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The mostsignificant death-penalty stories of 2011 have been named by Execution Watch, a news program onPacifica Radio Network’s KPFT FM 90.1 that broadcasts and streams live whenever Texas puts a prisoner todeath:
1. TroyDavis is executed in Georgiadespite lingering doubts about his guilt. The rush to execution was not as unusualas the broad international awareness of, and support for, Davis.
2. MumiaAbu-Jamal makes the metaphorically giant leap from Pennsylvania’sdeath row into general prison population after the Philadelphia district attorney announces itwill stop its 30-year effort to obtain a durable death penalty against him.
3. Texas executes Mexicannational Humberto Leal, flouting international law by refusing to give him anew hearing despite the failure by police to tell him at arrest that he may contactthe Mexican Consulate for legal help.
4. Illinois abolishes thedeath penalty, reducing the number of states with capital punishment to 34. Ina related story, Oregon’sgovernor says no executions will take place during his term but neithercommutes any death sentences nor stops prison officials from selling excessexecution drugs to other states.
5. TheEuropean Union escalates its activism against American use of the death penaltyby banning the export to the United States of barbiturates that could be used toin lethal-injection executions.
6. Thenumber of new death sentences in the United States reaches an historiclow of 78, the first time in more than three decades that fewer than 100 peoplewere condemned to death.
7. AnthonyGraves, exonerated from death row for a murder he did not commit, successfullysues the State of Texasfor compensation owed to him by law, accepting from the comptroller a check for$1.45 million.
8. TheTexas death penalty is declaredunconstitutional by State District Judge Teresa Hawthorne of Dallas, echoing Harris County District JudgeKevin Fine’s earlier ruling, made moot by a plea deal.
9. Thedeath penalty becomes part of the GOP primary race when Rick Perry elicitsapplause from a debate audience for presiding over more executions than anygovernor in history and disbelief from the media for declaring he has neverlost sleep over an execution.
10. Director WernerHerzog successfully releases INTO THE ABYSS, a gritty documentary describing fromseveral points of view a triple murder in Texas and its aftermath. Another documentaryinvolving capital punishment, INCENDIARY, premieres and wins an award at Austin’s South bySouthWest Film Festival.
Other stories in 2011 that Execution Watch designated as especially noteworthy include:
-- A district judge in Georgetowntakes under advisement a request for a special inquiry into alleged wrongdoingby the top prosecutor in a murder trial that put an innocent man behind barsfor 25 years. Michael Morton presented evidence that ex-district attorney KenAnderson knowingly withheld evidence that might have led to his acquittal.
-- The U.S. Supreme Court vacates a $14 million jury verdictagainst former New Orleans District Attorney Harry Connick Sr. for withholdingevidence that might have averted the wrongful conviction and near-execution of JohnThompson. A divided court said a prosecutor’s office cannot be held liable for amember’s illegal withholding of exculpatory evidence due to inadequate training.-- The Texas Forensic Science Commission releases its final report on theTodd Willingham case, directing the Innocence Project of Texas to work with thestate fire marshall to review more than 700 arson cases for possible wrongfulconvictions based on outdated science.
-- Literary critics respond enthusiastically to thepublication of AUTHOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EXECUTION, a highly personal and humanisticmemoir by David Dow, litigation director of Texas Defender Service.
-- A Louisiana-based coalition of civic and religious groupscalled I Want to Serve launches a campaign to outlaw the exclusion from capitaljuries of people who oppose the death penalty.
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