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 6/30/2008
The State of Alabama has set July 31st as the execution date for Mr. Tommy Arthur.
As you will perhaps remember from Mr. Arthur's previous dates last year, he requested DNA testing of evidence and was supported in this request by the Innocence Project. Surely this is not too much to ask for in the name of justice!
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 PRESS RELEASE
UN Special Rapporteur Calls on the U.S. to Take Steps to Avoid Unlawful Killings
New York, June 30, 2008
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions, Philip Alston, today called upon the United States to take immediate steps to
improve its system of military justice and to ensure that the death penalty is applied fairly
and justly in states such as Alabama and Texas. |
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Yesterday I had the distinct honor of a one on one meeting with United Nations Envoy, Philip Alston, special rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions and his team of three. |
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 The Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to impose the death penalty for the crime of raping a child, when the victim does not die and death was not intended. |
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King seeks execution date for Callahan
By Megan Nichols
Staff Writer
06-10-2008
Alabama Attorney General Troy King is asking that an execution date be set for James Callahan, who was convicted of killing a Jacksonville woman in 1982.
King on Monday filed a motion to that effect with the state Supreme Court. Callahan, who has been on death row for 25 years, had been scheduled for execution Jan. 31, but received a stay pending the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of lethal injection.
The court upheld its constitutionality as a method for execution in a 7-to-2 decision in April. The decision said that the three-drug cocktail used for lethal injection in Kentucky is not "cruel and unusual" as defined in the Eighth Amendment, clearing the way for executions to resume.
While the Supreme Court was considering the case, federal courts had stepped in and stayed the executions of three Alabama death row inmates: Callahan, Tom Arthur and Daniel Siebert.
While most states voluntarily stayed executions pending the outcome of the case, Alabama attempted to carry out scheduled executions.
King said in a written statement that Callahan is on death row after he was convicted of murdering Rebecca Suzanne Howell on Feb. 3, 1982. King said Callahan abducted the 26-year-old woman at a Jacksonville coin laundry and then raped and murdered her by suffocation.
"Justice has too long been delayed in each of these cases, and in many more," King, who is a strong advocate for the death penalty, said in the statement. "We are committed to moving swiftly to deliver justice for the victims who suffered at the hands of these murderers."
King said Callahan has exhausted all appeals.
He was unavailable Monday afternoon for a phone interview to answer when he expected Callahan's execution to take place. From The Anniston Star, Copyright © 1998-2008 Consolidated Publishing. All rights reserved. |
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