dan Peitzmeyer, AZ I See It, May 17, 2014. Dan Peitzmeyer is president of Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona.
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Photos of maximum-security prisons in Norway and the US reveal the extremes of prison life

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US Administrative Security Facility, or ADX Florence, in Florence, Colorado. Inside the walls of the toughest prison in the US, a fork is a deadly weapon. Inside the walls of Norway's toughest prison, a fork is, well ... a fork. The differences extend far past silverware. In just about every way, the approaches that the US and Norway take to criminal justice fall on opposite ends of the spectrum. While the US uses isolation to punish offenders and keep them away from civil society, Norway prefers to rehabilitate its inmates so they can return to the outside world — there are no life sentences . No two prisons make that difference more clear than the super-max Administrative Security Facility, or ADX Florence , in Florence, Colorado and Halden Prison , in Halden, Norway. Not all US prisons are as strict as ADX, and while Halden is technically maximum-security, it's still closer to the rule than the exception in Norway. Here's what life is like at both e
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After acquittal of ex-death row inmate, debate needed on Japan's death penalty

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Japan should be ensuring the safety of its citizens, but instead it is taking people's lives. Is it acceptable to maintain the ultimate penalty under such circumstances? This is a serious question for society. The acquittal of 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada, who had been handed the death penalty, has been finalized after prosecutors decided not to appeal the verdict issued by the Shizuoka District Court during his retrial.
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Idaho death-row inmate survived injection intended to kill him. Now state will try again.

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A day after Idaho prison’s system advised that it is again ready to perform a lethal injection, an Ada County judge issued the latest death warrant for Thomas Creech, the state’s longest-serving death row prisoner, and scheduled him for another execution.  Creech, 74, is now set to be executed on Nov. 13. If fulfilled, the execution would be Idaho’s first in more than a dozen years. Prison officials called off Creech’s planned execution earlier this year when for nearly an hour they were unable to locate a suitable vein for an IV to inject him with the lethal chemicals. 
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Switzerland | The Guillotine of Geneva

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Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denies Robert Roberson’s stay of execution request

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(Austin, Texas, October 11, 2024) - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) – without a written opinion – has denied Robert Roberson’s request to stay his execution, scheduled for Thursday, October 17. The CCA also denied, without issuing an opinion, Mr. Roberson’s request that the Court reconsider its denial of post-conviction relief. The CCA, once again, failed to consider any of the extensive medical and scientific evidence Mr. Roberson has submitted demonstrating that his chronically ill, two-year-old daughter, Nikki, died from illness, accident, and medical error, not because of any abuse.
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Wyoming | One of Matthew Shepard’s Murderers Denied Sentence Reduction

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Russell Henderson is serving consecutive life sentences in Wyoming after being convicted of homicide and hate crime One of the men who murdered gay college student Matthew Shepard in 1998 was denied a commutation of his sentence this week, the Wyoming Board of Parole has confirmed. Russell Henderson, who along with Aaron McKinney was convicted of homicide and hate crime charges for murdering Shepard 25 years ago, is currently serving two consecutive life sentences in Wyoming prison. Henderson applied for a reduction in his sentence earlier this year per the Board’s regulations, which allow prisoners who have served at least 10 years of a life sentence to submit a commutation petition once every five years. But the board ruled against sending Henderson’s petition to the governor, Executive Director Margaret White confirmed in statements to The Advocate this week.
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Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

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Alabama set to tie record for executions in 50 years with upcoming lethal injection

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) -Alabama is on track to tie its record for the most executions in a single year, as Derrick Dearman, a 35-year-old Mississippi man, is scheduled to be put to death next Thursday for the 2016 murders of five people in Mobile County. Described by officials as a “gruesome and horrific” crime, Dearman was convicted of using an axe and a gun to kill his five of his girlfriend’s relatives.
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Iran Executes 16 People in One Day Amid Surge in Death Penalties

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The Islamic Republic’s authorities have executed at least sixteen people in a single day. According to a report by the Iran Human Rights Organization, the death sentences of 13 men and one woman were carried out on Wednesday at Karaj Central Prison. On the same day, two other prisoners were also executed at Urmia Central Prison. The charges against these prisoners were listed as “premeditated murder,” “rape,” or drug-related offenses, for which they had been sentenced to death.
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