The death penalty dinosaur
Dieter, Richard C.
THE DEATH PENALTY DINOSAUR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT HEADS FOR EXTINCTION RICHARD C. DIETER The festive lights of the new Baltimore loom into view as 1-95 rounds the final curve before descending into...
...Meanwhile, executions may come to a halt and there will be an opportunity to reopen the moral debate...
...If death row were literally one continuous row it would stretch for over two miles - two miles of people lined up to be gassed, hanged, shocked, shot, or injected...
...They let each person have his say...
...The Supreme Court in Gregg v. Georgia stated that the death penalty has not proven to be any better a deterrent to murder than alternative sentences...
...In an exhaustive study of murders in the State of Georgia, Professor David Baldus of the University of Iowa found that murderers with white victims were eleven times more likely to get the death penalty than those with black victims...
...Thirty-four other states followed suit and most of the new laws have weathered numerous challenges...
...He'll follow the orders...
...The message I leave with them would be fine for any other gathering, but here it is tinged with tragedy: the death penalty will be abolished, I tell them...
...To rectify this discrimination will take years of effort and millions of dollars, with no guarantee of success...
...Alternative explanations were sought...
...the steel death chamber with windows for viewing...
...They wouldn't believe me anyhow...
...And because 90 percent of the inmates on death row are indigent, the state also pays for the defense attorney through the guaranteed levels of appeal...
...Much of the debate in prison centers on whether it would be better to have a life sentence without possibility of parole or to face the gas chamber...
...To mute the horror of killing there has even been an attempt to turn over the process to the medical profession...
...In Ohio, public defender Randall Dana said that the costs leading up to an execution were at least $1 million per case...
...It's been difficult lately to get into that Maryland prison to meet with the death row inmates...
...Surely, a strong case can be made for the fact the capital punishment in the U.S...
...Tonight, I'm going inside to talk with the men who have been sentenced to be gassed in this same prison...
...It is no secret that blacks in this country continuously receive the short end of the stick when it comes to education, jobs, and access to the full power and protection of society...
...Many appeals, especially in the State of Louisiana, had hinged on the McCleskey appeal...
...But even assuming that executions rose to a level of sixty per year, that would not begin to stem the ever-increasing population of death row...
...Ironically, it could be the temporary defeat of the racial argument following McCleskey which will help it eventually to prevail...
...But there is hardly a state or jurisdiction where there is no indication of racial imbalance when it comes to the death penalty...
...One of the death row organizers has been put in solitary confinement...
...In 1972 the Supreme Court ruled that all existing death penalty statutes were unconstitutional since they were far too arbitrary and capricious...
...In the four months following the Supreme Court rejection of Warren McCleskey's claim of discrimination, there were twenty-two executions...
...Even ignoring the mental and physical torture that this entails, the financial costs have become enormous...
...For one thing, murderers already risk death if they are caught in the act...
...But with the new conditions it is not unusual for someone to be on death row for eight or ten years before being executed...
...Many people in favor of the death penalty admit they would be reluctant to flip the switch sending 2,500 volts of electricity through another human being sitting before them...
...is alive and well...
...Meanwhile, as cases drag on for ten years and as almost half are eventually overturned, the imagined deterrent effect drifts further into obscurity...
...For the moment it seems we can live with at least some prisoners being put to death, some of whom will be teenagers, some of whom will be retarded, half of whom will be from minorities, almost all of whom will be poor, and some of whom will later be found to be innocent...
...A key reason cited by a senator who reversed his vote was the cost factor...
...I've been in enough prisons so that fear is not a distracting emotion, but I can't stifle my utter amazement: there are no guidelines for talking to a group of killers struggling with the prospect of their own impending deaths...
...Since 1972 thirty-seven states have chosen to write death penalty statutes in compliance with the Supreme Court guidelines...
...In Kansas, the legislature recently rejected the very death penalty it had approved in its previous session...
...As I enter the room of eleven men, I'm not surprised that almost all the faces are black...
...A select few will actually be executed...
...But in a state like Texas, which leads the country in executions (there have been 25 executions in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated) it represents an enormous bill...
...The executioner says he's ready, too...
...Public executions were stopped many years ago, and none has ever been televised...
...The most recent statistics show that the pattern may be changing...
...The temperature gets so hot that he' s reluctant to put on the single bulb in his cell for a short span to write letters...
