Today's Oregonian reports, "Is Oregon's death penalty as 'cruel and unusual' as California's?" It's by Bryan Denson.
Jeff Ellis, a criminal defense attorney on the board of Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, boiled the order down in a dozen words:
"California has nothing on Oregon. Our death penalty system is even worse."
Ellis noted that Oregon has executed just two men – both volunteers, both executed in the late 1990s after waiving their appeals – since the latest incarnation of capital punishment was passed into state law.
"Of the individuals currently under a death sentence in Oregon, eight have been on death row for over 25 years," Ellis wrote. "The last person to die on death row was Gary Zweigert in 2013. He died of natural causes.
"Ruling against California death penalty could be raised in Missouri execution cases," is by Mike Lear at MissouriNet.
Washington University Law Professor Peter Joy says the ruling could come up in Missouri cases.
“Any lawyer representing somebody on death row who’s been on death row for a lengthy period of time should raise this argument now because there is this decision out there,” says Joy.
About 40 percent of California’s death row inmates have been there more than 19 years. Three Missouri inmates have been awaiting execution for 25 years, and about 22 percent of condemned Missouri inmates have been waiting 19 years or more.
Not all the delays cited by the judge stem from appeals.
Joy says also noted were, “delays [related to] the system itself, and have nothing to do with the person filing a lot of appeals.”
Earlier coverage of the California ruling begins with the preceding post.
Comments