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Example research essay topic: Death Row Inmates Death Penalty Debate - 2,992 words

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Author / s : Issue: May 21, 2000 New DNA Testing Becomes a Factor in Death Penalty Debate and in Execution Set For Texas Next Week NEW YORK, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The reestablishment of capital punishment in the U. S. is undermining America's moral authority overseas, according to Felix Rohatyn, the U. S. Ambassador to France. "When you have as much power as we do, and when you represent the oldest democratic tradition in the world, and when most of the planet still thinks that democracy in America is a light to the world, it's important to understand that there are some aspects of our democracy that are very troublesome on moral grounds, " Rohatyn explains in a guest essay in the current issue of Newsweek. (Photo: News Com: web) "All 15 members of the European Union have outlawed the death penalty. The accession of new members - Turkey for instance - is conditioned in part on their abolition of capital punishment, " Rohatyn writes in the May 29, 2000 issue (on newsstands Monday, May 22). "Europeans are extremely passionate about the issue.

The death penalty is viewed as a violation of human rights. In America it is seen as both racist and discriminatory, affecting a disproportionate number of minorities who often are represented by attorneys pictured as incompetent or uninterested. " Rohatyn says he didn't realize the death penalty was such a vital issue abroad when he arrived in France in 1997, and that while the U. S. shouldn't simply bend to criticism, "we should recognize it and explore changes in our approach to criminal punishment that reflect our basic values. " Rohatyn notes, for example, legislative efforts to provide better public defenders in death penalty cases. The essay accompanies an article by Senior Editor Jonathan Alter and West Coast Editor Mark Miller that explores the growing debate about DNA evidence and capital punishment.

The issue has become so controversial, with 87 death-row inmates released from prison since 1973 -- in part because of results from tests done with the latest DNA advances (including one in Illinois who came within two days of being executed) -- that Sen. Patrick Leahy has introduced a bill which would give death-row inmates the automatic right to DNA testing. Sen. Orrin Hatch indicated last week that he will hold hearings on the subject in June. Currently, only New York and Illinois give inmates that right. However, this won't help Ricky McGinn, scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Texas next week for the 1993 rape and murder of his 12 -year-old stepdaughter.

Absent an unlikely delay, Alter reports, McGinn will die without the benefit of the newest DNA testing and adequate legal representation. McGinn's appellate attorney, Richard Alley of Ft. Worth, was cited by the State Bar of Texas for "failing to properly safeguard the property of a client. " He has been publicly reprimanded twice, and in 1985, the State Bar said he "knowingly used false evidence" and "knowingly made false statements of fact" (among other abuses). Alley readily admits he has handled as many as 11 death-penalty appeals at once -- despite trial transcripts that run thousands of pages per case. He currently represents five others besides McGinn on death row, but denies this produces inadequate legal representation. "It's not that anyone is asleep at the wheel. I feel I did everything I could and am continuing to do everything I can, " Alley says.

Others, including McGinn, disagree. In fact, the trial court in Brown County, Texas, didn't receive the request for new DNA testing of evidence in the McGinn case until last week; and it took an unpaid independent investigator from Indiana, Tina Church, to notice last January that McGinn's 1994 DNA tests had been "inconclusive" and that new DNA analysis could yield fresh evidence. "We " re not asking for much, " Church says. "Just some better tests to make sure that there hasn't been a mistake. " (Story attached. Read Newsweek's news releases at web) Newsweek's press releases, corresponding stories and cover photos are sent to PR Newswire's Press Room. All can be viewed and downloaded. Access the site at web The free site is media-only, password protected and requires a one-time registration. You would think that if technology is available to prove absolute guilt or innocence, prosecutors and politicians would all be quick to embrace it, if only to sleep easier at night.

You would be wrong. In recent years, DNA testing has freed 72 inmates from prison -- eight from death row. Each year brings new advances that expand the universe of cases where DNA analysis can help. But the political and legal systems are just now waking up to the potential of this rapidly improving technology. Only two states -- Illinois and New York -- give inmates the right to use the latest DNA testing. Bills to do the same nationally are still languishing.

And the machinery of death grinds on. In Texas next week Ricky McGinn is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection for the 1993 rape and murder of his 12 -year-old stepdaughter. Absent an unlikely delay, he will die without the benefit of the latest genomic and mitochondrial DNA tests, which for a few thousand dollars could irrefutably prove his guilt -- or point to another assailant. McGinn has received poor legal counsel; it took until last week before the trial court in Brown County, Texas, received a request that a pubic hair found inside the victim -- and a possible semen stain -- be tested. In an appeals system that makes it difficult to introduce new evidence -- even in a capital case - his odds of a reprieve are low.

