Legal Defense Fund Claims Victory In Supreme Court’s Rejection Of Attempts To Expand The Death Penalty
 

NEW YORK, NY/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) welcomes the Supreme Court’s rejection of attempts to expand the death penalty to crimes other than murder.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing the majority opinion, said the Constitution bars the imposition of “the death penalty for the rape of a child where the crime did not result...in death of victim.”

“We are pleased that the Supreme Court has recognized that the death penalty is not an appropriate punishment for a crime that, while terrible, does not result in the taking of a life. This decision affirms the emerging national consensus against the expansion of capital punishment and constitutes an acknowledgment that death sentences for rape are all too often infected by arbitrary considerations such as race,” said John Payton, LDF President and Director-Counsel.

LDF, which has long opposed the death penalty, along with the ACLU and the ACLU of Louisiana, had filed a friend of the court brief in today’s case, Kennedy v. Louisiana. In its brief to the Supreme Court, LDF noted that race plays a decisive role in the administration of the death penalty for rape.

Specifically, LDF pointed to the fact that between 1930 and 1972 -- the 40 years prior to the Supreme Court’s last decision on the constitutionality of the death penalty for rape -- Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia executed 66 blacks and no whites for the crime of rape.

“The Constitution is clearly violated when African Americans face execution for a crime that the majority of Americans believe to be non-death-worthy,” said Christina Swarns, Director of LDF’s Criminal Justice Project.
Today’s decision affirms this country’s longstanding opposition to the death penalty for rape and is consistent with the growing concerns about the appropriateness of the death penalty in general.

 

Attorneys General Announce Anheuser Busch To Discontinue Alcoholic Energy Drinks
 

Attorneys General announced that eleven states[1] have reached an agreement with Anheuser-Busch that will result in the nationwide discontinuance of two popular pre-mixed alcoholic energy drinks, Tilt and Bud Extra. As part of the agreement, Anheuser-Busch will not produce any caffeinated alcohol beverages in the future. Attorneys

General commend Anheuser-Busch for its decision and call on other manufacturers to take similar steps to remove these potentially dangerous beverages from the market.

Attorneys General from around the country are gravely concerned about alcoholic energy drinks. These beverages taste and look like popular non-alcoholic energy drinks. These amped-up-alcopops are popular with young people who often form the wrong belief that the caffeine in the drinks will counteract the intoxicating effects of the alcohol. These beliefs are fueled by aggressive marketing campaigns that promise endless nights of fun and enhanced abilities.

These marketing claims coupled with published research about the dangers of these products led Attorneys General to initiate an investigation into the content and marketing of Anheuser-Busch products Tilt and Bud Extra. The investigations were launched pursuant to state consumer protection and trade practice statutes and alleged, among other things, that Anheuser-Busch made express and implied false or misleading health-related statements about the energizing effects of Tilt and Bud Extra.

While Anheuser-Busch denied claims made by the Attorneys General, it cooperated with the investigation and promptly decided to reformulate Tilt and Bud Extra without caffeine or other stimulants and to agree not to produce any other caffeinated alcohol beverages in the future. Attorneys General praised Anheuser-Busch for being a responsible industry leader and for eliminating all caffeinated alcohol beverages from their product list.

“Alcohol mixed with high amounts of caffeine is a recipe for disaster, particularly in the hands of young people,” said Maine Attorney General Steve Rowe, Chair of the National Association of Attorneys General Youth Access to Alcohol Committee. “The caffeine gives drinkers the subjective belief that they can function normally. This false belief results in the potential for increased serious harm. This agreement is a monumental win for our nation’s young people who are lured by marketing into believing these products are safe.”

Attorneys General emphasized that young people aren’t drinking just one or two of these alcoholic energy drinks – these products are intended to be consumed several times throughout a night of partying and to be used as a mixer for other alcoholic beverages. A recently published study by Dr. Mary Claire O’Brien of Wake Forest University found that college students who mix alcohol and energy drinks engage in increased heavy episodic drinking and have twice as many episodes of weekly drunkenness. College students who reported consuming alcohol mixed with energy drinks also had significantly higher prevalence of alcohol-related consequences, like sexual assault and injury.

“Binge drinking among our youth in this nation has reached epidemic proportions. These new products that offer the allure of an all night party perpetuate the problem,” said

Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler. “Instead of sending a message about responsible consumption of alcohol, makers of these alcoholic energy drinks are pushing over-consumption and our youth are being harmed.”

“The stimulating effects of the caffeine in these products can mask feelings of intoxication. Consumers feel alert, but make unsafe decisions as a result of alcohol impairment,” Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said. “Obviously, this creates a highly dangerous situation. I appreciate Anheuser-Busch’s willingness to address our concerns directly and be a responsible leader in its marketing efforts.”

 

London Mayor’s Aide Quits Over Caribbean Immigrants Remark
 

LONDON, England (AFP): A senior adviser to London mayor Boris Johnson has quit after apparently suggesting that if Caribbean immigrants did not like London they should go home.

James McGrath, a 34-year-old Australian who was appointed director of political strategy after Johnson was elected mayor on May 1, made the comments in an interview with an Internet journalist published on Sunday.

He was responding to a suggestion that the election of Tory politician Johnson, who was attacked for his attitudes towards minorities during the election campaign, could lead to an exodus of Caribbean immigrants.

He was quoted as saying: “Well, let them go if they don’t like it here.”

In response, Johnson said his adviser had been quoted out of context but the remarks made it impossible for him to continue.

“James is not a racist. I know that,” he said. “He shares my passionate belief that racism is vile, repulsive and has no place in modern Britain.

“But his response to a silly and hostile question... allowed doubts to be raised about that commitment.”

He added: “We both agree that he could not stay on as my political adviser without providing ammunition for those who wish to deliberately misrepresent our clear and unambiguous opposition to any racist tendencies.”
Former Labour mayor Ken Livingstone had highlighted comments by the former journalist about black people during his unsuccessful attempt to be re-elected.

Livingstone said that a man who had once referred to black people as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles” in a newspaper article was not fit to run an ethnically-diverse city.

Johnson later apologized for the comments and said he had been taken out of context.