links
USEFUL LINKS
Advocacy:
- Amnesty International
- National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
- Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, and
their calendar
- Ensemble contre la peine de mort
- Human Rights Watch
- Quixote Center, whose Equal Justice
USA's Moratorium Now
campaign is
gathering lists of moratorium resolutions.
- The Justice Project
- Criminal Justice Reform Education Fund
- Justice Denied, execution of the innocent
- Friends Committee on National Legislation, which has a very useful death penalty informational packet
- Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute
- Jurist: The Legal Education Network
- For Whom Do the Bells Toll
- CURE (Citizens United for the Rehabilitation
of Errants), a membership organization of families of prisoners, prisoners, former prisoners and
other concerned citizens.
- PrisonerLife, website created by prisoners and maintained by ex-prisoners.
Links include death penalty links.
- The American Bar Association's
Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project, September 2001.
- Maryland Governor Parris Glendening's
May 8, 2002, moratorium on executions
- Standdown Texas: Working for a
moratorium on executions in the State of Texas.
- World Coalition against the Death Penalty
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops'
Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty.
Missouri links:
Information:
- A
public opinion poll in Missouri, conducted by
the Center For Social Sciences and Public Policy Research in June, 2004,
shows support for a moratorium on executions (60%) as well as opposition to execution of juveniles (two-thirds).
- Missouri public opinion poll, fall 1999
- Juvenile Offender Public Opinion Survey, Amnesty International, April 2003
- "Missouri's Death Row
Cases", by Larry M. May, in Journal of the Missouri Bar, March-April 2003.
- Report released by Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, January 16, 2001:
"Miscarriages of Justice"
- "Prosecutors: The First Line of Offense:
Prosecutorial Discretion and Arbitrariness in Administration of the Death Penalty," by
Denise Lieberman, Legal Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri
(denise@aclu-em.org), delivered October 18, 2001, at Amnesty
International Midwest Region's meeting, "The Death Penalty on Trial:
Public Tribunal on Missouri's Capital Punishment System."
- On January 6, 2003, a report was released in Jefferson City,
"The Prevailing Injustices in the Application of the Death Penalty in Missouri (1978-1996)", by Michael Lenza,
David Keys, and Teresa Guess.
- Missourinet
-
Missouri advocacy links:
Government statistics and other information:
Victims:
Human Rights documents and other international links:
Studies, articles, and compiled information:
-
Resources from the Juvenile Justice
Center, Criminal Justice Section, American Bar Association, including
Clemency and Consequences---State governors and the impact of granting clemency to death row inmates.
- Richard Berk,
"New Claims about Executions and General Deterrence: D‚j… Vu All Over Again?"
Department of Statistics, UCLA; this shows statistical, technical, problems in recent econometric studies showing deterrence
- Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation report:
"Dignity Denied: The Experience of Murder Victims'
Family Members Who Oppose the Death Penalty," by Robert Renny Cushing and
Susannah Sheffer, revealing bias against family members who oppose the death penalty.
- "Prosecutors: The First Line of Offense:
Prosecutorial Discretion and Arbitrariness in Administration of the Death Penalty," by
Denise Lieberman, Legal Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri
(denise@aclu-em.org), delivered October 18, 2001, at Amnesty
International Midwest Region's meeting, "The Death Penalty on Trial:
Public Tribunal on Missouri's Capital Punishment System."
- The ABA Section of Individual Rights & Responsibilities has issued
an updated version, August 2003, of its report "Toward Greater Awareness: The American Bar
Association Call for a Moratorium on Executions Gains Ground". You can
access the
entire report and appendices along with other ABA rsources.
- Death Penalty Information
Center
- Death Penalty News &
Updates, Rick Halperin
- A Broken System.
Part I:
James S. Liebman, Jeffrey Fagan, and Valerie West, Columbia University School of Law:
A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995. June 12, 2000.
Part II: James S. Liebman , Jeffrey Fagan, Andrew Gelman, Valerie West, Garth
Davies, Alexander Kiss: Broken System Part II:
Why There Is So Much Error in Capital Cases,
and What Can Be Done About It. February
11, 2002.
- Department of Justice, Survey of the Federal Death Penalty System, showing among other things that 74% of those for whom prosecutors asked for the death penalty are minorities.
- Victor L. Streib, "The
Juvenile Death Penalty Today: Death Sentences and Executions or Juvenile
Crimes, January 1973 - September 30, 2004". Victor L. Streib is an
expert in juvenile death penalty and issues updated statistics.
- Victor L. Streib: "Death Penalty for Female Offenders: January 1, 1973, Through September 30, 2004".Victor L. Streib is an
expert in death penalty for women and issues updated statistics.
-
Chicago Tribune five-part series on Illinois' death penalty; the series
ran from November 14-18, 1999.
- MissouriNet capital punishment site
- "State of Denial": Report criticizing application of the death penalty in Texas, announced in the New York Times October 16, 2000. The report charges that Texas' system badly needs reform "because of problems like prosecutorial misconduct, racial bias, phony experts and
inadequate lawyers for poor defendants."
- "Reasonable Doubts: Is the U.S. Executing Innocent People?"
- Human Rights Watch report, "BEYOND REASON: The Death Penalty and Offenders with Mental Retardation", March 2001
- Human Rights, magazine of American Bar Association Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities
- Protocols by the ABA IR&R Section, entitled, "Death Without Justice, A
Guide for Examining the Administration of the Death Penalty in the United States," June 2001.
- The ABA Section of Individual Rights & Responsibilities report,
"Toward Greater Awareness: The American Bar Association Call for a Moratorium on Executions Gains Ground,"
August 2001.
- Philip J. Cook, Donna B. Slawson, and Lori A. Gries,
The Costs of Processing Murder Cases in North Carolina, Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy,
Duke University, May 1993.
- Cornell Death Penalty Project
-
Illinois Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment, released April 15, 2002.
- Harmful Error. report from
the Center for Public Integrity, on proscutorial misconduct. Read about Nels Moss and his extreme record
of errors.
- Human Rights Watch report
"Ill-Equipped:
U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness".
Religious statements:
- On November 15, 2000, the Catholic bishops of the United States issued a major statement on crime and punishment, reiterating their opposition to the death penalty. See the complete statement.
- On June 5, 2000, the United Methodist Church in Missouri passed a resolution against the death penalty.
- Methodist Bishop Ann B. Sherer witnessed the execution of James Chambers on November 15, 2000, and afterwards issued this statement.
- In January 2000 the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism issued a statement in support of Governor Ryan's moratorium on executions in Illinois.
The Union of American Hebrew Congregations has since 1959 opposed capital punishment; see their statement on Race and Criminal Justice for a 1999 reaffirmation of this opposition.
- For the July-August 2001 Fifty-third session of the UN Sub-Commission on the
Promotion and Protection of Human Rights held in Geneva, the following
statement was prepared
by Franciscans International, in conjunction with Dominicans for Justice and Peace and Dominican congregations.
- January, 2002: The Catholic order School Sisters of Notre Dame, St. Louis, has issued a corporate statement against the death penalty.
- January, 2002: Central Reform Congregation, St. Louis, has adopted a resolution in support of a moratorium on the death penalty.
Miscellaneous