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Time for America to Move Past Capital Punishment
A recent editorial from the Aurora Sentinel in Colorado commented on the botched execution of Romell Broom. The paper entitled its position as “Time for America to move past capital punishment.” In addition to citing the problems with lethal injection, the paper noted the risk of executing the innocent and the U.S.'s increasing isolation on the death penalty in the world. The editorial continued, "Even for those who believe that such heinous criminals deserve to die, our society becomes dangerously base if we promote these kinds of deaths."
Click here to read the full editorial.
(Editorial, "Time for America to move past capital punishment," Aurora Sentinel, October 7, 2009). See DPIC's pages on Lethal Injections and the case of Romell Broom.
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Death Penalty Moratorium Needed in Texas
The Dallas Morning News renewed its call for a moratorium on executions in Texas because of the numerous errors in the state's death penalty system. The paper highlighted the cases of Michael Blair and Charles Hood as examples of how the system has broken down. Blair was exonerated in 2008 after 14 years on death row. DNA evidence revealed that he had not been the murderer of 7-year-old Ashley Estel in 1993, despite the fact that the jury had taken only 27 minutes to convict him, and that he may have been guilty of other crimes. Charles Hood remains on Texas' death row, even though the fairness of his trial was completely compromised by the fact that the judge and the prosecutor admitted to having an illicit sexual affair.
These and other problems have led the Dallas Morning News to change its 100-year position and oppose the death penalty completely. "It's the view of this newspaper that the justice system will never be foolproof and, therefore, use of the death penalty is never justified." Nevertheless, the paper supports the call of conservative Republican Brian McCall for a two-year moratorium on executions.
("Editorial: Death penalty moratorium needed," Dallas Morning News, Dec. 29, 2008). See Editorials and New Voices.
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Los Angeles Times Calls for Moratorium on California Death Penalty
A recent Los Angeles Times editorial called on California lawmakers to impose a moratorium on executions until a state commission charged with examining the fairness and accuracy of California's death penalty laws can finish its work. The paper noted that a similar review led by New York state lawmakers resulted in findings that effectively ended capital punishment in that state for this year. The editorial stated:
Many Californians, lawmakers as well as voters, share those concerns (as expressed in New York) about fairness and fallibility. They worry as well about the inequalities that riddle the death penalty in a state as large and diverse as ours. . .
This state has the nation's largest death row, with 640 inmates. So large, in fact, that taxpayers pony up $114 million every year to house them at San Quentin, on top of the extra costs to prosecute them and provide for required appeals. The state's condemned population is so large in part because voters and lawmakers have allowed prosecutors to seek death sentences in more circumstances than allowed in most other states.
That latitude has produced glaring disparities. Wealthy (and often white) defendants who can afford experienced lawyers end up at San Quentin less often than poor defendants (often Latino or African American) who are stuck with lawyers assigned by the county. Prosecutors in some conservative, rural counties more readily ask juries for death than those in many urban counties. In some counties, prosecutors haven't tried a capital case in years. . .
State lawmakers last year chartered a commission to examine capital punishment with an eye toward recommending reforms. That panel expects to begin its research and deliberations in the coming months. A moratorium . . . should be among its first actions.
(Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2005).
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Dallas Morning News: Calls for Death Penalty Moratorium in Texas
In response to the U.S. Supreme Court's recent reversal of Delma Banks' death sentence in Texas because of prosecutorial misconduct, the Dallas Morning News has called for a halt to executions while state officials review serious problems in the system:
It's hard to imagine a clearer message. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision lifting Texas inmate Delma Banks' death sentence paints as bright a line as jurists paint. The governor, Texas legislators and law enforcement officials should absorb the ruling and change the state's ways.
The court's decision Tuesday said Texas prosecutors concealed information that could have helped Mr. Banks, who has been on death row for 23 years after being convicted of killing a 16-year-old. Informants got paid, testimony was coerced, and prosecutors cut deals. That kind of misconduct is bad. It's particularly bad when it almost leads to a man's execution.
The fact that public servants played fast and loose with the law should outrage the most ardent death-penalty advocates. It's noteworthy that former FBI Director William Sessions of San Antonio spoke out fervently against the shoddy way the state handled the case. So did a solid seven-member majority on the Supreme Court, which sent the case back to the lower courts.
Texas, of course, has had other Supreme Court reprimands about the way it administers the death penalty. The best answer is to suspend all of the state's executions until officials review all cases for various procedural errors. To cite one more example, Harris County got hit last year with a wave of criminal cases that called police lab work into question.