McGinn is just one of thousands of prisoners pushed through the system without the modern-day equivalent of fingerprints. The vast majority are probably guilty. But why settle for "probably" when a definitive answer is at hand? Prosecutors are beginning to ask that question, but their old habits die hard. Until now, most have allowed post-trial DNA testing only under threat of litigation.

Even after innocence is proved with 1 billion: 1 certainty, some prosecutors cling to their previous theories of guilt. In the Roy Criner case in Texas and several others where DNA tests of semen have ruled out the inmate convicted of rape, prosecutors still refuse to free them. They hypothesize that while the victim had another man's semen inside her, she was still raped by the man they convicted. (This is now known as the "un indicted co- ejaculator" theory. ) "I don't think prosecutors are maliciously trying to keep the innocent behind bars, " says Larry Marshall of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law. "But they " ve become psychologically wedded to guilt. It's tunnel vision. " There are signs the climate may be changing. For the first time in a generation, the death penalty, legal in 38 states, is on the defensive -- mostly abroad (sidebar), but increasingly at home, too. The New Hampshire Legislature voted last week to become the first state to abolish the practice since the Supreme Court allowed its reinstatement in 1976 (although Democratic Gov.

Jeanne Shaheen vetoed the bill). An important new book, "Actual Innocence, " by Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld and Jim Dwyer, and a searing PBS "Frontline" documentary about the Criner case, "The Case for Innocence" (to be rebroadcast June 6), are helping explain that gross injustice is not as rare as many Americans would like to believe. The turning point may have come in January, when GOP Gov. George Ryan of Illinois imposed a moratorium on executions after 13 inmates -- one of whom came within two days of being executed -- were proved innocent.

All told, 87 death-row inmates have been released from prison since 1973. As the pace of executions accelerates, so do the odds of grievous and irreversible error. But they don't believe that in Texas, the capital of capital punishment. Barring last-minute stays, McGinn will be the 219 th Texan put to death since 1982 and the fifth in just two weeks.

Nineteen more Texas executions are scheduled between now and Election Day. Texas has executed nearly three times as many inmates as the next state, Virginia (with 76 executions). If Harris County, which encompasses Houston, were a state, it would rank third with 62. When it comes to DNA, Harris County sets a poor example.

The very week in 1997 that a Harris County inmate named Kevin Byrd was freed by Gov. George W. Bush after DNA evidence showed he was wrongly convicted of rape, the county clerk's office was busy destroying rape kits from 50 other old cases, citing an overcrowded storage space. This is all too common across the country. Few laws exist to preserve evidence once appeals end, even though new technology makes it easier to lift samples from old clothing. Mostly, rape kits and other evidence are lost through routine sloppiness.

One of the surprises of DNA testing is how often the police get the wrong man. While post-trial testing is uncommon, pre-trial testing is now standard. Nowadays after police arrest someone for rape or rape-murder, they routinely send DNA samples to FBI labs. The results have been astounding.

Of the first 18, 000 results analyzed by the FBI, the DNA test excluded the principal suspects in 26 percent of the cases. If that level of innocence applies to those arrested, how about for those convicted? "The strong presumption that verdicts are correct has been weakened, " a Justice Department task force wrote last year. Bush has not yet waded into the DNA debate. More broadly, he has repeatedly insisted he is "absolutely confident" that the 127 inmates executed on his watch (an average of one every fortnight) have all been guilty.

So far, no one has proved him wrong, though two members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, the Bush-appointed panel that hears all final appeals in Texas, told The New York Times they fear that the system could allow the innocent to be executed. A spokesman for the Bush campaign, Mindy Tucker, says the Times quoted the board members out of context. She adds that Bush believes that the system works well and "he thoroughly reviews every death-penalty case. " Bush says he wants the death penalty to be "swift and sure. " Last year he vetoed a bill that would have helped counties set up public-defender offices. (Texas, unlike most big states, has no such system. ) In 1995 he signed a bill that streamlined the system for legal counsel on death-penalty appeals. Now the elected judges of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals -- all adamantly pro-death penalty -- appoint attorneys who they hope will speed up the process. "I did not have the experience to handle this case, " admits Erica Copeland, whose client, James Clayton, is scheduled to be executed on May 25.

Under Bush, the pay for lawyers handling death-penalty appeals (almost all of the 467 inmates on death row in Texas are too poor to afford an attorney) has risen from $ 15, 000 to $ 25, 000 a case, but only a maximum of $ 2, 500 can be used for investigators or expert witnesses. This is a fraction of the real cost of a proper appeal. Then there's the problem of poor legal counsel. Ricky McGinn's appellate attorney, Richard Alley of Ft.

