Bob McCulloch chose not to seek the death penalty in the killing of police office Blake Snyder.
Craig Wood’s attorneys claim multiple errors prevented Wood from receiving a fair trial. This includes that Wood’s father, Jim, was not allowed to testify about his partnership with Hailey’s mother, Stacey Herman, to push for changes to speed up the state’s Amber Alert system. Additionally, the defense was not allowed to call Herman, the victim’s mother, to the stand to testify that she endorsed a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for Wood.
State Representative Curtis Trent pre-filed ‘Hailey’s Law‘ with hopes of pushing it through the legislature.
In national news, the Supreme Court Declines to Address Death Penalty Racial Bias. The Death Penalty Information Center released their year’s report, finding that executions and death sentences in the US remained at historic lows this year, with only a few counties and states supporting capital punishment. Read a summary from the Guardian.
And Washington Republican Senator Mark Miloscia writes in the Seattle Times, “My religious convictions are the primary reasons that I oppose the death penalty and have stood alongside an untold number of other Republicans who would like to see capital punishment end. However, there are many practical reasons why conservatives of all faiths are rethinking the death penalty. In states that execute inmates, there’s an ever-present risk of killing an innocent person. Despite instituting safeguards, mistakes continue to transpire, placing lives in danger. Meanwhile, the death penalty costs far more than any prison sentence and has been responsible for tax increases in many counties.
The high costs and risks become even more unjustifiable after learning that the death penalty doesn’t really benefit society. According to recent studies, there’s no valid evidence to suggest that executions impact homicide rates. Moreover, many murder victims’ families oppose capital punishment because it’s little more than a long, re-traumatizing process that doesn’t give them the justice that they deserve. Given all of these realities, it comes as no surprise that Republicans are sponsoring death penalty repeal bills at never before seen rates.”
Comments