« Tenth Circuit affirms 55-year mandatory minimum sentence in Angelos | Main | Remarkable new district court ruling on applying Booker »
January 10, 2006
Capital moratoriums gaining momentum
On both coasts, momentum is gaining for death penalty moratoriums:
- In New Jersey, as detailed in news accounts here and here, "lawmakers voted yesterday to suspend executions while a task force studies the fairness and costs of imposing the death penalty."
- In California, as detailed in this LA Times article, a "group of current and former prosecutors — including the author of the state's 1978 death penalty initiative and Ira Reiner, whose office sent dozens of people to death row when he was Los Angeles County's district attorney — endorsed a moratorium Monday on executions in California."
As I have explained before here and here, New Jersey has had a de facto (and pricey) moratorium on executions for more than two decades: the state has spent over $250 million on administering its capital punishment system but has not yet executed anyone. But recent events confirm that California does have an operation execution chamber, and this USA Today article discusses the state's next scheduled execution of Clarence Ray Allen. (More background on the Allen case and his clemency request can be found in this recent post, "Too old and sick to die?".)
January 10, 2006 at 07:48 AM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451574769e200d8345ace9f69e2
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Capital moratoriums gaining momentum:
» N.J. Lawmakers Vote To Suspend Executions from Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator
Lawmakers in New Jersey have voted to suspend executions while a task force studies the fairness and [Read More]
Tracked on Jan 10, 2006 10:17:49 AM