« Watching for crime and punishment in PBS SCOTUS history | Main | Equal justice or just the realities of ratting out? »
January 31, 2007
Daily dose of the death penalty
Capital Defense Weekly and StandDown Texas Project collect lots of interesting news covering our busy capital times, including the fourth US execution of 2007.
Also, at my class blog, I note this press release reporting that University of Illinois College of Law Professor Francis Boyle has nominated former Illinois Governor George Ryan for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. As I note in this post, the press release is notable not only for what it says, but also for what it does not say. There is no discussion of wrongful convictions or innocence issues, which is what first drew Ryan's attention to the death penalty. Also, the press release also does not mention that Ryan is now a convicted felon recently sentenced to more than six years in federal prison.
January 31, 2007 at 09:40 AM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451574769e200d8342eee2e53ef
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Daily dose of the death penalty:
» Daily dose of the death penalty from University Update
[Read More]
Tracked on Jan 31, 2007 10:17:21 AM
Comments
Anyone can be nominated, and any "professor of literature [or] of linguistics," among others, can nominate anyone for a Nobel Prize in literature.
As a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, Ryan shares an honor with such historical greats as Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin, and such latter-day saints as Stanley "Tookie" Williams.
If he wins, he'll be in the same category as Yasser Arafat and Jimmy Carter.
Posted by: | Jan 31, 2007 10:12:13 AM
You have obviously missed the prior pressreleases for the Ryan nomination
http://thenobelpeaceprizetoryan.blogspot.com/
and here :
http://www.stopcapitalpunishment.org/
George Ryan is highly appreciated all over this world for his work against the US and further the International death penalty.
In US he is persecuted for his acts, which tells it all about how the death penalty can flourish in this country.
The Norway Nobel Committee has more sincere visions than the local Illinois politicans seem to show the world, including other american " big number one in he world" citizens.
This student shows a lack of respect for international human rigths work and hopefully the death penalty seminar has brighter students with a broader international perspective than this one.
Sissel Egeland
Norway
Posted by: | Jan 31, 2007 11:32:36 AM
George Ryan is highly appreciated all over this world for his work against the US and further the International death penalty.
In US he is persecuted for his acts, which tells it all about how the death penalty can flourish in this country.
The links only reiterate the fact that Francis Boyle nominated George Ryan for the peace prize. There's no indication at either link regarding what the world community thinks of Ryan. Whatever the committee in Norway thinks, the point of my post was that a nomination is not hard to come by.
As for the death penalty, reasonable people can disagree about whether it should continue to exist, and reasonable people can disagree about whether Ryan's moratorium was an act of bravery or cowardice. Finally, it shows no disrespect for international human rights work to point out that not every nominee--indeed, not every winner--embodies the spirit of the Prize. It shows greater disrespect for international human rights work to honor a terrorist for his occasional moderation.
Posted by: | Jan 31, 2007 12:07:53 PM
As a former student at the U of I, I can honestly say that Francis Boyle is a nut, out of touch with reality. As an example, he repeatedly slurred the members of the Irish Law Students group (which allowed all comers) as "racist bigots" because they were sponsoring a drinking event on St. Patrick's day. Boyle loves attention, and he nominates Ryan every year. As a previous poster noted, anyone can be nominated, which means "being nominated" holds very little prestige. It's unfortunate that Boyle doesn't do something more productive with his time (i.e. offer to represent one the indigent defendants facing the death penalty). As is the case with most radical luminaries, Boyle's efforts to affect real change cease when it means doing something other than the symbolic.
Posted by: Jimmy | Jan 31, 2007 1:22:27 PM
It is somewhat amusing that Francis Boyle puts out a nearly identical press release every year nominating Gov. Ryan, and doesn't seem to be deterred by the latest corruption conviction.
By saying that Ryan is "persecuted for his acts," is Ms. Egeland suggesting that the corruption charges and conviction were pretextual and in retaliation for the moratorium?
