Critical Links

Death Penalty Information Center
This website provides a fact sheet with various statistics on the death penalty and links to websites dealing with issues such as clemency and innocence as well as, a brief writeup on the latest issues with the death penalty. The site seems to have limited bias and is more focused on simply providing information rather than taking a definite stand on the issue.

Pro-Death Penalty
Well obviously the bias of this website is towards suggesting that the death penalty is a good thing. This website provides death penalty facts for each state as well as a list of issues with the death penalty (innocence, life without parole, etc.). Excerpts from legislation from all 50 states is also provided on the website.

Amnesty International USA
This website as bias towards suggesting that the death penalty is wrong. The thing about this site that captured my immediate attention is the picture on the home page of a death row inmate strapped to a stretcher and three individuals standing over him.

American Civil Liberties Union ~ Death Penalty
This website just by the very fact that it is run by the ACLU is anti-death penalty. The following is an excerpt from the home page: "The death penalty is the ultimate denial of civil rights."This website has links to the Supreme Court website and current legislation dealing with the death penalty.

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Like previous sites this website has a page of statistics. It also contains an alert system on the most current action taken in current death penalty cases. There is also a blog section and a section of current news regarding the death penalty.

Campaign to End the Death Penalty
The first thing I saw when I visited this website was the picture of people in a protest march carrying a large banner that reads "STOP EXECUTIONS." The following is an excerpt from the website and I am sure who can find the bias in it. "On August 30, just hours before he was scheduled for execution in Texas death chamber, Kenneth Foster was taken off death row. Relenting to a wave of pressure from thousands across Texas, the nation, and the world, Governor Rick Perry did what few thought he was capable of - - he sided with justice and granted clemency to a death row prisoner." The key words in that are "justice" and "prisoner."

Information on the Death Penalty from Cornell University Law School
This website analyzes the legality side of the discussion about the death penalty by examining both federal and state legislation.

Information on the Death Penalty from the American Bar Association
The eye-catching aspect of this website is the collage of pictures on the homepage of some death row inmates. This site focuses on the effort of the American Bar Association to "raise awareness about the lack of representation available to death row inmates, to address this urgent need by recruiting competent volunteer attorneys and to offer these volunteers training and assistance. We also work for systemic changes in the criminal justice system that would assure those facing death are represented at all stages of the proceedings from trial through clemency by qualified, adequately compensated counsel."