[DP-Announce] (Fwd) TCADP Annual Report materials

Tue Dec 9 08:10:25 CST 2008

Friends,
I forward information from Kristin Houle, TCADP's new executive 
director.  
Rich
------- Forwarded message follows -------

Dear TCADP chapter leaders and regional representatives, 

Today, TCADP released its annual report on death penalty developments 
in Texas in 2008. The press release -- and a link to the report -- 
is pasted below. The press release is also available in Spanish (let 
me know if you'd like a copy). 

In addition, I have attached a sample letter to the editor and 
talking points that can be used for outreach to your local media. 
For those of you in Houston and Dallas, I have suggested some 
specific talking points based on information from your communities. 

I encourage you to distribute these materials to your chapter members 
and to ask them to submit letters, either using the sample or, 
preferably,in their own words. I also ask for your help in tracking 
media coverage of the report in your area! Please send any articles, 
news briefs, etc. that appear in your local newspaper (either in 
print or online) to me at khoule at tcadp.org. 

Many thanks for all you do to advance the cause of abolition! 

My best wishes, 
Kristin 
*** 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Thursday, December 4, 2008 

CONTACT : Kristin Houlé, Executive Director 
512-441-1808(office); 202-494-3578 (cell) 
khoule at tcadp.org
   TexasCoalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Releases Report on
                 Death Penalty Developments in 2008

 "Average" Number of Executions Carried Out in Record Time as New 
       Death Sentences Reach Lowest Level in Texas in 30 Years

(Austin, Texas) - Today the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death 
Penalty (TCADP) released its annual report on death penalty 
developments statewide, in advance of the December 7 anniversary of 
the resumption of executions in Texas in 1982. According to the 
report, Texas juries newly condemned nine individuals (eight men and 
one woman) to death in 2008, the lowest number of new death sentences 
since official reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. Juries 
also resentenced two people to death.

A de facto moratorium on executions nationwide existed from September 
26, 2007 until April 16, 2008 while the U.S. Supreme Court considered 
the constitutionality of the lethal injection protocol used by the 
majority of death penalty states. On April 16, the Court ruled in 
Baze v. Rees that the current protocol used by Kentucky (and other 
states, including Texas) does not constitute cruel and unusual 
punishment. The decision lifted all stays in effect at the time and 
paved the way for the resumption of executions. Texas' first 
execution of the year took place on June 11, 2008, when Karl 
Chamberlain was put to death. The State went on to execute 17 more 
people in the latter half of 2008, accounting for 50% of all 
executions in the United States this year. Seven of those executed 
had been convicted in Dallas County.

"2008 can only be characterized as yet another rollercoaster year for 
the death penalty in Texas," said TCADP Executive Director Kristin 
Houlé. "The state carried out a 'typical' number of executions in a 
record amount of time - averaging nearly one per week over a five-
month period. Yet officials' zeal for executions was not matched by 
public desire for new death sentences, as evidenced by the continued 
steep decline in the number of new inmates arriving on death row."

This past year also was notable for the executions that did not 
occur. Six inmates with execution dates in 2008 received last-minute 
stays, due to concerns about possible innocence, the fairness of 
their trial, or issues related to mental retardation or mental 
illness. The case of Charles Hood, in particular, challenged the 
integrity of the Texas judicial system, after solid evidence 
confirmed that the judge who presided over his original trial was 
romantically linked to the prosecutor who sought his death sentence. 
Hood received a stay from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on 
September 9 on an issue unrelated to the improper relationship; his 
attorneys continue to seek a new trial.

Other highlights of TCADP's report, Texas Death Penalty Developments 
in 2008, include the following:

- In 2008, the State of Texas carried out 18 executions in 5 months. 
Only eight other states carried out executions this year; none 
executed more than four people. Texas has executed 423 people since 
1982. Currently there are 354 inmates on death row in Texas - 344 
men and 10 women. 
- Michael Blair became the 9th inmate exonerated from death row in 
Texas after DNA testing failed to connect him to the crime for which 
he was convicted and sentenced to death. 

- Seven other inmates were removed permanently from death row in 
2008; their sentences were commuted to life in prison. This includes 
Thomas Miller-El, Johnny Paul Penry, and LaRoyce Smith, whose 
convictions and/or death sentences had been overturned at various 
junctures by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

- Jurors rejected the death penalty in at least four capital murder 
trials in 2008, opting instead for the punishment of life in prison 
without the possibility of parole. 

- Harris County, which accounts for more executions than any state in 
the country (besides Texas), did not send a single person to death 
row in 2008.
- Texas defied federal officials and the International Court of 
Justice when it executed Mexican national Jose Medellin on August 5, 
2008, despite the fact that he had been denied the right to contact 
his consular office upon his arrest in 1993 as afforded by the Vienna 
Convention on Consular Relations.
- The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana on June 25, 
2008 invalidated the death penalty provision of "Jessica's Law," 
which the Texas Legislature passed in 2007. The Justices ruled 5-4 
that the death penalty is unconstitutional as a punishment for the 
crime of raping a child and they effectively barred its imposition 
for any crime that does not take the life of the victim.

Texas already has scheduled 11 executions for the first 3 months of 
2009. "Despite continued concerns about the flaws and failures of 
the Texas death penalty system - and growing public awareness of its 
fallibility - the 'conveyor belt to death' continues to operate on 
high gear," said Houlé. "TCADP urges all elected officials to take a 
hard look at this costly, broken government system - a system that 
produces wrongful convictions and most likely wrongful executions - 
and to support alternatives that protect society and punish the truly 
guilty." 

TCADP is a statewide, grassroots organization based in Austin, 
Texas. Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2008: The Year in Review 
is available online at 
http://www.tcadp.org/uploads/documents/2008annualreport.pdf . 
Contact Kristin Houlé at khoule at tcadp.org to receive a copy directly 
via email.

                                 ###

--
Kristin Houlé
Executive Director
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
2709 S. Lamar Blvd.
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 441-1808 (work)
(202) 494-3578 (cell)
khoule at tcadp.org
www.tcadp.org

------- End of forwarded message -------
--
Richard Woodward
www:  http://TCADP-BV.org  
e-mail:   r-woodward at TCADP-BV.org

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: talking points and sample LTE.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 36864 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://PHILEBUS.TAMU.EDU/pipermail/dp-announce/attachments/20081209/8336017f/attachment-0001.doc>