...I don't have much to say...
...My efforts against the death penalty seem a feeble effort in the face of the overwhelming demand for the lives of these people, and 2,000 others like them around the country...
...At first glance, it seems only natural that criminals would be deterred by the thought of death...
...Some officials there estimate that the state's pursuit of capital punishment has cost taxpayers $183.2 million, and there are presently 250 people on death row...
...And in Florida, experts estimated that the state spent between $5 and $7 million to execute John Spenk-elink in 1979...
...Professor Baldus factored in some 200 variables which might also affect which cases got chosen for the death penalty...
...The signs of its extinction are present, even as it seems to flourish: like the dinosaurs before they disappeared...
...the year before, the number was 18 also, and the year before that, 21 people were killed...
...Some will probably commit suicide...
...The number of people on death row is more than at any time in our history...
...Estimates ranged as high as $ 11 million per year to maintain the death penalty...
...Since executions resumed in 1977, 87 percent of the cases involved white victims...
...A coalition of civil rights groups, members of Congress, church representatives, and abolition groups has since drawn up federal legislation which would bar the use of the death penalty in states where there is statistical evidence of racism, either with respect to the defendant or the victim...
...Typically, death row inmates are not allowed to work and thus do not contribute to these costs...
...Some states worked hard at re-writing their laws to satisfy the Supreme Court's objections...
...The civil rights community reacted immediately and angrily...
...For Christians, that is precisely the reason for turning to them...
...Typically, executions are carried out very late at night, with a limited number of witnesses...
...But legislation which John Conyers (D-Mich...
...This death row has been growing by immense proportions...
...There doesn't seem to be anything standing in the way of a steady rate of death convictions and executions...
...The evidence from states and countries without the death penalty bears out the conclusion that deterrence is at best improvable...
...As such, it will draw the support not only of those who oppose the death penalty, but those who consistently vote for legislation protecting the rights of minorities in this country...
...In 1976 the Court appr6ved the discretionary measures written into the statutes of Florida, Texas, and Georgia...
...The same is true for most of the entire prison and the guards as well...
...Just as the pickpockets in England plied their trade ambitiously at the public hangings for the same crime, so too researches have noted a rise in murders in the months following an execution...
...This time, the near-unanimous voices of the churches, the clarity of the civil rights leaders, the frustrations of even death penalty adherents, and the reluctance of the American people may well combine to strike down once and for all the notion that there is a clean and proper way to kill another human being under the state's total control...
...Over 150 state executions were carried out per year...
...At a press conference the next day, major civil rights groups vowed to abolish the death penalty...
...Yet, it is questionable whether such a pace will continue...
...Last year 18 were killed...
...The best I can do is pass around a few papers which explain why people should be against the death penalty and talk about our plans for effecting a major shift in public opinion...
...Today blacks constitute 44 percent of those on death row, while representing only 11 percent of the population...
...For all of us, it is a measure of our sense of hope...
...The people on death row are perhaps the least esteemed among us...
...The state also pays the court costs (the judges, clerks, recorders, etc...
...about 250 new people across the country are sentenced to death each year...
...In matters as emotional as the death penalty, costs may seem a small factor...
...A 1982 study by the New York State Defender's Association calculated the expenses of re-instating the death penalty and concluded that the average capital trial and first stage of appeals would cost the New York taxpayer about $1.8 million per case, about three times the cost of keeping a person in prison for life...
...In addition, in most states the prisoners are kept in special quarters, with added guards and security...
...In Canada, the murder rate declined after the death penalty was abolished...
...The black walls of the stone prison cast long shadows in the arc lights...
...But the malls and glass office buildings of the inner harbor fade quickly as I drive on to where the streets become empty and dirty papers swirl with every gust of the chilly wind...
...the airlocks...
...Another overwhelming discrepancy is in the race of the victims...
...In handing down the decision in April 1987, the Court did not challenge the validity of the statistics but ruled 5-4 that the statistical evidence was insufficient to prove discrimination in the particular instance of Warren McCleskey's case...
...His conclusion was that, allowing for all these other factors, killers of whites were still four times more likely to get the death sentence than killers of blacks, and that black killers of whites were the most likely of any group to be sentenced to death...
...They do not berate me for being idealistic or for not doing enough while their lives hang in the balance...
