About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2018)
TODAYS TOP HEADLINES The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Thursday, November 1,2018 3A Under Trump, federal death penalty cases up BY JIM MUSTIAN Associated Press NEW YORK — Before a suspect was even publicly named, President Donald Trump declared that who ever gunned down 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue should “suffer the ultimate price” and that the death penalty should be brought back “into vogue.” Trump has largely got ten his wish, at least on the federal level, with death penalty cases ticking back up under his Justice Depart ment after a near-morato- rium on such prosecutions in President Barack Obama’s last term, when he directed a broad review of capital punishment and issues sur rounding lethal injection. Trump’s attorney gen eral, Jeff Sessions, has so far approved at least a dozen death penalty pros ecutions over the past two years, according to court fil ings tracked by the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel, with cases ranging from the high profile to the relatively obscure. They include the man charged with using a rented truck to fatally mow down eight people on a New York City bike path a year ago; three men charged in a fatal armored truck robbery in New Orleans; a gang sus pect in Detroit charged with “murder in aid of racketeer ing”; and a man charged with fatally shooting a tribal police officer in New Mexico on the nation’s largest Amer ican Indian reservation. The tally could grow higher over the next two months as federal prosecu tors await Sessions’ deci sion in several other cases, including against the alleged synagogue shooter, Robert Bowers, who faces federal hate crime charges and 11 counts of murder. By comparison, in Obama’s final year in office the Justice Department authorized just one capital prosecution, that of Dylann Roof, the white suprema cist who fatally shot nine black people in 2015 during a church service in Charles ton, South Carolina. But while the Justice Department under Trump has increased death pen alty prosecutions, the num bers are not entirely out of line with those earlier in the Obama administration under Attorney General Eric Holder, who approved 11 capital prosecutions in 2009 and at least 13 in 2012. And both the Trump and Obama administrations pale in comparison to that of President George W. Bush and his attorney general John Ashcroft, who in 2003 alone signed off on capital prosecutions against more than three dozen defen dants, at times overruling his own prosecutors when they recommended against seeking capital punishment. What makes Trump different, death penalty experts say, is that he pub licly advocates for the ulti mate punishment in specific cases. “I think they should very much bring the death pen alty into vogue,” Trump told reporters Saturday shortly after news came of the DARRON CUMMINGS I Associated Press President Donald Trump waves after arriving in Indianapolis to speak at the 91st Annual Future Farmers of America Convention and Expo, Saturday, Oct. 27, in Indianapolis. synagogue shooting. “Any body that does a thing like this to innocent people that are in temple or in church. We had so many incidents with churches. They should really suffer the ultimate price.” And he took to Twitter just a day after last year’s Man hattan bike path attack to call suspect Sayfullo Saipov a “Degenerate Animal” and argue he “SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!” Trump also said this year that capital punishment should be used to prosecute drug traffickers. Sessions followed a day later with a memo urging prosecutors to seek the death penalty “for certain drug-related crimes,” including kill ings occurring during drug trafficking. “If we’re to be a nation of laws, then the legal process has to be allowed to play itself out without being sub ject to political manipula tion,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center. “Charging decisions should be made based on the evi dence, not based on politics and not based on political pressure.” The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump was a vocal pro ponent of the death penalty for decades before taking office, most notably in 1989 when the real estate mag nate took out full-page advertisements in New York City newspapers urging elected officials to “BRING BACK THE DEATH PEN ALTY” following the rape of a jogger in Central Park. “If the punishment is strong,” he wrote at the time, “the attacks on innocent people will stop.” Five Harlem teenagers were convicted in the Cen tral Park case but had their convictions vacated years later after another man con fessed to the rape. The city agreed to pay the so-called Central Park Five $41 mil lion more than a decade after their exoneration — a settlement Trump blasted as “outrageous.” Polls show a majority of Americans still back the death penalty, but support has been declining in recent years. A 2017 Gallup poll showed 55 percent of Americans supported the death penalty for a person convicted or murder, the lowest percent age in 45 years. The death penalty remains legal in 30 states, but only a handful regularly conduct executions. Texas has executed 108 prisoners since 2010, far more than any other state. But such executions on the federal level have been rare. The government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988, the most recent of which occurred in 2003, when Louis Jones was exe cuted for the 1995 kidnap ping, rape and murder of a young female soldier. In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, Obama directed the Justice Department to conduct a broad review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs. It remains unclear today what came of that review and whether it will change the way the fed eral government carries out executions. i, Here’s to Wishing you a wonderful birthday. May your day be as beautiful as you have made our lives for the last 14 years. We- love- 'yW, YblK % bwf » • # Join us for Saturday, November 10 1-4 PM 403 Broad St. SE Gainesville, GA tefyiedtmenfaj and omIi ^ftfrid/naA decoh/ EVAN VUCCII Associated Press President Donald Trump speaks during an event on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, to acknowledge the final passage of tax overhaul legislation by Congress, Dec. 20, 2017. House races show America’s gender, racial differences BY LISA MASCAR0 Associated Press WASHINGTON — Perhaps nowhere is the choice facing voters next Tuesday more vividly on display than in the battle for control of the U.S. House. Democrats are fielding more women and minority candidates than ever, while Republicans are trying to hold their majority with mostly white men. The disparity high lights a trend that has been amplified under President Donald Trump, with the two parties increasingly polarized along gender and racial lines as much as by issues. The result is that, in an election season playing out against the backdrop of bomb threats, violence and a charged immigra tion debate, the parties are presenting voters starkly different pictures of American leadership. Democrats have nomi nated more than 180 female candidates for the House, a new record. But while voters could send more than 100 of them to victory, Repub licans could have fewer women than now in their ranks next year due to retirements and tough races, according to elec tion analysts. Overall, nearly 9 in 10 House Republicans will be white men when the new Congress convenes in January. The racial divide is even starker. House Republicans now count just over a dozen minority members, a num ber that’s not expected to change much after the elec tion. The lack of minorities in the conference comes into sharp visual focus when House Republicans gather in a large group, as they did last December when they celebrated the passage of tax cuts with Trump at the White House. Meanwhile, African- American, Latino and Asian- American lawmakers make up almost half the House Democratic caucus. And for the first time, less than half the Democratic candidates for the House are white men, and the Democrats are poised to send the first Native American and Mus- lim-American women to the House. It’s what the Reflec tive Democracy Campaign calls a “historic shift.” After Tuesday’s election, it’s likely that 87 percent of Republicans in the House will be white men, com pared to just 37 percent for Democrats, said David Wasserman, who analyzes races for the Cook Political Report. NORTH HALL JEWELERS Free Engraving on any ENGRAVABLE ITEM PURCHASED FROM OUR VARIETY OF GIFTS FOR HER OR HIM. Personalize your gift for THAT SPECIAL OCCASION. Jewelry Repair Watch Repair Goldsmith Watch Batteries Souvenir Jewelry We Buy Gold 1062 Thompson Bridge Road, Ste A-l Gainesville, GA 30501 678-450-7111 Team Times will host a Shred Day at The Times. Maximum of 5 boxes per car. 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