WebWatch-capital punishment

CLICKING ON THE WEB... Enemies of the crown in medieval England often had their heads severed following execution. The heads were then displayed in public places to remind others of the cost of treason. Four centuries later, in Colonial America, public executions (usually carried out by hanging) drew a large crowd who regarded it as entertainment. More recently, relatives of victims of the Oklahoma City bombing who had proclaimed their revulsion at the sight of Timothy McVeigh clamored to watch his final minutes on closed-circuit TV outside the death chamber.

Society has never known what to make of capital punishment. It seems enlightened to feel disgust at the idea of taking a life as retribution. Yet many people think that certain criminals deserve nothing less. On the web, sites offer views supporting and opposing the death penalty, as well as history, jurisprudence, and additional details, such as recordings of executions.

FOCUS ON THE DEATH PENALTY
www.uaa.alaska.edu/just/death/index.html
Date Visited: 9/4/01
Developer/Provider: University of Alaska, Anchorage

The Justice Center at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, has provided a comprehensive, evenhanded look at capital punishment, from history and statistics to in-depth treatment of corollary issues, such as deterrence and costs.

Scroll down the main page for the Site Overview, an annotated index to site contents. Also, subordinate links all begin with a helpful summary of page contents. The Debate link includes a rich set of resources that address both objections to and defenses of the death penalty, from essays by professors Ernest van den Haag and Jack Greenberg to packages of articles from National Public Radio, The Atlantic, and the American Bar Association.

The Death Row link provides information on death penalty laws and statistics in 20 of the 50 states, though not all information is current. At the bottom of the page are links to Methods of Execution, including Washington's Protocol on Execution by Hanging and Utah's Protocol on Execution by Firing Squad—practices that you might have thought outmoded.

Under Specific Issues, click on Cost of the Death Penalty, Alternative Sentencing, and Limiting Appeals & Habeas Corpus Reform to read about elements that many capital punishment sites ignore. The International Context sheds light on how other nations view the death penalty. This site offers more than Death Penalty Information Center (below), including reports from the UN Commission on Human Rights, as well as reports from agencies like Amnesty International. At the bottom of the main page are links to sites providing current news.

The Bottom Line: This comprehensive forum provides an accessible, evenhanded look at issues and information about capital punishment. The site could be updated more frequently.

DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER
www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
Date Visited: 9/5/01
Developer/Provider: Death Penalty Information Center

Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), which includes lawyers and law professors on its board, is a leading opponent of capital punishment. From the main page, the Information Topics link leads to the heart of the site. History of the Death Penalty, which is presented in two parts, provides a succinct but searing look at how capital punishment has evolved, from the Code of Hammurabi through Supreme Court rulings to President Clinton's Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. The history is informed and informative, although the purple-and-green color scheme is distracting.

Mental Retardation and the Death Penalty offers coverage of this recent controversy plus streaming video interviews with two previous death row inmates. In the Clemency link, users can read about inmates whose death sentences have been commuted. Finally, the International link provides statistics and news briefs on the application of the death penalty in other countries.

The site's advocacy bent shows, as much of the text is written in large, boldface fonts—the online equivalent of shouting. The In-Depth Reports page includes a series of "year end" reports that highlight developments in capital punishment. One especially useful report is entitled International Perspectives on the Death Penalty, which summarizes the attitudes of other nations toward abolition and suggests that the United States should pay heed.

The Bottom Line: Those looking for a good range of forceful arguments against the death penalty, including history, international perspectives, and execution of the retarded or the innocent, should look here. Focus on the Death Penalty (above) offers more balance.

Murdervictims.com
www.murdervictims.com

Pro-Death Penalty.com
www.prodeathpenalty.com

Murdervictims.com, the sister site of Pro-Death Penalty.com, tries to shift the focus from killers to their victims. The most arresting link is Victim's Voices, which provides individual pages dedicated to the victims, with relatives and friends offering reminiscences of the departed. Other points of interest are the Murder Victim Survivors Bulletin Board (accessible from the main page) and the Links page, which includes several nonprofit support groups. Pro-Death Penalty.com, also sponsored by the nonprofit group Justice for All, aims at more education and advocacy. Death Penalty Paper links to a lengthy article that challenges the anti–death penalty position using biblical, historical, and philosophical arguments. Info & Resources leads to execution statistics (none more recent than January 2001). "Innocence" Critique attacks a study by the DPIC (above). Once a Murderer links to news summaries about death row inmates—one of whom wants to die rather than be "lingering" on death row. The Escapes section reminds us that some murderers get out of prison.