...Without a fair share of these resources, blacks have always faced abuse in the selection and prosecution of cases for the death penalty...
...The "humane'.' method of execution is now lethal injection - people are put to sleep...
...As I leave, I'm shaking hands and promising to keep in touch, as if I'd just spoken to a church social group...
...But if the numbers and costs of state killings are not enough to effect its abolition, then the reemergence of the charge of racism may well be what causes its final collapse...
...This issue reached the Supreme Court in the case of McCleskey v. Kemp...
...To proceed with cases in the delib- erative manner which the Supreme Court and the Constitution demand has become increasingly costly and time consuming...
...But criminals are gamblers, betting on the fact that they won't be caught at all...
...When it lost, no avenues remained open and execution dates were set on a daily basis...
...It's all quite real: the pipes...
...Public opinion polls show that over •70 percent of the people support it and the federal government has been looking for ways to broaden its own powers so that it can kill along with the states...
...The deterrent argument has always been suspect...
...Almost all the victims involved in death penalty cases are white, despite the fact that half the victims of murders in this country are black...
...dawns on me...
...The bill would not abolish capital punishment outright...
...Abolitionist states have crime rates on a par with or lower than neighboring states which retain the death penalty...
...I've seen the chair where they'll be strapped as the cyanide pills are dropped into the acid to make the deadly gas...
...There was a clear potential for racial discrimination to corrupt a process that had few guidelines...
...Others are discouraged...
...It's ready for use, even though there hasn't been an execution here in twenty-six years...
...The Supreme Court most recently voted to uphold the death penalty, despite clear evidence of racial discrimination (McCleskey v. Kemp...
...but for some in this room, I'm thinking, it may come too late...
...But the numbers have dropped steadily since then, and in 1968 executions stopped altogether...
...While these arguments seem to weigh heavily against recourse to the death penalty, capital punishment continues to spread...
...Despite America's seeming love of the death penalty, there is a reluctance to actually carry out the sentence...
...through these levels...
...Some of these will file successful appeals...
...But consider what all this "success" for the right to kill means...
...In the 1930s, when executions reached their highest recorded peak, it was not unusual for someone to be on death row for less than a year...
...The long drive home helps bring back the reality of the staggering task ahead...
...plans to introduce soon, is being promoted as a piece of civil rights legislation, similar to the voting rights act...
...We are all fellow human beings in this room and that commonality surpasses all the differences...
...The image is one of the death camps so vividly etched in our minds from the Holocaust...
...The state, of course, pays for the entire prosecution of the defendant through the conviction, the penalty phase, and all the appeals...
...Still I know that the demise of the death penalty is much more than an improbability...
...There is even some evidence that executions promote violence...
...Meanwhile, the backlog of pending executions continues to grow...
...The discussion goes well, and gradually what I've been preaching to other people slowly RICHARD C. DIETER is the director of the Let Live project at the Quixote Center in Hyattsville, Maryland, and a founder of the Alder-son Hospitality House, located near the federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia...
...The rest of the time I'll just listen to their concerns...
...We would have to execute four people every working day of the year for over two years just to deal with the backlog of condemned prisoners...
...If they really weigh the odds, they'll .realize that only 1 out of 200 murderers receives the death penalty, and that at present far fewer are executed, some many years down the road...
...The death penalty has become the dinosaur of the criminal justice system in more ways than its ungainly size...
...the stomach for this type of killing, there are factors which pose a significant obstacle to capital punishment...
...I can't tell the prisoners that I have any magic plan to save their lives...
...Their dates get closer, their appeals are running out...
...But even if we have "In keeping with the contemporary legal climate . . . we sentence the defendant to life on death row...
...Killing as a form of punishment can then be abolished...
...Generally, a federal bill forbidding states the use of the death penalty has almost no chance, either constitutionally or popularly...
...They've sensed the hatred, the sensational level of revulsion that their deeds have evoked...
...But even assuming that sufficient thought goes into the violent and irrational crimes which are tried as capital cases, it is not likely that the threat of death would prevent them...
...THE DEATH PENALTY DINOSAUR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT HEADS FOR EXTINCTION RICHARD C. DIETER The festive lights of the new Baltimore loom into view as 1-95 rounds the final curve before descending into downtown...
Vol. 115 • January 1988 • No. 1
