The workshop between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday, March 23, at Santa Maria Del Mar’s Community Hall, will feature former death row inmates Herman Lindsey (exonerated in 2006) and Seth Penalver (2012), along with several other death penalty experts and advocates for the repeal of Florida’s capital punishment.
capital punishment
Lawmakers Want to Speed Up Executions of Florida’s 404 Death Row Inmates
The proposed constitutional amendment would shift power from the courts system to lawmakers to set rules about what are known as “post-conviction” appeals in death-penalty cases.
Three-Year Effort to Abolish Death Penalty in Florida Fails in 9-4 Justice Committee Vote
The rare vote to kill a bill in committee, rather than just bottling it up never to be heard, gave death penalty opponents their first chance to extensively argue for a repeal, following several years in which the measure’s sponsor, Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, has been unable to persuade Republican leaders to put the bill before a committee.
Supreme Court Denies Last Appeal by Manuel Pardo, Cop Turned Executioner Scheduled to Die Dec. 11
Manuel Pardo, 56, is scheduled to die Dec. 11 at Florida State Prison in Starke. Pardo was convicted in 1988 after admitting to nine execution-style murders. He said he should avoid culpability because he believed all the victims to be drug dealers who he said “have no right to live.”
Georgia’s Killing of Troy Davis: A State-Sponsored Miscarriage of Justice
Troy Davis’s execution at 7 p.m. Wednesday is an extreme example of why the death penalty system is broken, barbaric, and should be abolished.
Lethal Edict: Florida Supremes Rule “Isolated Mishaps” Aren’t Enough to Stop Executions
Clearing the way for executions by lethal injection, a unanimous Florida Supreme Court ruled invalid death row inmate Manuel Valle’s objection to pentobarbital, one of the three drugs used to put inmates to sleep–and to euthanize animals.
Capital Punishment As a Crime More Dreadful Than Murder: Dostoyevsky on the Guillotine
The death penalty, in this passage from Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot,” is seen as a punishment mostly for what precedes it–and an indictment of those who impose capital punishment.
Florida’s Death Penalty Ruled Unconstitutional
Judge Jose Martinez, a George W. Bush appointee, relied on a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision barring judges from interpreting “aggravating factors” independent of juries’ explicit findings.
Ring v. Arizona 536 US 584 (2002): Capital Punishment and Sixth Amendment Law
In Ring v. Arizona, Arizona’s capital sentencing system was found to violate the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a trail by jury by shifting the imposition of the death sentence to a judge.