Saturday May 5

Some U.S. States Having Doubts on Executions

 By Greg McCune CHICAGO  - George Ryan is an unlikely hero to opponents of the death penalty in the United States.The Illinois governor is a conservative Republican who once voted for capital punishment and still believes the death penalty is appropriate in some cases.But he became a favorite of social activists from Harvard to Hollywood last year when he slapped a moratorium on Illinois executions, stirring a national debate over the justice system and whether innocent people are being put to death.``I think people are more concerned about (the justice system's) fairness and accuracy,'' Ryan told Reuters in an interview. ``The American people are fair minded. They don't want to execute innocent people, and that is what we were about to do in Illinois.''Ryan acted after judges released 13 men wrongly condemned to die in Illinois. One man, Anthony Porter, came within hours of being executed and was exonerated only after evidence compiled by a group of Northwestern University journalism students showed another man committed the crime.Mcveigh Execution In SpotlightAs the federal government prepares to execute Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (news - web sites) on May 16, it might appear that capital punishment has never been more popular in America.After all, McVeigh is the kind of convicted murderer Americans love to hate. He admitted he built the bomb that killed 168 people, has expressed no remorse, and coldly described the deaths of 19 children in the blast as ``collateral damage.'' An overwhelming majority of Americans believe McVeigh should die for his crimes, according to recent opinion polls.When McVeigh is put to death by lethal injection in Terre Haute, Indiana, it will be the first federal execution since 1963. Thirty eight of the 50 U.S. states impose the death penalty, and they have executed more than 700 people since it was reinstated in 1976.Poll after poll also shows that a solid majority of Americans continues to support the death penalty generally. President Bush (news - web sites) strongly favors capital punishment and his home state of Texas has executed more people than any other.Second ThoughtsBut beyond the opinion polls and the McVeigh execution, many Americans are having second thoughts about their system of justice in death penalty cases.``When the Illinois governor imposed a moratorium, it catapulted things forward,'' said Jane Henderson, co-director of the Quixote Center, a Maryland-based advocacy group that opposes the death penalty.In the year since Illinois acted, two other states have come close to halting executions. One chamber of the Maryland legislature passed a moratorium law, but it stalled in the state senate. The Nevada senate approved a two-year moratorium proposal that awaits action in the other legislative chamber.Moratorium laws have been introduced in a record 16 states. A new ABC News poll found that 51 percent of Americans supported a nationwide moratorium on executions. ``I think we are going to see more states impose moratoriums,'' Henderson said.Some states have acted to restrict the death penalty in other ways.Arizona and Florida this year passed laws barring the execution of the mentally retarded, bringing to 15 the number of states that forbid it. The U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) has agreed to hear the case of a mentally retarded man condemned to die in North Carolina.Even Texas has acted following allegations during the presidential election campaign of incompetent legal defense for the accused, including one case of a defense lawyer falling asleep during a court hearing.Texas has passed a law giving death row inmates the right to DNA tests in certain cases that might prove their innocence. A Texas senate committee passed a moratorium proposal, although the measure is not expected to become law. RACIST SYSTEM? An explosive issue in many states is whether the legal system discriminates against minorities in death penalty cases, particularly African-Americans.While 12 percent of the U.S. population is African-American, 36 percent of those executed since 1976 were black, and 43 percent of inmates on death row are black, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.Studies also show that the murder of a white person is more likely to lead to the death penalty than killing a minority.Several states, including Georgia and North Carolina in the conservative South, are considering whether there is racism in application of the death penalty.While few expect to see the end of the death penalty in the U.S. any time soon, the calls for reform are growing louder.``I can tell you that until I know it works perfectly there will not be another execution in Illinois,'' Ryan said.