You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 33

PLAYS: 16

(Caryl Chessman - then as now, controversy over the Death Penalty)

On March 2,1960 the question of the Death Penalty came roaring into the headlines with the death by gas chamber of Caryl Chessman. The case had been going on since 1948 and the sentence brought a wave of criticism from both sides of the argument over whether death by State was humane or justified. On April 28th of that year CBS Radio, in a documentary narrated by Howard K. Smith, examined the ramifications of the death penalty and the debate over its use.

It still rages on. Even though most states have abandoned the practice, the recent events in Texas have brought the controversy in full view, particularly this time when questions of the condemned persons innocence came to light and the seeming ambivalence of the Texas governor to review the new evidence made it abundantly clear the practice needs a serious review.

But then it's Texas and they want to secede anyway, so . . .

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 118

PLAYS: 19

(Just your average day in paradise.)

I'm always looking for the day in history where nothing happened. I have yet to find it. Well, take this seemingly innocuous date - June 17, 1953. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were clinging to stays of execution all the way to the Supreme Court. President Eisenhower was hopeful for a unified Korea at some point, and there was rioting in East Berlin against the Soviet backed East German government. None of the stories had happy endings, not in 1953 anyway.

But this is the way it was on June 17, 1953, as reported by Charles Collingwood and the staff at CBS News.

Further evidence there is no such thing as a non-news day.

Balancing the interests of the state, victims' families and a flawed criminal justice system, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson signed a bill today that repealed the state's death penalty. He describes the journey that brought him to his decision:

SANTA FE — The Bill Richardson who announced a repeal of the death penalty in New Mexico on Wednesday was not the same Bill Richardson who usually shows up for face time with the news media.

The Richardson who usually hosts the media goes out of his way to convince you of the rightness of his decision. He is confident, bigger than life and even becomes jocular at times; he is a master of the room.

The Richardson who sat before a phalanx of news media Wednesday was anything but. At moments he appeared still to be working out the issue in his head and doubt occasionally crept in to darken his face.

Are there people who deserve the death penalty? Is it right for the state to execute a killer? What about the flaws in the system? And what of the United States’ general approval of the death penalty when compared to most Western democracies?

Richardson struggled to balance all those competing interests, but appeared unable to arrive at an absolutely satisfactory answer.

“I believe it’s the right decision. My conscience feels good, but I am still troubled,” Richardson said, by way of explaining his decision to repeal the death penalty.

He paused.

Continue reading »