Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore refused all appeals and insisted on being executed in 1977, becoming the first US prisoner put to death after the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment six months earlier.
A career criminal who shot two clerks to death during a robbery spree in Utah, Gilmore chose a firing squad over hanging and became a central figure in one of the great debates about the US criminal justice system.
Surging US crime rates in the 1970s and 1980s created massive popular support for capital punishment. Use of the death penalty has declined in recent years, but it reached a grim landmark on Friday with the 1,000th execution since the moratorium was lifted in 1976.
Kenneth Lee Boyd, 57, died by lethal injection in a Raleigh, North Carolina, prison for killing his estranged wife and her father in 1988 while his two children watched. He was convicted in a 1994 retrial.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1972 in a Georgia case that the death penalty as applied at the time violated the US constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Because of mounting legal challenges, it had already been six years since the last execution.
In 1976, the court reinstated the capital punishment option with revised state laws, which govern nearly all murder cases. Lethal injection has become the preferred execution method in most states.
Death penalty critics argue that execution wipes out a prisoner's chance of exoneration if new evidence turns up later, and point to the disproportionate number of US blacks on death row.
Rick Halperin, president of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and chairman of Amnesty International USA, cited racial and economic fairness as one of many grounds to scrap executions.
"One of the main reasons, of course, is the fact that it is not a foolproof system and that innocent people can be executed," he said.
Since 1971, 122 prisoners have been freed from death row.
"Many people are troubled by so many people being sentenced to death and then later being proven innocent," Halperin said.
"Another reason why people are moving is that they are realizing that life without parole is a viable option," he added.
Halperin said he believes there are at least three cases of overwhelming evidence that innocent people were executed. DNA evidence is now being tested that could prove the innocence of one Virginia inmate who was put to death, he said.
Evidence also was the key issue in the case of a Virginia man who escaped execution on Wednesday.
Robin Lovitt was convicted of killing a billiard-hall employee with a pair of scissors during a 1998 robbery, but denied the killing.
A court employee mistakenly threw away possible DNA evidence -- including the scissors -- before Lovitt had exhausted legal appeals, prompting Governor Mark Warner to commute his sentence to life in prison.
Of the 50 US states, 33 now allow the death penalty. Last year, 59 people were executed in the US, led by Texas' 23.
Yet recent surveys show that US public support for the death penalty has declined.
In October, a poll showed that 64 percent of Americans favor it, the lowest support since the executions resumed and down significantly from 80 percent in 1994.
Race, inequalities in the judicial system and the growing number of inmates proven innocent by DNA testing have increasingly become part of the debate.
In 2002, the US Supreme Court ruled that the mentally retarded could not be executed. This year, a court ruling made it illegal to execute offenders who were minors when they committed their offenses.
The Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center reported that the annual number of executions has declined by 40 percent since the late 1990s, along with an even sharper drop in the rate of courts' sentencing convicts to death.
Halperin said he believes a reversal of the nation's 1976 decision is inevitable.
"It is no longer a case of if, but a case of when," he said.
To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
Next week, the nation is to celebrate the Lunar New Year break. Unfortunately, cold winds are a-blowing, literally and figuratively. The Central Weather Administration has warned of an approaching cold air mass, while obstinate winds of chaos eddy around the Legislative Yuan. English theologian Thomas Fuller optimistically pointed out in 1650 that “it’s always darkest before the dawn.” We could paraphrase by saying the coldest days are just before the renewed hope of spring. However, one must temper any optimism about the damage being done in the legislature by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), under
To our readers: Due to the Lunar New Year holiday, from Sunday, Jan. 26, through Sunday, Feb. 2, the Taipei Times will have a reduced format without our regular editorials and opinion pieces. From Tuesday to Saturday the paper will not be delivered to subscribers, but will be available for purchase at convenience stores. Subscribers will receive the editions they missed once normal distribution resumes on Sunday, Feb. 2. The paper returns to its usual format on Monday, Feb. 3, when our regular editorials and opinion pieces will also be resumed.
This year would mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the India Taipei Association (ITA) in Taipei and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center (TECC) in New Delhi. From the vision of “Look East” in the 1990s, India’s policy has evolved into a resolute “Act East,” which complements Taiwan’s “New Southbound Policy.” In these three decades, India and Taiwan have forged a rare partnership — one rooted in shared democratic values, a commitment to openness and pluralism, and clear complementarities in trade and technology. The government of India has rolled out the red carpet for Taiwanese investors with attractive financial incentives
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