Kirk Samuelson » death penalty http://kirksamuelson.com Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:25:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Executed Today http://kirksamuelson.com/2009/10/29/executed-today/ http://kirksamuelson.com/2009/10/29/executed-today/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:17:03 +0000 Kirk Samuelson http://kirksamuelson.com/?p=270 Wow. If you’re a fan of history and are interested in state justice (and injustice) and have a taste for the macabre (not incompatible with the previous two avocations) Executed Today is your new thing. This blog covered the state murder of Cameron Todd Willingham a year and a half before the excellent New Yorker piece.

There’s been a single execution in all of New England since 1960, in Connecticut. The large majority of executions are in the South, but particularly in Texas.

The most recent execution in the US was yesterday. Reginald Blanton was executed in Texas. There is some question as to his guilt.

I don’t know why we continue to “tinker with the machinery of death” in the words of Justice Blackmun. Really, it just seems so unwise.

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]]> http://kirksamuelson.com/2009/10/29/executed-today/feed/ 1 Governance and murder http://kirksamuelson.com/2009/10/07/governance-and-murder/ http://kirksamuelson.com/2009/10/07/governance-and-murder/#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:45:36 +0000 Kirk Samuelson http://kirksamuelson.com/?p=220 Read this first.

Texas governor Rick Perry presided over the execution of an innocent man and now he’s trying to hide it. The cover up is so blatant that even teevee journalism feels bold enough to call him on it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

]]> http://kirksamuelson.com/2009/10/07/governance-and-murder/feed/ 0 Science and evidence and capital crime http://kirksamuelson.com/2009/09/15/science-and-evidence-and-capital-crime/ http://kirksamuelson.com/2009/09/15/science-and-evidence-and-capital-crime/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:08:34 +0000 Kirk Samuelson http://kirksamuelson.com/?p=169 Cameron Todd Willingham, Texas, and the death penalty : The New Yorker

Somebody linked to this a couple of weeks ago and I just got around to reading it. This is a fantastic piece of journalism. I feel guilty that I didn’t have to pay for it – it’s that good. I’m imagining the scheming going on to turn this into a movie and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Movies are generally terrible. And yet, everybody should know about this. Oh well, nevermind, read it now or save it for later like I did. And link to it.

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