The state also needs to come up with a way to keep mentally retarded offenders from death row. The Supreme Court said no more of this horrible practice but left it to the states to screen the cases. So far, Texas hasn't figured out how.
Texas also has to open its clemency process. The Board of Pardons and Paroles largely conducts its meetings about granting clemency to inmates away from the public light. That approach - we know best, you don't - has gotten the state into trouble with its death penalty.
Plenty of trouble. The state needs to rethink its executions. A pause could help do that. Texas doesn't need any more Delma Banks-like embarrassments.
(Dallas Morning News, February 27, 2004).
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Houston Chronicle Urges Moratorium on Texas Executions
A recent Houston Chronicle editorial regarding the growing list of Harris County convictions currently under review due to questionable analysis and handling of DNA evidence states that Texans have reason to "be leery of carrying out more death sentences until changes are made to restore confidence to the criminal justice system." After new cases were added to the review, the paper called for moratorium legislation:
That brought to 17 the number of death row inmates who might have been wrongly convicted because of the badly mismanaged crime lab. The sheer number of inmates awaiting execution whose guilt has been freshly called into question is reason aplenty for the Legislature to seriously consider, if not pass, a pending joint resolution seeking a constitutional amendment allowing the governor to impose a moratorium on carrying out Texas death sentences.
(Houston Chronicle, March 25, 2003)
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Dallas Morning News Calls for Moratorium on Executions
The Dallas Morning News is urging Governor Rick Perry to halt executions in Texas to provide experts time to examine what the paper deems a "broken system." Noting concerns about DNA testing, mistaken convictions, representation of defendants in death penalty cases, and questions of bias, the paper stated:
Texas, which executes more people than all the states and even most countries, should pause. New evidence of a flawed system and cautions expressed recently by some of those closest to the process make a good case for a moratorium on executions until Texas carefully reviews its death penalty process to assure that it is just.
. . .
We urge Gov. Rick Perry to appoint a respected, open-minded, judicious Texan to lead a review of the state's death penalty process. Mr. Sessions (former FBI Director), for example, might make a good leader of such a review.
. . .
Advocacy for or against the death penalty isn't the point. Time out to fix a broken system is. It's in the interests of all Texans to support such action.
(Dallas Morning News, March 12, 2003)
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Washington Post Editorial Calls for Abolition of Maryland Death Penalty
After Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. released an open letter to state leaders and Governor Robert Ehrlich stating his belief that the death penalty should be abolished, a Washington Post editorial echoed his concerns:
Mr. Curran cited "the inevitability of an irreversible mistake that results in an innocent person's death." Maryland should abolish the death penalty - for the reason Mr. Curran cites, for the reasons evident in the University of Maryland study, and for the more basic reason that the state should not be in the business of killing people. Executions have been so rare in Maryland that the death penalty cannot be functioning as a deterrent. Rather, it serves to send a message that the state cares more about some lives than about others - and that it is even willing to risk innocent lives to be seen as tough on crime. That's a bad message, and Mr. Ehrlich shouldn't need further study to understand that.
(Washington Post, February 1, 2003)
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Editorials Commend Illinois's Governor, Call for Reconsideration of Death Penalty
Recent editorials appearing in The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post praised Illinois Governor George Ryan's courage in addressing his state's flawed system of capital punishment. The papers called for states around the nation to follow Ryan's lead and reconsider death penalty policies that have resulted in wrongful convictions and unfairness in death sentencing.
The New York Times noted:
We can only join in his (Governor Ryan's) hope that this sweeping, and almost shocking, gesture leads the rest of the country to reconsider whether America wants to continue to be in the business of state-sanctioned death.
. . .
The satisfaction of retribution that the death penalty supplies can never outweigh the danger of unfair or erroneous application as long as it exists. Virtually every country on the planet has rejected capital punishment as barbaric. Perhaps Governor Ryan, in the tortured end to his political career, can help lead the nation to a similar conclusion.
(New York Times, January 13, 2003)
The Washington Post urged Maryland Governor-elect Robert Ehrlich to follow Ryan's example and to take a less "cavalier" attitude regarding his state's troubling death penalty record:
On this issue, he (Governor Ryan) leaves Illinois a better place - and a model for the nation as to how a state can begin facing the problem of the death penalty.
