May 2015 Death Penalty News

ELIMINATING BLACK JURORS IN A GEORGIA MURDER TRIAL ~ "The rare grant of certiorari means the high court will examine in its next term a 1987 Floyd County murder trial. Timothy Tyrone Foster, a black man who was 18 years old when he was charged, was convicted of the murder of Queen White, an elderly, white, retired schoolteacher . . . The prosecution used its peremptory strikes against all four of the qualified prospective jurors who were black ..."
http://www.dailyreportonline.com/id=1202727421866/US-Supreme-Court-Agrees-to-Take-Up-Ga-Death-Penalty-Case#ixzz3bH7z0O1R

JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS SPEAKS AGAINST DEATH PENALTY ~ In a discussion at the George Washington University School of Law, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said the death penalty creates a higher risk of error than other criminal cases and is unfair, unnecessary, and a "terrible waste" of resources. Using the Boston marathon bomber trial as an example, Justice Stevens said jury selection procedures in capital cases produce juries who are "not representative of the community." He said that, under these procedures, "most of the 75%" of Bostonians who opposed the death penalty "could be challenged for cause and do not make it" onto the jury.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6150

EXECUTING THE MENTALLY ILL

LONG BEFORE HE COMMITTED a vicious triple murder in Houston at the age of 19, Derrick Charles had shown signs of serious mental problems. Raised amid crippling poverty, domestic abuse, alcoholism and neglect, he watched his schizophrenic mother stab his abusive stepfather. He suffered from tactile and auditory hallucinations, and by the time he was 13, had been hospitalized twice for mental illness. While in juvenile prison for nonviolent offenses, he said he was hearing voices and asked for medication. The request was denied.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/20/mentally-ill-executed/

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