Death Penalty News

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether John Henry Ramirez, a Texan convicted of murder, is entitled to have his pastor by his side when he’s executed. John Henry Ramirez doesn’t want to be executed, though he knows why a lot of Texans—including the state attorney general and the head of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ)—wish him dead. One night in July 2004, Ramirez, high on cocaine, marijuana, and vodka, drove around Corpus Christi to find someone to rob so he could buy more drugs. He saw Pablo Castro emptying the trash outside the convenience store where he worked. Ramirez stabbed Castro, a 45-year-old father of 9, 29 times, and went through his pockets, stealing $1.25. Castro died, and Ramirez was caught, found guilty of capital murder, and sentenced to die. Ramirez, now 37, has never claimed innocence. At his 2008 trial he admitted to the murder, and during the punishment phase he instructed his lawyers to stop trying to save him and just read Psalm 51:3 aloud: “F...

In 1994, public approval for capital punishment was around 80 %. Today it's below 50 %. Maurice Chammah’s “ Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalt y” is a work of non-fiction, which bears stating because every so often a character passes through the book almost as caricature, outfitted with a Stetson, a handlebar mustache and a powerful persuasion with colorfully articulated straight-shooter notions about the value of frontier justice. A staff writer for “The Marshall Project,” Chammah spent years researching and conducting interviews for “ Let the Lord Sort Them ” resulting in a dark and complicated history that touches on life and death, processes and politics, myth and fact, crime and punishment. The book also shows the sharp evolution of public opinion. In 1994, public approval for capital punishment was around 80 %. Today it’s below 50 %. “There has definitely been a sea change over the past 25 years,” Chammah says. “Not that long ago people who opposed ...

Holding cells at 'The Walls' Unit Huntsville, TX. Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment was legal in 1976, the state of Texas has executed 978 people. For many Americans, the death penalty is seen as a part of a complex judicial system that ultimately protects the majority from a dangerous minority. Except in cases of extreme controversy like that of Troy Davis in September, the death penalty is an issue that often goes ignored by the American public. "If you think this is not your issue, I would urge you to get out of your naiveté," Rick Halperin, director of the SMU Embrey Human Rights program, said to a packed McCord Auditorium. In the upcoming presidential election, candidates on both sides of the aisle are for the death penalty. "You should really be aware of the implications of your voting. You are voting for people who have said they would kill someone," Halperin said. A panel discussion on the death penalty in Texas on ...

Polunsky Unit, Texas (Austin, Texas) — On Tuesday, March 29, 2011 the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee will hold a public hearing on House Bill (HB) 819, which calls for the repeal of the death penalty in Texas. The hearing will take place at the State Capitol in the John H. Reagan Building (JHR) 120 (upon final adjournment/recess of the House). “National momentum is clearly shifting in the direction of abolition,” said State Representative Jessica Farrar, the author of HB 819, along with State Representatives Marisa Marquez and Alma Allen. “Earlier this month, Illinois became the 16th state, and the 4th in recent years, to abandon the death penalty. In addition, elected officials in at least 12 other states are considering repeal legislation this year. This hearing provides members of the Texas House of Representatives with the opportunity to engage in open dialogue about the flaws and failures of our state’s capital punishment system.” Rep. Farrar first introduced this bil...

Kerry Max Cook served over 20 years in a Texas prison most of them on death row. But as DNA evidence would show in 1999, he was innocent. That year, Mr. Cook was released from prison with the help of Princeton-based Centurion Ministries, a secular non-profit that works for the release of innocent prisoners. "He was a nice guy. I never felt he was guilty," said Rev. Carroll Pickett (pictured), a former death-house chaplain at the Huntsville prison in Texas, who spoke at Princeton Theological Seminary last week. Addressing an audience of about 30 activists and seminarians, Rev. Pickett called Mr. Cook "a victim of Texas justice" but then added: "Throw that out, there's no such thing as Texas justice." Rev. Pickett, himself a Texan and a former Presbyterian pastor who ministered 95 men before their executions, has become an outspoken critic of the death penalty and a prominent voice in the battle over capital punishment. In 2008, he was featured in the a...

For 15 years, the Rev. Carroll Pickett was a witness to state-sanctioned death. As a prison chaplain in Hunstville, he presided over 95 executions. After each one, Mr. Pickett recorded his thoughts on tape. The documentary At the Death House Door chronicles his anguish as he eventually concludes that some of the men he led to death were innocent. Dallas Morning News editorial writer Colleen McCain Nelson interviewed Mr. Pickett via e-mail this week: You witnessed dozens of executions as prison chaplain. Why did you feel called to do that job? In my first church in Sinton, Texas, I promised a man he would not have to die alone. I kept that promise throughout my ministry. The prison hospital was on my unit, and I had hundreds of people die, and I tried to be there. These are human beings, and everyone should have a friend when they die. Initially, you supported the death penalty. Why? I was raised in Texas, the Wild West. I was taught that this was necessary. I was at the prison in 1974...

A lonely field of concrete crosses, engraved with dates and numbers and surrounded by weeds, is the first thing a viewer sees in the film “At the Death House Door.” Some of the graves in that field belong to inmates who were executed by the state at the prison in Huntsville, Tex. Walking tenderly among those crosses is the Rev. Carroll Pickett, the laconic, soft-spoken prison chaplain for 15 years and witness to 95 executions. The documentary, which will be shown Thursday night on the Independent Film Channel, reveals that Mr. Pickett, a 74-year-old Presbyterian minister, was anguished by his job, and that he finally concluded that the death penalty served neither justice nor morality. He says he believes that some of the men he helped lead to death were innocent. “After each execution I made a tape on everybody that I walked with to the death chamber,” Mr. Pickett says early in the film as the camera trains on his office, full of boxes of cassette tapes. “I knew I had to talk to someb...

At the Death House Door Director/Producer: Steve James, Peter Gilbert Executive Producer: Gordon Quinn Status: Production In production for The Independent Film Channel... At the Death House Door is the story of the wrongful execution of Carlos DeLuna and the Death House Chaplain, Pastor Carroll Pickett, who spent the last day of DeLuna's life with him. The feature documentary, currently in production, follows the remarkable career journey of Pickett, culminating in the story of DeLuna, a convict whose execution bothered Pickett more than any other. He firmly believed the man was innocent, and the film will track the investigative efforts of a team of Chicago Tribune reporters who have turned up evidence that strongly suggests he was. The documentary takes a very personal and intimate look at the death penalty in Texas, the first state to do lethal injection. Pickett was present for the first lethal injection in 1981. At the Death House Door is a Kartemquin Films Production in ass...