- Title: USA: Virginia governor stops milestone 1000th U.S. execution
- Date: 30th November 2005
- Summary: (AMREP)WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 29, 2005) (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE) (English) JOHN GREER SAYING: "It is not a deterrent. I am a social scientist and I read a lot of those studies and all of those studies that are well done show that there is no significant difference between those places that do execute and those that don't." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ZACH DUETCH SAYI
- Embargoed: 15th December 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- City:
- Country: USA
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
- Reuters ID: LVAA3B52BIQOMJ0IMFGJHA30Y1RB
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- Story Text: Virginia Gov. Mark Warner on Tuesday (November 29, 2005) halted the execution of a convicted murderer who would have been the 1,000th person put to death in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Warner said he commuted Robin Lovitt's sentence to life in prison without parole because a court clerk had destroyed evidence during the appeals process in violation of state law. Virginia "must ensure that every time this ultimate sanction is carried out it is done fairly," Warner said in a statement. Warner, a Democrat considering a run for the U.S. presidency in 2008, had denied all 11 previous clemency petitions that came before him as governor. The death penalty has proven a divisive issue in past presidential campaigns. Lovitt had been scheduled to die by lethal injection in a state prison on Wednesday evening. Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty almost 30 years ago, 999 people have been executed in the United States, most recently earlier on Tuesday in Ohio. Lovitt's case has attracted worldwide attention. A Warner spokesman said the governor had received roughly 1,500 phone calls, letters and e-mails from across the United States and several foreign countries, almost all urging clemency. Prominent conservatives have said the case could undermine public support for the death penalty. Former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who investigated then-President Bill Clinton's extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky, argued Lovitt's case at an appeals-court hearing in February. Lovitt was sentenced to death in 1999 for killing a night manager in a pool hall the previous year. He claimed another man committed the murder and his lawyers argued he could have proved his innocence if a pair of bloody scissors submitted as evidence at his trial had not been illegally destroyed. Since Lovitt will not be executed, Kenneth Boyd, scheduled to die early on Friday in North Carolina and Shawn Humphries later on the same day in South Carolina, could be the 1,000th and 1,001st executions since the end of what amounted to a decade-long moratorium on executions by the states as the Supreme Court wrestled with the issue. The first person executed since the death penalty's return was Gary Gilmore. He was executed by a Utah firing squad in 1977 for the murder of a motel manager. Gilmore was the basis of Norman Mailer's book 'The Executioner's Song.' Some 999 people have been put to death since the Supreme Court ended a 10-year moratorium on capital punishment that ran from 1967-1977. Curt Goering, The Deputy Executive Director of Amnesty International, has this to say: "The 1000th executions in the United States is a gruesome and grim reminder with how out of step the United States is with the rest of the world. the fact that the richest and the most powerful nations on the face of the earth continues to execute, to kill in order to solve its social problems is not reflective of a humans rights respecting society or even a civilized society." The U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that crimes committed by juveniles could not be punished by death. That resulted in 71 people being taken off death row and followed another Supreme Court decision in 2002 declaring that it was unconstitutional to execute criminals who are mentally retarded. A Gallup poll last month showed 64 percent of Americans favored the death penalty -- the lowest level in 27 years, down from a high of 80 percent in 1994. On the streets of Washington D.C. the reactions were mixed. John Greer is a social scientist in Washington, he doesn't think the death penalty is effective. "It is not a deterrent. I am a social scientist and I read a lot of those studies and all of those studies that are well done show that there is no significant difference between those places that do execute and those that don't," he argues. Eric Hambrin is a lawyer. "It's a close call I really don't see that it serves any kind of purpose. Plus it is extremely expensive to do so. It cost a lot more to execute a person to to have him serve a life term. Economically speaking I don't think its worth a death." Zach Duetch also opposes executions. " I'm against the death penalty. Well for one I don't think doesn't serve as an effective deterrent and unless it did, all the moral questions are irrelevant. So it doesn't work and I find it deeply troubling." One man, who refused to give his name, thinks the death penalty is useful in deterring crime. "Well I think that in certain situations it is warranted. We have repeat offenders that are not going to be reformed and to make society safe from this shit is to get them out of society." Texas, Virginia and Oklahoma account for more than half of the 999 executions performed since 1977. Texas alone has carried out 355. John Hicks was executed earlier on Tuesday (November 29) in Ohio, he was convicted of suffocating his 5-year-old stepdaughter in 1985. Kenneth Boyd, scheduled to die Friday in North Carolina and Shawn Humphries on the same day in South Carolina, could be the 1,000th and 1,001st executions.
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