Posted by: | Jan 31, 2007 2:26:20 PM
Ca 120 persons are nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize each year and how many of these were americans?
And how many of the americans have a really chance for receiving the Prize?
So the nomination in itself is a huge honor and respect for Ryan himself and the nominated are focused every year in international peace work, if not in US.
Yes, Ryan has been persecuted for his moratorium acts and caught in the american socalled justice system, like other wrongfully convicted persons he saved. He was easy to target after his moratorium, because the republicans left him for his anti dp stand, and the democrats were more interested in using him as a scapegoat for being able to catch the republicans for an unethical political culture than to stop the terrible US death penalty that is ruining the country every day.
But since Nobel nominated often are persecuted in their homeland for standing up against the authorities on important human right issues and often alone, Ryan is no exception.
Since Francis Boyle has not issued any pressreleases about the Nobel nominations,like you state, your
statement here should be corrected, unless it is Boyle personally you want to hit with incorrect information.
Sissel
Posted by: | Jan 31, 2007 5:19:52 PM
To this :
"The links only reiterate the fact that Francis Boyle nominated George Ryan for the peace prize. There's no indication at either link regarding what the world community thinks of Ryan. Whatever the committee in Norway thinks, the point of my post was that a nomination is not hard to come by."
First, I can see you have not read the information posted on the URLs I gave you, and next you will have to go to the international papers in other countries than US to find what Ryan is doing as to international work to stop the death penalty. Since american reporters are not free to write posively about Ryan, but payed to haunt him down for his personal contribution for human rights, you should look away from US to get the facts.
I agree that it is not much respect for international peace work to nominate George Bush and Tony Blair for the Nobel Peace Prize, but it is a deep disrespect for the Nobel committee and for the Norway government to suggest they would disrespect George Ryan for his important work to put an end to the US death penalty
Did you ever read who has received the Nobel Peace Prize in this world? Ryans work is close to these visions.
To name all as terrorists to suppress peoples visions is what has been a symbol of american suppression internationally the last years, and your arbitrary death penalty is just a symptom of your present situation.
Sissel
Posted by: | Jan 31, 2007 5:50:34 PM
* I don't doubt that the world movement against the death penalty likes Gov. Ryan. The fact that he's still being nominated for the prize after being sent to prison for corruption indicates, however, that they'll take whoever they can get.
* My initial point was that all it takes to be nominated for the Nobel Prize is a professor who's willing to fill out the paperwork. It's not surprising that there is an anti-DP professor out there somewhere who is willing to fill out the paperwork. If I ever become a professor, I'll make a point of nominating Ernest van den Haag posthumously every year.
* The notion that the American press is not allowed to praise Ryan, "payed to haunt him down for his personal contribution for human rights," or that he has been persecuted is simply ludicrous. Just this morning in the Washington Post, there's an op-ed representing the official stance of the newspaper in praise of the governor of Maryland for effectively halting the death penalty there. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/31/AR2007013101904.html
There's a debate going on in the United States about the death penalty, with reasonable arguments on both sides. The fact that a professor in Illinois thinks that Gov. Ryan deserves the Nobel Peace prize is not significant. Nor is the fact that the anti-DP movement wants to have an anti-DP person awarded the Prize.
I'll leave it at that. I'm sure that Ms. Egeland disagrees with everything I've said, which is fine. I don't doubt that the anti-DP crowd believes in the importance of their cause. I just hope that the people on the Nobel Prize committee aren't out to make a political statement this year.
Posted by: | Feb 1, 2007 10:19:27 AM
There will be several political statements vying for the imprimatur of the Nobel Prize this year.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/02/01/D8N0SUK80.html
Posted by: | Feb 1, 2007 11:31:58 AM
Rush Limbaugh has also been nominated. He is probably more "persecuted" for his beliefs and actions than Gov. Ryan is.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20070201/pl_usnw/landmark_legal_foundation_nominates_rush_limbaugh_for2007_nobel_peace_prize
Posted by: | Feb 2, 2007 12:25:27 PM
