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Is It Time To Abolish The Death Penalty? The custom is under scrutiny after a series of executions in several countries last year. The emotionally charged issue is at the center of the latest Intelligence Squared U.S. Discussion. The death penalty is legal in more than 30 nations, however, the long-controversial practice has come under scrutiny after a series of executions in several countries last year.

Opponents of capital punishment argue that the death penalty undermines the fair administration of justice, as wealth, race, geography and high quality of legal representation all come into play, with uneven results.

Proponents of the death penalty believe capital punishment serves a moral and social purpose in American culture. They assert that although the administration of the punishment isn't ideal, improvements can be made in the justice system to address some opponents concerns without doing away with the penalty altogether. Two teams faced off over these questions in the latest event from Intelligence Squared U.S., debating the motion, "Abolish The Death Penalty." In these Oxford-style debates, the group which sways the most people to the side by the conclusion is the winner. 49 percent of the audience at the Kaufman Music Center in New York voted in favor of the motion, although 17 percent were opposed and 34 percent were faked.

54 percent agreed with the motion and 40 percent disagreed, which makes the team contending against abolishing the death penalty the winners of the debate. Diann Rust-Tierney became the executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in 2004. With 30 decades of experience in public policy and litigation advocacy, she manages the operations of NCADP and directs software for the organization as well as its own 100 affiliate organizations. Previously, Rust-Tierney served as the director of the Capital Punishment Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, in which she had also served as legislative counsel and associate director of the Washington office.

During her tenure at the ACLU, she was the lead advocate on capital punishment on Capitol Hill, coordinating a coalition of national organizations on the issue, along with the lead lobbyist on a broad array of issues which range from criminal justice plan to women's rights. Prior to joining the staff at the ACLU, she engaged in litigation and public policy advocacy at the National Women's Law Center. Barry Scheck is the co-founder and co-director, with Peter Neufeld, of the Innocence Project and a professor at the Cardozo School of Law. Known for landmark litigation which has set criteria for forensic applications of DNA technology, Neufeld and he have shaped the course of case law nationwide, leading to a powerful study by the National Academy of Sciences, as well as important state and federal legislation.

Scheck is a commissioner on New York's Forensic Science Review Board, a board member of the National Institute of Justice's Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence and a past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Robert Blecker is a professor at New York Law School, a nationally known expert on the death penalty and the subject of the documentary Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead. Following a brief stint prosecuting corruption as a New York special assistant attorney general, he joined New York Law School, where he also teaches constitutional history and lawenforcement, and death penalty jurisprudence with leading opponents.

The only keynote speaker behind the death penalty at important conferences and at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, that he was also the lone American advocate for an international conference in Geneva on the death penalty sponsored by Duke University Law School. Frequently appearing in The New York Times, on PBS, CourtTV, CNN, BBC World News and other significant media outlets, and with privileged access to death rows across the country, Blecker is creating a documentary chronicling life on death rows and contrasting them with greatest safety general population. Kent Scheidegger has been the legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation as 1986.

A nonprofit, public interest law organization, CJLF's purpose is to assure people that are guilty of committing offenses receive swift and certain punishment within an organized and constitutional manner. His articles on criminal and constitutional law have been published in law reviews, national legal publications, and congressional reports, and his legal discussions have been cited in the Congressional Record and incorporated in a number of Supreme Court decisions. He is the past chairman of the Criminal Law and Procedure Practice Group of the Federalist Society and continues to serve on the team's executive committee. After working in the U.S. Air Force as an atomic research officer, he also took his law degree with distinction from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.

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