Tagged: death penalty

  Today's panelists are WAMC’s Alan Chartock, Ray Graf, and Stephen Gottlieb, the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor at Albany Law School.

This morning our discussion topics include:
• The Death Penalty
• Miranda Rights
• Surveillance and Privacy
• Justice in the era of the 24-Hour news cycle

Following the Boston Marathon bombings, a New York state Senator is renewing his call for the death penalty. He also says he’s not opposed to torture, under certain circumstances, and is standing by a tweet that made national headlines.

Following the capture of Boston Marathon bomber suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Republican state Senator from the Hudson Valley Greg Ball tweeted Friday night, quote “So, scumbag #2 in custody. Who wouldn’t use torture on this punk to save more lives?”

Connecticut’s Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the recent repeal of the state’s death penalty applies only to future defendants.

The state's highest court granted a request on Thursday by Eduardo Santiago to challenge the repeal's impact on those who committed capital crimes before the law was passed. He was convicted in a murder-for-hire plot that promised him a broken snowmobile.

The death penalty was repealed in April, but it was preserved for 11 inmates on death row and for pending cases.

Connecticut death row inmates who have sued the state to get their sentences overturned argue that race and geographic bias played a part in their prosecution. WAMC’s Lucas Willard has more….

Five of the 11 men on Connecticut's death row are plaintiffs. They claim their penalty was arbitrary and discriminatory.

Their lawsuit went to trial Wednesday at the Northern Correctional Institution in Somers.