Death Penalty -- China Down; U.S. Up

With New Law, China Reports Drop in Executions
By JIM YARDLEY
China reinstated a requirement that every death case be
reviewed and approved by the country's highest court.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/world/asia/09china.html?th&emc=th

Ruling Likely to Spur Convictions in Capital Cases
By ADAM LIPTAK
Experts said a Supreme Court decision will make juries in
death penalty cases whiter and more conviction-prone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/us/09death.html?th&emc=th

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Most nations have now abolished the death penalty. China and the U.S. have been leading the pack of those who do execute, but now seem to be moving in opposite directions on this brutal hangover from the dark ages.

Any who study the specifics relating to the death penalty discover that in far too many cases the innocent are executed while the professionals rarely are if ever. The ethnic and racial biases are well established as well. There is no evidence that the death penalty deters murders. Indeed, there is considerable to the effect that it increases them -- getting rid of witnesses, suicide by shooting a cop, etc.

Hopefully our presently constituted Supreme Court will not carry us back into the centuries of American law in which lynchings were a major source of public entertainment, often graphically pictured on post cards that could be purchased at the local pharmacy
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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