Worth, was unfamiliar with key details of his own client's case. It took an unpaid independent investigator from Indiana, Tina Church, to notice last January that McGinn's 1994 DNA tests had been "inconclusive" and that new DNA analysis could yield fresh evidence. "We " re not asking for much, " Church says. "Just some better tests to make sure that there hasn't been a mistake. " But even after Church obtained an affidavit from a DNA expert saying new tests might help prove McGinn's guilt or innocence "once and for all, " Alley still didn't move quickly to help his client. From a visitation booth on death row in Livingston, Texas, McGinn is bitterly critical of his attorney, who he says has rebuffed offers of help from other lawyers. "He gets his death-row cases and pushes them through as fast as he can. He works for the state of Texas, " says McGinn. Elisabeth See of the American Bar Association calls such conduct "outrageous. " Alley readily admits he has handled as many as 11 death-penalty appeals at once - despite trial transcripts that run thousands of pages per case. He currently represents five others besides McGinn on death row.

Newsweek examined documents from the State Bar of Texas and found that Alley has twice been publicly reprimanded. In 1985, the state bar said he "knowingly used false evidence" and "knowingly made false statements of fact" (among other abuses). And in 1992 he was cited by the bar for "failing to properly safeguard the property of a client. " For his part, Alley denies inadequate representation and says clients are often unhappy with their lawyers: "It's not that anyone is asleep at the wheel. I feel I did everything I could and am continuing to do everything I can. How did I become the bad guy?" Inmates, especially those convicted on sexual-assault charges, wouldn't be as harmed by poor legal counsel if they had an automatic right to DNA testing.

Sen. Patrick Leahy has introduced such a bill, and Sen. Orrin Hatch indicated last week that he will hold hearings on the subject in June. Some argue that state law should handle it. But that would hamper the growth of a new DNA databank used to crack cases. Another fear is that the system would be flooded with requests from inmates for testing.

But the experience in Illinois and New York doesn't bear that out, because inmates who are guilty aren't often eager to have their guilt confirmed. DNA testing is only one way to free the innocent. Many big cases rely on testimony from jailhouse snitches with incentives to lie, faulty eyewitnesses, coerced confessions, rigged lab tests. Barry Scheck, whose good work exonerating the innocent is improving a reputation that suffered during the O. J. Simpson case, says the biggest barrier to righting wrongful convictions is human nature: "We " re so afraid the system will be embarrassed that we " ll let innocent people stay in jail and the guilty roam the streets. " Whether you " re for or against the death penalty, a hard-liner or a soft touch, who can be comfortable with that?

Author / s : Issue: June 3, 2000 Majorities Still Support Death Penalty but Also Say Bush, Other Governors Mainly Influenced by Politics NEW YORK, June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Ninety-five percent of Americans say that states should permit DNA testing in all death-row cases where it might help prove an inmate's guilt or innocence and 88 percent favor a federal requirement for all states to adopt such a policy, the latest Newsweek Poll shows. A full 82 percent of those surveyed say states should make it easier for death row inmates to introduce new evidence that might prove their innocence, even if it might result in delays in the death penalty process; just 12 percent say states should not do so, the poll shows. (Photo: web) Fifty-five percent of all those surveyed say when state governors make decisions about whether to delay an execution or recommend clemency in death row cases, it's mainly because of political considerations; just 36 percent say it's mainly because of the facts of the case. And a 59 -percent majority say it was mainly from political considerations that Texas Gov. George W. Bush last week granted a stay of execution to a death row inmate who wants new DNA testing of crime scene evidence; only 27 percent say he did it based on the facts of the case, according to the poll, which is part of Newsweek's coverage of the death penalty debate in the June 12 issue (on newsstands Monday, June 5).

Even 41 percent of registered voters who favor Bush in the 2000 presidential race (44 percent in the latest Newsweek Poll versus 43 percent for Gore) believe he did it for political reasons, the poll shows; almost the same amount (42 %) of Bush's supporters believe he did it based on the facts of the case. The poll shows that a 73 -percent majority of Americans favor the death penalty in various circumstances: 38 percent favor it only for those convicted of the most brutal murders, mass murders and serial killings; 23 percent favor it for all of those convicted of murder, other especially violent crimes and major drug dealing; and 12 percent favor it for murder only. Nineteen percent of those polled oppose the death penalty. Five years ago, a Newsweek Poll found 78 percent supporting the death penalty and 17 percent opposing it. Among those who currently support the death penalty, 34 percent say the main reason is that it deters others from committing violent crime; 26 percent say an "eye for an eye" is just punishment for those convicted, the poll shows. Among those who oppose capital punishment, 28 percent say the main reason is it results in some innocent people being put to death; 20 percent say the main reason is that it's wrong for the state to put people to death; and 11 percent say the main reason is it does not deter others from committing violent crime.

Sixty-two percent of those polled say the death penalty is at least a minor deterrent to violent crime; 30 percent say it's not a deterrent at all, the poll shows. Seventy-two percent say they are at least somewhat confident (32 % are very confident) that those who are convicted of violent crimes and sentenced to death are actually guilty.


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Research essay sample on Death Row Inmates Death Penalty Debate

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