That model, alas, seems to hold little interest for Maryland Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. It's early, but Mr. Ehrlich thus far has demonstrated a breathtaking lack of concern for the evident problems with capital punishment in Maryland. Even before the release of a University of Maryland study of geographical and racial disparities in capital punishment's application, he pledged to lift the current moratorium on executions no matter what the study showed.
. . .
Such a cavalier attitude is inappropriate for a man who will wield power over life and death. If the new governor continues to ignore the study results, he will be saying that it doesn't trouble him that Maryland prosecutors effectively value white lives more highly than black lives. Pretending this unfairness doesn't exist won't make it disappear. Mr. Ehrlich may be too busy planning his inauguration, but he should take time out to learn from the outgoing governor a few states west.
(Washington Post, January 12, 2003)
USA Today said Ryan's decision gives lawmakers an opportunity to fix Illinois's flawed, biased and costly death penalty system:
Ryan's act of conscience provides only a brief window. State prosecutors will still seek the death penalty. Some will win it But in this moment of clear air, the ill wisdom of the death penalty - the harm it inflicts on justice, society and survivors - is illuminated. This is especially so in contrast with the practical alternative: life without the parole, which offers the same certainty of criminal punishment and benefit to public safety at a fraction of the cost, care, risk and delay.
. . .
The practical solution is Ryan's. End the death penalty. Get on with life.
(USA Today, January 13, 2003)
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The Washington Post Urges Maryland to Continue Moratorium
In an editorial responding to Maryland's death penalty study that revealed racial and geographic bias in how the state applies capital punishment, the Washington Post urged Governor-elect Robert Ehrlich to reconsider plans to abandon the state's moratorium on executions:
Maryland Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. promised to lift his state's moratorium on executions regardless of what scholars at the University of Maryland found concerning the influence of race and geography on the imposition of the death penalty. He should have waited, and maybe now he will reconsider. For the report, requested by Gov. Parris N. Glendening -- who froze executions while the study was underway -- makes clear that capital punishment is applied in a fashion that sends a deeply corrosive message: Maryland cares more -- a great deal more -- about the deaths of white people, particularly when killed by black people, than it does about the deaths of blacks. If Mr. Ehrlich carries out his promise, he will be saying, in effect, that this doesn't bother him.
. . .
Mr. Ehrlich has said that the study won't affect his decision, because he means to review death sentences rigorously on a case-by-case basis. But that misses the point. These data demonstrate that a given case can be rock solid and still be no more worthy of death than one in which capital punishment was never even sought. It is possible, in other words, for the state to be both rigorous and discriminatory. Is this really the Maryland that Mr. Ehrlich wants?
(Washington Post, January 8, 2003)
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From The Baltimore Sun and the Kansas City Star
Two recent editorials addressed the questions of accuracy and fairness that continue to shape the nation's death penalty debate. The Baltimore Sun urged Governor-elect Robert Ehrlich to abandon his plan to lift Maryland's moratorium on executions when he takes office:
Governor Glendening called a halt to executions this spring, saying he wanted to wait until the (Maryland) race study was completed before another inmate was killed. But he could have called the moratorium based on any number of apparent problems with Maryland's capital law. That's why Gov.-elect Robert Ehrlich Jr. ought to hold off on his pledge to summarily lift the moratorium when he takes over next month. There are too many lingering questions, too many possibilities for error, to resume executions.
. . .
The truth is that the system has committed glaring errors in recent years, and it could be only a matter of time before an error results in an unjust execution. That would needlessly stain Mr. Ehrlich's record.
He has been a thoughtful, not reckless, advocate of the death penalty. He ought to build on that record by insisting that Maryland's capital punishment system be fixed before it is allowed to start up again.
(Baltimore Sun, December 26, 2002)
The Kansas City Star supported Senator Ed Quick's proposed bill to abolish Missouri's death penalty in order to protect against the execution of an innocent person:
To avoid the possibility of Missouri executing innocent people, the next session of the General Assembly should abolish the death penalty.
Under Senate Bill 0169, prefiled by Sen. Ed Quick, people convicted of first- degree murder would be punished with life in prison without parole, except by an act of the governor. This would be a wise way to avoid the possibility of the state executing innocence people.
. . .
Quick's bill should lead to a careful study and debate of all aspects of the death penalty. While it's pending, Gov. Bob Holden would do well to follow the Illinois lead and declare a moratorium on capital punishment.
