US set to execute 1,000th convict since 1977 News
US set to execute 1,000th convict since 1977

[JURIST] Next Wednesday Robin Lovitt [Virginians United Against Crime profile], 41, is slated to become the 1,000th person to be executed since the 10 year moratorium on capital punishment [Wikipedia backgrounder] in the United States was lifted in 1977. He is convicted of fatally stabbing a man with scissors during a pool hall robbery in Virginia in 1998. Convicted killer Gary Gilmore [Crime Library profile] was the first to be executed after the series of 1976 Supreme Court decisions that upheld state laws reforming the capital punishment system. More than 3,400 prisoners have been on death row in the US since 1977, with an average execution of one person every ten days. Nationwide death sentences have, however, dropped by 50% since the late 1990s and executions carried out have dropped by 40%, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. A 2005 Gallup poll [deathpenaltyinfo.org] put American support of the the death penalty at 64%, the lowest in 27 years. Both houses of Congress are currently considering legislation [JURIST report] that would make it more difficult for defendants in capital cases to appeal to federal courts, thus shortening the execution waiting periods, but some say could lead to innocent people being put to death. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Pope Urban II sparks First Crusade

Pope Urban II threw his support behind what would become the First Crusade on November 27, 1095 during the Council of Clairmont. The Pope urged the council's participants to render aid to the Byzantine Empire, which was being attacked by the Seljuks. Pope Urban called for a wide coalition of rich and poor to combat the threat, which eventually resulted in the conquest of much of the Muslim-controlled Levant by the Crusaders and the establishment of the Crusader States. Read Pope Urban's address.  

Catholic Code of Canon Law revised

On November 27, 1983, the revised Code of Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church went into effect. Learn more about the history of Canon Law from Professor Kenneth Pennington of the Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law.

Alfred Nobel creates Nobel Prize in his will

On November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his will, creating the Nobel Prize. Learn more about the history of the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Commission.