US supreme court calls a halt to executions
America's execution chambers fell idle yesterday after the supreme court made it clear it will allow no more prisoners to be put to death until it reviews the legality of lethal injection.
Death penalty campaigners yesterday said they expected the informal moratorium to last at least until next summer when the supreme court is expected to issue its ruling.
The moratorium follows a decision by the supreme court on Tuesday night to block the execution of a Mississippi inmate minutes before he was to be put to death. Earl Wesley Berry, who has been on death row for 19 years for the murder of a woman, had been served his last supper and was 15 minutes away from execution when the court intervened.
The order for a delay marked the third time in just over a month that the supreme court has overruled state courts and the US court of appeals to block an execution.
Death penalty campaigners yesterday called the successive rulings a powerful sign that the supreme court wanted to put executions on hold while it considers a challenge to the way executions are conducted in America brought on behalf of a prisoner in Kentucky.
This is just an initial posting, as I didn't get one on here, due to my computer crash. More to follow, I assure you!! I LOATHE the death penalty .. in fact, it actually makes me physically ill to contemplate it or to read about those facing and I cannot BEAR to read accounts of what happens when it is applied ..
Death penalty campaigners yesterday said they expected the informal moratorium to last at least until next summer when the supreme court is expected to issue its ruling.
The moratorium follows a decision by the supreme court on Tuesday night to block the execution of a Mississippi inmate minutes before he was to be put to death. Earl Wesley Berry, who has been on death row for 19 years for the murder of a woman, had been served his last supper and was 15 minutes away from execution when the court intervened.
The order for a delay marked the third time in just over a month that the supreme court has overruled state courts and the US court of appeals to block an execution.
Death penalty campaigners yesterday called the successive rulings a powerful sign that the supreme court wanted to put executions on hold while it considers a challenge to the way executions are conducted in America brought on behalf of a prisoner in Kentucky.
This is just an initial posting, as I didn't get one on here, due to my computer crash. More to follow, I assure you!! I LOATHE the death penalty .. in fact, it actually makes me physically ill to contemplate it or to read about those facing and I cannot BEAR to read accounts of what happens when it is applied ..
DEATH PENALTY Q & A
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception. The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state in the name of justice. It violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.There can never be any justification for torture or for cruel treatment. Like torture, an execution constitutes an extreme physical and mental assault on an individual. Consider the disgust most people feel when they hear accounts of individuals receiving 100 volts of electricity to sensitive parts of the body as a method of torture. Surely we should feel even more disgusted by the use of 2000 volts applied to a person's body with the intent to deliberately kill? The physical pain caused by the action of killing a human being cannot be quantified, nor can the psychological suffering caused by foreknowledge of death at the hands of the state. The death penalty is discriminatory and is often used disproportionately against the poor, minorities and members of racial, ethnic and religious communities. It is imposed and carried out arbitrarily. The death penalty legitimizes an irreversible act of violence by the state and will inevitably claim innocent victims. Since human justice is fallible, the risk of executing the innocent will never be eliminated. Amnesty International continues to demand unconditionally the worldwide abolition of the death penalty. CLIP
5 Reasons To Oppose The Death Penalty
1 The death penalty is racist. 2 The death penalty punishes the poor. 3 The death penalty condemns the innocent to die. 4 The death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime. 5 The death penalty is "cruel and unusual punishment." -- The United States is one of a handful of countries which still executes people. There are currently more than 3,500 people on death row -- more than at any time in U.S. history. Since 1976, more than 580 people have been executed in the United States. Over 50% of those have been killed since 1992. More than three-quarters of all executions since 1976 took place in Southern states. The reality is that lynching still exists -- it's just legal now. Texas Gov. George Bush has personally signed death warrants for 100 executions CLIP -- More on this issue through http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=fr&q=oppose+death+penalty&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
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