Reply #9: Here is another article:

[Kadie]

Massachusetts weighs formula to reinstate death penalty
Recommendations include unprecedented safeguards for defendants

Pam Belluck, New York Times
Monday, May 3, 2004

Boston -- A commission appointed by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has come up with what it considers the first virtually foolproof formula for carrying out the death penalty, and Romney is expected to use the plan to try to bring back capital punishment to the state, where it was abolished two decades ago.

One of the major recommendations is raising the bar for a death penalty sentence from the normal legal standard of guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt" to a finding of "no doubt about the defendant's guilt." The commission has also proposed that a defendant in a capital case be given the option of facing two separate juries -- one to try him and, if he is convicted, a second to sentence him.

The commission's 10 recommendations, which are to be released in a report today, are intended to counter increasing skepticism about the death penalty.

A spokeswoman for the Republican governor said he would not comment on the report until it was released. The commission's proposals include several ideas that experts say are unprecedented, and other ideas that have been tried but not so comprehensively. The plan is sure to be controversial, and even death penalty supporters said they had concerns about the viability of some of the ideas. On the other hand, even some death penalty opponents acknowledged that the plan would reduce the possibility of wrongful death sentences and racial disparities in sentencing.

more... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/03/MNG5S6EO451.DTL