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EDITORIALS: New York Times Recommends All States to Follow Connecticut's Lead

Posted: April 13, 2012
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A recent editorial in the New York Times called Connecticut's decision to repeal the death penalty part of "a growing movement against capital punishment." The editorial attributed the trend away from the death penalty to new research that shows "gross injustice in its application and enormous costs in continuing to impose it." The problem of arbitrariness recently came to light in Connecticut, where "a powerful, comprehensive study provided evidence that state death sentences are haphazardly meted out, with virtually no connection to the heinousness of the crime." The Times also cited racial bias, inadequate representation, and wrongful convictions as problems inherent to the death penalty, saying that "the system cannot be fixed. It is practically impossible to rid the legal process of biases driven by race, class and politics." Ultimately, the paper concluded, it would be better to abolish the death penalty entirely.  Read the full editorial below.

RECENT LEGISLATION: Death Penalty Repeal Passes Second Connecticut House, Awaits Governor's Signature

Posted: April 12, 2012
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On April 11, the Connecticut House of Representatives passed (86-62) a bill to abolish the death penalty for future crimes. The same bill passed the Connecticut Senate on April 5. Governor Dannel Malloy has pledged to sign the bill, which will make Connecticut the 17th state to abolish the death penalty, and the 5th to do so in the last 5 years. In a statement released after the House vote, Gov. Malloy said, "When I sign this bill, Connecticut will join 16 other states and almost every other industrialized nation in moving toward what I believe is better public policy." During the lengthy debate on the bill, legislators discussed issues of cost, deterrence, and innocence, as well as their moral convictions on the issue. Rep. Auden Grogins (D-Bridgeport) said, "The law is costly, can be arbitrarily applied and does not produce accurate results. It is not unusual for the legal process, from the beginning to the end, to take 20 years." Rep. Terry Backer (D-Stratford) voiced concerns about wrongful convictions, saying, "We have an imperfect system and there are many mistakes we make as government. Unfortunately, when we are wrong in these cases, there is no way to put them back on track."

Systemic Flaws in Capital Representation Cited for Recent Pennsylvania Death Sentence

Posted: April 11, 2012
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Following the recent handing down of a death sentence in Philadelphia, the Executive Director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation blamed the outcome on an inadequate indigent-defense system.  Marc Bookman (pictured), writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, reviewed the case and found, "There isn't a single motion filed by the attorneys in defense of their client. Nor is there a request for a jury questionnaire, which is standard in most jurisdictions that regularly handle capital cases, or for a mitigation specialist to prepare a case against the death penalty. Indeed, the only motion in the record was handwritten by the defendant. Prison logs indicate that his lawyers visited him a total of three times."  Bookman said that such ineffective representation is the norm in Philadelphia capital cases because of "grossly inadequate" pay for court-appointed lawyers.  "In other words," he wrote, "if we're asking attorneys to work for next to nothing, we are likely to get next to nothing from them." Read the full op-ed below.

Oklahoma Execution Imminent Despite Board's Recommendation of Clemency

Posted: April 10, 2012
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Oklahoma inmate Garry Allen (pictured) is scheduled for execution on April 12, despite a Pardon and Parole Board's 4-1 recommendation that his sentence be reduced to life without parole. In an unusual move, Mr. Allen originally pleaded guilty to murdering his girlfriend without receiving any benefit in sentencing, and has testified that he did so to spare his family and the victim's family the trauma of a trial. Allen was shot in the head at the time of his arrest.  His lawyers have argued that he is not sane and should not be executed because of his history of mental illness and alcoholism. His court records indicate "probable diagnosis is Schizophrenic Disorder, or Anxiety Disorder in a Paranoid Personality," but in 2008 a jury found him sane enough for execution. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin has said she has reviewed the case and does not intend to grant clemency.  UPDATE: A federal judge has granted Allen a stay to explore issues of mental competency.  Oklahoma is appealing the stay to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (April 12, 2012).

NEW VOICES: Creators of California's Death Penalty Law Now Call for Life Without Parole

Posted: April 09, 2012
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Donald Heller (pictured), who wrote California's death penalty law, and Ron Briggs, who led the campaign to reinstate the law in 1978, are now advocating for replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole. Both now say that the law did not have the result they intended. “At the time, we were of the impression that it would do swift justice, that it would get the criminals and murderers through the system quickly and apply them the death penalty,” Briggs said. But the costs of the death penalty system has led him to reconsider his stance: "I tell my Republican friends, ‘Close your eyes for a moment. If there was a state program that was costing $185 million a year and only gave the money to lawyers and criminals, what would you do with it?’" Donald Heller, a former prosecutor, called California's death penalty system a "colossal failure," also mentioning its high costs, “The cost of our system of capital punishment is so enormous that any benefit that could be obtained from it — and now I think there’s very little or zero benefit — is so dollar-wasteful that it serves no effective purpose." Both men are supporting a November ballot initiative that would replace death sentences with life without parole and use the money saved to solve cold cases. California has not carried out an execution in six years, and has about 720 inmates on death row.

STUDIES: Researchers Find Racial Disparities in Delaware's Death Penalty

Posted: April 06, 2012
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A new study published on the Social Science Resource Network by a group of professors at Cornell University found a high incidence of racial disparities in the operation of Delaware’s death penalty. The study, published in conjunction with a symposium honoring the late David Baldus (pictured), examined the state’s death penalty since 1972 and found:
- Of 49 defendants sentenced to death since 1972, 53% were black, 39% were white, and 8% were Hispanic or Native American. In contrast, 69% of Delaware’s population is white, 21% is black, and 8% are Hispanic.
- Thirty-five of the 49 cases (73%) involved a white victim. Of the current death row inmates, 59% were convicted of murdering white victims and 41% were convicted of murdering black victims.
- Of the current death row population in Delaware, 59% are black, 23% are white, and 18% are Hispanic. Combined, the minority population comprises 77% of the state's death row. Nationally, the minority population accounts for approximately 56% of the death row population.
- Even when compared to southern states, Delaware's rate of death sentencing for black defendants with white victims is unusually high; it is 75 percent higher than the next highest states, Georgia and Nevada, more than twice as high as that of South Carolina or Virginia, and more than three times as high as that of its near neighbors, Maryland and Pennsylvania.  Read full text of study here.