Death Penalty Revisited

Is it not just a little odd that the dean of Cumberland School of Law at Samford Univerity is named John Carroll, and that John Carroll High School is just a couple of miles away n the same road!

Anyway, John Carroll, the dean, says that Alabama’s death penalty law needs to be studied, and that it has flaws in it that should be addressed. The Story
He was a member of the American Bar Association’s death penalty assessment team for Alabama that in 2006 suggested several reforms. Among them:
Revamping indigent defense services
Providing defense counsel in state post-conviction proceedings (Alabama being the only state that does not do this)
Providing standards for judges in overriding jury recommendations.
Enacting a post-conviction DNA law

Sounds like the time for study is over. The ACLU released a report titled Broken Justice: The Death Penalty in Alabama in 2005. This 27 page report outlines clearly the problems Alabama has with its death penalty laws.

But as Carroll says, attempts to talk with state officials have not been successful.

This is a related story about post conviction DNA testing for Darrell Grayson, scheduled for execution on Thursday. that story

Did you know that in 2005 Alabama sentenced more people to death than Georgia…Mississippi…Louisiana…and Tennessee…combined! Do you think the criminals of our state are really that more heinous than our surrounding states? That doesn’t make sense, when you realize that we are arguably the most “Christian” of all the states. One would think that those values would filter down to would be criminals enough to produce lower crime rates and more civility. I mean, if we have more “Christians” spreading the word of God, with any success one would expect to see lower crime rates and such.

Oh yeah, they believe same sex marriage is the greatest threat. So they ignore their failure to address social issues that really matter. Issues like poverty and hunger, health disparities, after school programs for inner city kids…things that might make a difference in so many lives. Instead they focus on demonizing gays and lesbians and rallying people around hatred rather than love. How refreshing to see an African American pastor from the south questioning the use of scripture to target GLBT people during the Democratic Youtube debate the other night View the question on Youtube . And to hear candidates talking frankly about equal rights. read the transcript on CNN Sorry, but you will have to scroll down to find this question and the candidate's answers.

One can only dream….