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Death
penalty moratorium As a Texan who understands this state’s “hang ’em high and fry ’em deep” mentality when it comes to executions, I appreciate the reasoning behind the execution of criminals. Our society is based on rules of civil conduct, and actions that are unlawful should be met with swift and adequate punishment. As the adage goes if you do the crime you do the time. In recent years, however, there has arisen a movement for a mandatory moratorium of the death penalty. A moratorium simply puts a halt on state executions. It does not abolish state executions permanently although that is the preferred outcome. I am a proponent of the death penalty in cases where it is proved beyond a doubt that a person was found guilty and that person was afforded full and adequate representation. However, in an appalling number of cases involving minorities, indigent people and mentally retarded people, the justice system has failed to adequately and fairly represent defendants. The American Civil Liberties Union reports in a review of the death penalty judgments over a 23-year period of time, the error rate was a whopping 68 percent. And, not surprisingly, minorities accounted for 44 percent of those executed since 1976, and they account for 55 percent of those awaiting executions. Of those being sentenced to death, a majority are minorities and indigent people. White people make up 83 percent of capital murder victims slain by minorities. As of May 2001, 162 minorities had been put to death in instances where the victim was white. When the tables are turned, however, the outcome is much different. As of May 2001 in instances where the defendant was white and the victim was a minority, only 11 people were sentenced to death. In 1990 the General Accounting Office concluded in a review of the death penalty that homicides under similar circumstances where defendants had similar criminal histories a defendant was several times more likely to receive the death penalty if the victim was white. Prosecutors have full discretion in deciding which cases will be tried as capital cases. However, such prosecutors often seek the death penalty more zealously when the defendant is a minority and the victim is white. A case study of Georgia in the 1980s showed that the prosecutors sought the death penalty in 70 percent of cases in which the defendant was a minority and the victim white, but sought the death penalty in only 15 percent of cases in which the victim was a minority and the defendant was white. And in the 38 states that allow the death penalty, 98 percent of prosecutors are white. Indigent persons unable to pay for legal representation are left to the mercy of overzealous prosecutors. verworked and underpaid court-appointed attorneys who barely feel a need to see their clients and who also have very little monetary incentive hardly meet the standards of fair and adequate representation. Since 1982 Texas has executed some 253 persons and counting. Among those executed were indigent persons, mentally retarded persons and a disproportionate number of minorities. It’s high time a moratorium is instituted so that a review of the judicial system in states — starting with Texas — can occur. I may support the death penalty but I also support “justice for all” and that is a vital concept that has been left out of the justice system. Joanna
Cattanach is a columnist The Lariat at Baylor University. |
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