Hope Grows in Death Penalty Fight
In numbers of executions, 1999 was the bloodiest year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, with 98 people executed. In fact, we have to go back to 1951 to find a year in which so many people were killed. Repeating a familiar pattern, Texas was the leader in executions in 1999, killing 35 men and women. In the West, 11 people were executed -- seven of those in Arizona. An additional 27 people have been executed in the United States in the first three months of 2000, and 23 more have execution dates in the second quarter of the year.
Despite these statistics, there is reason for hope among abolitionists -- state governors granted clemency to five people last year, public support for the death penalty continues to drop, the moratorium movement continues to gather momentum and politicians and public figures have started to express doubts about capital punishment.
A Gallup Poll released on February 24 shows that support for capital punishment has dropped in six years from 80 percent to 66 percent, and that only 52 percent prefer the death penalty when life without parole is an alternative. Recent surveys in Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey and Ohio also found that growing numbers of people support life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty and agree that the arguments against it are probably factually correct.
What is responsible for these results? In a recent article in the New York Times Magazine, Bruce Shapiro cites a criminologist who has concluded that people grow less likely to support the death penalty as they receive more information about it. In addition, when former supporters of capital punishment change their minds, they are swayed by doubts about its fairness rather than a belief that it is fundamentally wrong.
The lack of fairness in the death penalty's administration has been emphasized in the news media recently. In November, the Chicago Tribune published a five-part series which reported that the Illinois capital punishment system "is riddled with faulty evidence, unscrupulous trial tactics and legal incompetence." There was a lot of publicity about the recent book, Actual Innocence, by Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld and Jim Dwyer about 10 innocent men convicted of murder. Three more people have been freed from death rows so far this year, in Illinois, Florida and Missouri. The Illinois man brought the total number of innocent people released in that state to 13, one more than the number of executions carried out there since 1976.
On January 31, Illinois Governor George Ryan, a Republican, declared a moratorium on executions in that state, to continue "until [he can] be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing lethal injection." Other religious and civic leaders, including Rev. Pat Robertson, have expressed doubt about the death penalty or supported calls for a moratorium. Moratorium bills are being considered in many state legislatures, and official state studies of the death penalty have begun in Indiana, Nebraska, and North Carolina.
Although President Clinton rejected calls for a federal moratorium, the Justice Department is conducting a review to determine whether there are racial disparities in the application of the federal death penalty. Also, a bill designed to reduce the risk of executing the innocent is pending in Congress. Sen. Patrick Leahy and Reps. Ray LaHood and William Delahunt have introduced the Innocence Protection Act, which would ensure that death row inmates can use DNA evidence to prove their innocence. According to a March 30 Gallup Poll, 92 percent of Americans support this idea.
CADP supports the moratorium movement. A moratorium is a step toward abolition, and consideration of this issue presents an opportunity to educate the public about the death penalty. We also believe that the Colorado legislature should commission a study of the death penalty in our state. You will hear more about these goals in the coming months.
Coloradans Against the Death Penalty Newsletter -- Spring 2000
See the Web site's News section for more articles and information about the death penalty.
