[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----GA., CONN.

[Rick Halperin]

April 10


GEORGIA----impending execution

Columbus journalist among those witnessing execution----Greene Execution Media 
Advisory: Inmate’s Last Meal


Condemned murderer Daniel Greene is scheduled for execution by lethal injection 
at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 19, 2012, at Georgia Diagnostic and 
Classification Prison in Jackson. Greene was sentenced to death for the 1991 
murder of Bernard Walker.

Media witnesses for the execution are: Greg Bluestein, The Associated Press; 
Jim Mustian, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer; Joe Kovac, Macon Telegraph; Coreen 
Savitski, WMGT; and Randall Savage, WMAZ.

There have been 52 men executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court 
reinstated the death penalty in 1973. If executed, Greene will be the 30th 
inmate put to death by lethal injection. There are presently 96 men and 1 woman 
on death row in Georgia.

The Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison is located 45 minutes south of 
Atlanta off Interstate 75. From Atlanta, take exit 201 (Ga. Hwy. 36), turn left 
over the bridge and go approximately ¼ mile. The entrance to the prison is on 
the left. Media covering the execution will be allowed into the prison’s media 
staging area beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday.

(source: WRBL News)






CONNECTICUT:

Connecticut becomes 5th state to axe death penalty


America's enthusiasm for executing its own citizens is waning, with Connecticut 
abolishing the death penalty and the authors of the toughest death penalty laws 
in the nation now campaigning against them.

The bill is expected to become law later this week making Connecticut the 5th 
state in 5 years to scrap its death penalty, and the 17th state not to have a 
death penalty.

The Connecticut senate passed the measure by 20 votes to 16 last week, with 
supporters securing support from wavering representatives by agreeing to 
enforce the sentences on the 11 inmates now on death row.

California, the country's largest state, with more than 700 inmates on death 
row, will vote on whether or not to repeal its death penalty in November.

There the campaign to repeal the laws is being led by two men who campaigned to 
have the state resume the death penalty in 1978.

Ron Briggs, a farmer and Republican member of the El Dorado County Board of 
Deputies ran the pro-death penalty campaign in California and Donald Heller 
wrote the laws, which were seen as the toughest in the nation.

The men told The New York Times last week that their campaign for the death 
penalty was one of the biggest mistakes of their lives.

''At the time, we were of the impression that it would do swift justice, that 
it would get the criminals and murderers through the system quickly and apply 
them the death penalty,'' Mr Briggs said.

''But it's not working … We started with 300 on death row when we [introduced 
the law], and we now have over 720 and it's cost us $US4 billion.

''I tell my Republican friends, 'Close your eyes for a moment. If there was a 
state program that was costing $US185 million ($180 million) a year and only 
gave the money to lawyers and criminals, what would you do with it?'''

The executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre, Richard Dieter, 
said the moves in Connecticut and California were part of a nationwide shift 
against the death penalty, born not of moral qualms but pragmatism.

Mr Dieter said the courts and the community had been shocked by the revelation 
of a string of executions of men later found to have been innocent.

In response judges had demanded prosecutors investigate further, that more 
forensic and psychological testing be conducted and that accused people facing 
capital punishment should be better represented in court.

As a result the death penalty now costs about $US3 million from arrest to 
execution compared with an average of about $US1 million to imprison someone 
for life, while the process of appeals takes about 15 years.

''So the return [on the investment] is less,'' Mr Dieter said.

''If it worked well the death penalty would probably survive, we would find the 
money.''

Many judges have raised concerns that because the process takes so long those 
executed are effectively facing two sentences - life imprisonment followed by 
execution.

Mr Dieter said not only are some states scrapping their death penalty laws, but 
rates of death sentences being handed down by juries in those that still have 
the statutes on their books are dropping, as are the number of executions.

Executions in the US declined from a high of 98 in 1999 to 43 last year.

Still the death penalty remains popular, particularly in the southern states 
that conduct most of the executions.

But Gallop polling this year found 61 % of Americans supported the death 
penalty, down from a high of 80 % in 1994.

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)