(Kansas City Star, December 26, 2002)
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From the Arizona Daily Star
Citing the study recently released by Columbia University Law School, the Arizona Daily Star recommended a moratorium on executions, stating:
Tucson earned an alarming distinction this week in a new study on the death penalty in America. The study by the Columbia University Law School found that Pima County leads the nation in the rate at which it sentences convicts to death. However, the county frequently gets it wrong. More than 70 % of local death sentences are overturned on appeal.
. . .
Given these findings, the Legislature should impose an immediate moratorium on executions while it investigates what appear to be serious systemic problems in halls of justice all around the state.
. . .
The Columbia report noted several types of problems which can contribute to "overuse" of the death penalty and resulting high error rates. Those factors include chronic underfunding and overloading of courts, inadequacies in a community's overall approach to dealing with crime, and political pressures when judges or prosecutors face reelection.
Any of these factors - perhaps all of them - are arguably at play in Arizona. The best solution would be for the Legislature to eliminate the death penalty. Short of that, it must examine these issues in detail to ensure that the state is applying the death penalty fairly.
(Arizona Daily Star, editorial, 2/13/02)
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From The Chicago Tribune
The Tribune calls for an extension on the moratorium on executions in Illinois until greater reforms are enacted:
Only after those reforms are in place should the debate turn to this question:
Has the criminal justice system been sufficiently fixed that Illinois can lift [Gov.] Ryan's moratorium on executions with the assurance that no innocent person will be put to death?
So far, the answer is easy: No. Before there is to be assurance that our system issues punishments that are fair and correct, many more reforms need to be enacted.
The Tribune noted the many flaws in Illinois' justice system that have been revealed in the paper's investigations, including prosecutorial misconduct, convictions based on the notoriously unreliable testimony of jailhouse informants, and inadequate defense representation.
(Chicago Tribune, 12/31/01)
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From the Baltimore Sun
The reversal of Maryland death row inmate Kevin Wiggins's conviction by a federal judge prompted the following Baltimore Sun editorial:
Like houses built on paper foundations, Maryland's death row cases are crumbling, folding and disintegrating at a staggering rate. A year and a half ago, 17 men were condemned to die in this state. Now there are merely 11.
The 6 who dodged a state-sanctioned death had cases that were dogged by procedural errors, a paucity of evidence connecting them to the crimes or unconscionably bad legal representation.
. . .
The longer the state continues to operate its capital system without a serious review of how and why decisions get made about who lives and who dies, the less integrity our entire judicial system will have.
. . .
The legislature should not balk when it meets in January. Fix the system, and stop the killing while the repairs take place.
Any other course of action defies common sense, fairness and any notion that justice is the goal behind state-sanctioned killing.
(Baltimore Sun, editorial, 10/17/01)
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From the Orlando Sentinel
In a recent editorial, the Orlando Sentinel urged Gov. Jeb Bush to declare a moratorium on executions and create a panel to study the fairness of Florida's death penalty. The newspaper, which has supported the death penalty for years, wrote:
[E]ven death-penalty advocates should support a thorough examination and public discussion of capital punishment.
Floridians deserve to know the facts. If capital punishment truly is a fair and effective component of the justice system, then it should have no difficulty standing up to scrutiny.
Gov. Jeb Bush, who has the grim responsibility to sign death warrants for executions, is the person who should set in motion an investigation. He should convene a special bipartisan commission to scrutinize capital punishment, and he should delay any further executions until that investigation is completed.
. . .
The commission should look at a variety of issues, but the major ones include why Florida has had so many people removed from death row; what procedures police use to interrogate suspects and get confessions; the quality of legal representation provided to indigent defendants being tried for a capital crime; and, finally, whether capital punishment deters others from committing crimes. If so, that last question alone is a very strong argument for keeping it.
. . .
New questions about fairness and flaws in the judicial system demand that Florida take a renewed, sober look at the death penalty.
(Orlando Sentinel, 8/19/01)
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From the Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News recently endorsed a moratorium on the death penalty in Texas:
[T]exas needs to pause in its administration of the death penalty and take a larger look at its justice system. Measures making their way through the Legislature would allow Texans to vote for a moratorium on the death penalty while a commission on capital punishment investigates and evaluates the fairness of the death penalty's implementation.
. . .
The legislation being considered in Texas would require a completed review of the state judicial system by the next legislative session. This would allow some assessment of any reforms enacted this year and consideration of other reforms, such as barring the appointment of defense lawyers with state bar disciplinary problems and creating stricter procedures for use of jailhouse informant testimony. It also would allow a determination of whether the death penalty has been applied discriminatorily and whether the process for reviewing claims is fair.
. . .
