Death Penalty Update

Good news/bad news from the Supreme Court on the death penalty this week. A win on the issue of more leniency on the issue of mental incompetency in the Panetti case, see Amnesty's press release,

"The Supreme Court has taken a much-needed step toward a more humane America," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). "Perhaps now we can recognize that this country's resources would be much better spent improving the mental health system to help ensure that similarly tragic crimes are not committed in the first place."

And for the insider legal spin, see this post from Capital Defense Weekly. We present below a 27 minute documentary from Texas Defender Service on the case, notable for the portrait it gives of the death penalty's unsung victims, the inmate's family members.







On the other hand, the Supreme Court refused to take up the case of Troy Davis (which we featured in our June newsletter). Amnesty has a statement and report (Where is justice for me?) on this case too, and more importantly its time to step up the clemency campaign! For further inspiration and also on the subject of inmate families, Abolish the Death Penalty has more on the Davis case from that perspective, complete with book suggestion (we love book recommendations!)