Death Penalty Poses Too Many Questions
Bias, error should prod us to emulate Illinois
-- By Michael L. Radelet
Sometimes, although too rarely, politicians do have the courage and integrity to ignore misinformed public-opinion polls and do what is right. This is the true measure of "leadership." Illinois Gov. George Ryan's decision on Jan. 11 to commute 165 death sentences to terms of life imprisonment without parole is a perfect example of that integrity and leadership.
It is now time to call upon the Boulder City Council, Colorado legislators and Colorado Gov. Bill Owens to support a moratorium on the death penalty. To date, 75 or so city and county governments across the United States have made such a call. We in Boulder should follow Ryan's leadership and do the same.
A blue-ribbon commission appointed by Gov. Ryan found scores of problems with the application of the death penalty in Illinois. A massive study that a colleague and I did for the governor, examining some 5,000 homicides, found that for similar types of homicides, the odds of a death sentence were 80-percent higher in rural areas than in Cook County. Also for similar homicides, the odds of a death sentence were 60-percent higher for those convicted of killing whites than for those convicted of killing blacks.
Nevertheless, Owens went on Nightline on Jan. 13 to criticize Ryan for the commutations. In Owens' book, widespread racial disparities and a system that regularly sentences innocent defendants to death are OK.
There are some indications that Colorado has similar problems: Four-fifths of those on our death row are racial minorities, and all were convicted of killing whites. Research is needed to examine if death sentences in this state, like those in Illinois, are inappropriately blemished by racial bias, regional disparities, or pure arbitrariness.
We also need to re-examine the question of whether the death penalty in Colorado is worth all the fuss. The death penalty costs several millions of dollars per case -- several times more than Colorado's alternative to the death penalty, life imprisonment without parole.
It is clear, however, that while Owens is slashing the budgets of every state agency, the one area he will continue to throw money at is the death penalty. As Ryan said on Jan. 11, pursuing revenge is a lousy way to spend the money that is meant to help families of homicide victims.
In recent weeks, several organizations have written to the Boulder City Council asking that they call for a moratorium on death sentencing in Colorado until these and related issues are studied by a non-political commission of death-penalty experts. Included are the Boulder County Bar Association, the Boulder County American Civil Liberties Union, the Boulder Inter-Faith Religious Leaders for Non-Violence, the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar and Coloradans Against the Death Penalty.
Colorado has a rich history of efforts to abolish the death penalty. We had no death penalty from 1897 to 1903. In 1933 the Senate again voted for abolition. We have had several governors and prison wardens who have worked for abolition.
In 1965, The Colorado District Attorneys Association called for an end to the death penalty in this state. The Rocky Mountain News quoted Boulder District Attorney Rex Scott at that time, "As far as district attorneys are concerned, the death penalty makes our job tougher [and] increases trial costs. ... is not a deterrent to murder, carries over from the Dark Ages concept of eye for an eye, and creates the danger of executing an innocent person. ... [T]he penalty is discriminatory in that under the same set of circumstances one jury would sentence a man to die and another would give him life imprisonment. Race and financial positions enter into juries' verdicts."
Rex Scott and George Ryan were right. Let's persuade the Boulder City Council to follow Gov. Ryan's leadership, and ask for a moratorium on the death penalty until questions about the fairness of its application can be studied.
Michael L. Radelet is professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
This article appeared as a Guest Opinion editorial in the January 19, 2003 Daily Camera. It is republished here with the author's permission.