Our state leaders and citizens should support a study commission and moratorium on executions. The cost of postponing [the execution of] some prisoners would not be great, but the potential savings to the Texas conscience could be.
(Dallas Morning News, 4/22/01)
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From the Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun endorsed a bill that would have halted executions in Maryland while a study of the state's death penalty was being conducted.
Kill first. Ask questions later. That's what Maryland officials will be doing if the General Assembly doesn't pass a death penalty moratorium bill this session. They'll be strapping prisoners to gurneys -- as many as four this year -- and extinguishing their lives without knowing whether race or some other indecorous factor helped convict them....That's no way to conduct public policy on behalf of all Marylanders, in whose names these lives are taken. It's also completely unnecessary, because the moratorium bill...could help clear up this moral morass.... It would stop the state from executing someone now, only to find out two years down the road that the capital system is skewed or unfair....Simple fairness says we should ask and answer the questions surrounding Maryland's death penalty -- before we take another life in the name of justice.
(Baltimore Sun, 3/27/01)
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From the Wichita Falls Times Record News
The Wichita Falls Times Record News becomes third Texas paper to endorse a moratorium on executions:
There's enough evidence now on the table to establish beyond a shadow of a doubt that the death penalty is unjustly administered in Texas, and if we doubt that everyone facing the ultimate punishment has been treated fairly and equitably then we should at least stop the process long enough to remove the doubt.
. . .
A moratorium is justified by the facts. It's a reasonable way to approach the problem. And this bill should be approved and the [study] committee should be created.
(Wichita Falls Times Record News, 3/23/01)
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From the Austin American-Statesman
The Austin American-Statesman recently endorsed death penalty reforms and a moratorium on executions in Texas:
Lawmakers should now look closely at the state's death penalty and weigh its value in deterring or punishing crime against a growing list of freed death row inmates here and across the country.
. . .
In Texas, the death penalty is unevenly applied. A murder defendant is more likely to be sentenced to death in Harris County than Travis. If this punishment, which enjoys wide public support, is to continue, then it should be viewed as just. That is not the case. Most Texans believe the state already has executed an innocent person.
Lawmakers can and should reduce the possibility of sending innocent people to death row with measures that give felons access to DNA testing and better legal representation. And Texas juries should have the sentencing option of imposing life without parole.
. . .
[There are compelling reasons] for Texas to study whether its death penalty is fairly applied regardless of race or income, and to stop executions -- at least temporarily -- until the state has collected and analyzed that data.
(Austin American-Statesman, 3/2/01)
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From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"[P]olls also show that opposition to capital punishment has reached a 20-year high, and this year nearly a dozen states have considered bills to stop or abolish capital punishment. Could this be the start of a shift in public opinion, the result of a nagging fear that we are executing the innocent along with the guilty? That we are embracing the very crime we punish and becoming the very people we despise?...
The shadow of America's doubt about the death penalty looms larger each day. Lawmakers in Missouri and Illinois should heed calls for a moratorium. Let this be a year of forgiveness and fresh starts, the year we halt executions before we make a first -- or perhaps another -- fatal mistake."
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 12/26/99)
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From the Virginian-Pilot
While state and federal appeals courts across the nation provide a buffer of review in death penalty cases, ultimately winnowing out nealry two of every three capital judgments, almost every death sentence ordered in Virginia stands. On direct appeal, the Virginia Supreme Court finds error requiring a new trial or lesser sentence in capital cases 8 percent of the time...In contrast, state supreme courts nationally found error on average 40 percent of the time....It is one thing to lead the nation in per-capita executions if the commonwealth's system of justice is scrupulously evenhanded and respectful of defendants' rights. It is another if technicalitites are being used to excuse flaws...that would lead to reconsideration of a death sentnece in most other states....Right now, there is room for reasonable doubt. Executions in Virginia should be halted until the process is validated and the doubts are resolved or erased.
(Virginian-Pilot, 7/6/99)
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From The San Francisco Examiner
We believe Siripongs' life should be spared....We don't think the state should be granted the awesome power to kill. Contrary to the signal of 'deterrence' proponents believe is sent by carrying out capital punishment, we believe it sends a series of harmful messages. It's state-sponsored murder. It cheapens life by giving the bureaucratic machinery of the state the power of life and death. It says, in some circumstances, it's OK to take a life.....The death penalty also invites tragic mistakes. Once it's carried out, there's no reversing it if compelling new evidence turns up. Justice isn't perfect.
(San Francisco Examiner, 2/7/99)
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