Abolition News Flash
www.amnesty-usa.org/abolish/index.html

ACLU Death Penalty Campaign
www.aclu.org/death-penalty

Equal Justice USA
www.quixote.org/ej

Theology Library: The Death Penalty
www.mcgill.pvt.k12.al.us/jerryd/cm/death.htm

Amnesty International's Abolition News Flash offers current international news, lists of prisoners executed by year, and other death penalty links. The report Twenty-Five Years After Gregg v. Georgia links to a scholarly though readable article about directions the death penalty has taken since being reinstated in 1976. The About the Program link has more of an advocacy bent. At the ACLU Death Penalty Campaign site, click on ACLU's Position on the Death Penalty to read an argument in favor of a moratorium on capital punishment until questions of fairness and accuracy can be resolved. The News section on the homepage offers current coverage, while drop-down links at the bottom of the page address issues like mental retardation and inadequate lawyering. The Moratorium Now! Campaign of the Equal Justice USA project seeks to mobilize groups to call for a suspension of the death penalty. For a series of religious viewpoints on capital punishment, look at Theology Library: The Death Penalty. Though the site endorses no particular group, most links appear to be Catholic-related.

Clark County Prosecuting Attorney: The Death Penalty
www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/death.htm

Washington Post: The Death Penalty Reconsidered
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/specials/socialpolicy/deathpenalty

The most robust element of the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney site is the link to 1000+ Death Penalty Links. These annotated links range from the general (Public Opinion) to the specific (Karla Faye Tucker) to the bizarre (Death Penalty Humor and Curiosity) but also include a wide variety of essays and gateways. The Indiana prosecutor asserts that, despite recognized shortcomings, "there is no adequate and acceptable alternative" to the death penalty. No contemporary discussion of the death penalty would be complete without Timothy McVeigh. The Washington Post site includes links to news stories about the Oklahoma City bomber's execution as well as the FBI snafu that complicated his last weeks on Earth. To read background material on the death penalty, examine the links under Execution Protocol and Death Penalty Studies. Also available are Select Supreme Court Cases, which link to electronic versions of official Supreme Court opinions. The site also includes current news.

Crime Magazine: The Death Penalty
crimemagazine.com/cp101.htm

Ethics: Punishment and the Death Penalty
ethics.acusd.edu/death_penalty.html

Crime Magazine: The Death Penalty summarizes a few well-known trials, from Sacco and Vanzetti to Caryl Chessman. Click on Capital Punishment to see more links, the most compelling (and most horrifying) of which is The Execution Photos. More photos are linked from the main page under American Lynchings. Ethics: Punishment and the Death Penalty may exist primarily to promote the publishing endeavors of its creator, a professor at the University of San Diego, but it gives a good introduction to the philosophical issues of capital punishment. Scroll midway down the page for a series of articles (some scholarly, some more accessible) on punishment and the death penalty.

How Lethal Injection Works
www.howstuffworks.com/lethal-injection.htm

WNYC Special Report: The Execution Tapes
www.wnyc.org/new/news/specialreports/execution.html

How Lethal Injection Works explains the details of execution preparation, selecting witnesses, and administering the drugs. The site also includes photographs of execution chambers and data on the worldwide use of lethal injection. The WNYC Special Report site gives users a chance to hear recordings of 23 executions that were carried out by the Georgia Department of Corrections from 1983 to 1998. Click on FAQ to learn how and why these classified items have entered the public domain.

Cornell Death Penalty Project
www.lawschool.cornell.edu/lawlibrary/death

Southern Center for Human Rights
www.schr.org/center

Begun in 1993 under the auspices of several law school professors who realized that they had a common interest in the administration of the death penalty, the Cornell Death Penalty Project offers advice and assistance to attorneys who are charged with defending capital cases. Recent Events leads to a discussion of three briefs filed by the project on behalf of death row inmates. Click on the hyperlinked titles for full text. Capital Jury Project offers links to full-text published studies on how jurors make decisions in capital cases. Unfortunately, these studies, as well as Scholarly Articles, are available only via subscription databases. Southern Center for Human Rights represents death penalty defendants. The Articles/Reports link includes numerous speeches and writings by Director Stephen Bright. The Cases/Decisions link includes a good summary of a vast array of Supreme Court cases.