Once again, using the information collected by the Death Penalty Information Center (what a great organization) and our own work here on this blog since March 2009, we know the following:
1. The following states still allow the penalty of death for certain crimes, although New Mexico removed itself from this list in 2009, as it became the 15th state to abolish the death penalty:
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.
2. During 2009, some significant steps were taken in ten (10) of the above listed states to end capital punishment: notably, in Connecticut, the state legislature actually passed a law that would have ended the death penalty but the state governor vetoed the bill.
3. Both the federal government and the United States Military still allow the penalty of death for certain crimes.
4. Executions are on hold in California, Maryland, Kentucky, and in the federal justice system because of pending judicial review related to the lethal injection method of executing a human being.
5. This year, nine innocent men were freed after serving years on Death Row:
- Yancy Douglas (OK) (conviction overturned and charges dismissed without re-trial)
- Nathson Fields (IL)(conviction overturned and acquitted after re-trial)
- Paul House (TN) (conviction overturned and charges dismissed without re-trial)
- Herman Lindsey (FL) (conviction overturned and acquitted after re-trial)
- Ronald Kitchen (IL) (conviction overturned and charges dismissed without re-trial)
- Daniel Moore (AL) (conviction overturned and acquitted after re-trial)
- Peris Powell (OK) (conviction overturned and charges dismissed without re-trial)
- Robert Springsteen (TX) (conviction overturned and charges dismissed without re-trial)
- Michael Toney (TX) (conviction overturned and charges dismissed without re-trial).
Over 3300 men and women set on Death Row today, awaiting execution. Among them sits Troy Davis, whom many, many, many people believe to be innocent. (We’ve discussed Mr. Davis’ case earlier this year, and we’re monitoring his case.) The number of executions annually continues to decline. Media outcry surrounding the executed of an innocent man in 2004 (Cameron Todd Willingham) and the fiscal realities of the expense of pursuing the death penalty in these recessionary times seem to be the two biggest weapons in abolishing the death penalty that we’ve seen this year.
Progress is being made, thank God. May He have mercy on us all.