Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
As an Illinois resident I was heartened by the fact that a former governor took the politically dangerous action to halt all executions and recently the current Governor of Illinois signed a bill to end the death penalty in Illinois. Tribune With that background, I was saddened to read that since 1976, more than 1/3rd of all executions that took place in our country happened in Texas. Since 1976, Texas has executed 481 people. Truth Progress Why does Texas continue to execute people when many experts assert that the death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime? If the Death Penalty was a deterrent to violent crime why would Texas and many other states still have so many prisoners on death row?
Take a look at the attached death penalty map that can be found in the linked Truth Progress article. 
I can remember the investigations done in Illinois to exonerate several death row prisoners that brought the issue to a head and had a significant impact on then Governor George Ryan. “The ban comes about 11 years after then-Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions after 13 condemned inmates were cleared since Illinois reinstated capital punishment in 1977. Ryan, a Republican, cited a Tribune investigative series that examined each of the state’s nearly 300 capital cases and exposed how bias, error and incompetence undermined many of them.” Tribune The State’s experiences since that moratorium led to the recent bill that ended the death penalty in Illinois.
Why would a large state like Illinois end the death penalty while Texas and many states in the South especially, continue to execute people? Are criminals worse in Texas than they are in Illinois or New York or South Carolina or Florida? Gov. Quinn in Illinois faced stiff opposition to his signing of the death penalty ban from the Cook County States Attorney and the Illinois Attorney General, both Democrats. The facts that stared Gov. Quinn in the face made it hard for him to listen to the death penalty advocates.
“The Tribune examination found at least 46 inmates sent to death row in cases where prosecutors used jailhouse informants to convict or condemn the defendants. The investigation also found at least 33 death row inmates had been represented at trial by an attorney who had been disbarred or suspended; at least 35 African-American inmates on death row who had been convicted or condemned by an all-white jury; and about half of the nearly 300 capital cases had been reversed for a new trial or sentencing hearing.” Tribune The death penalty discussion is not a partisan issue. Both Democrats and Republicans find themselves on both sides of the issue.
When you read that 13 death row inmates in Illinois were exonerated after the death penalty moratorium was initiated, how many innocent inmates in other states were later killed by state governments? How many innocent prisoners were convicted and sentenced to death with faulty or circumstantial evidence or under less than proper circumstances as noted in the Tribune investigation?
The death penalty has been a hot political football for years and will probably continue to be used by politicians on both sides of the aisle. No politician wants to look soft on crime. Isn’t it time for the politicians of this country to look beyond the “law and order” mentality and actually look at the facts? Is it time for a national ban on executions like most of the industrialized democracies in the world? How many of these politicians who are “gung-ho” to continue killing prisoners are also self avowed pro-lifers? Is there a contradiction in pushing for executions while arguing that abortions should not be allowed?
Is it too much to ask that fairness and the facts control these life and death decisions? What do you think?
bill mc,
It will cost society a lot of money to cure the underlying causes of a lot of crime. But we must do it.
Pro-death penalty advocates say that it’s about punishment AND deterrence.
Actually, it results in MORE killings. Eliminate witnesses etc.
IMO, society should be tough on crime, and tough on the CAUSES of crime.
It is a tough job Darren, but killing someone just to make our job easier is a tough call.
Rafflaw. Again, my apologies for the mistake. Your posting is a good read and I thank you for submitting. To answer your question about the life without parole penalty the convicted is still able to kill other inmates, corrections staff, other personnel, or escape and assault others. We ended the parole system in the early 80’s but still have a life penalty.
In January of last year a DOC Officer was murdered by a lifer:
http://www.odmp.org/officer/20674-correctional-officer-jayme-lee-biendl
There were six DOC officer deaths in our state 1 is an unsolved murder and the other were the result of assault by inmates
Gene,
I didn’t say it would be easy!
No problem Darren.
Sorry, I didn’t read the by-line of the article, I should have wrote “Mr. Rafferty”
raff,
Yeah, there’s some bad craziness going on in that case, but what do you do with a guy who wants to die? If he hadn’t attacked another prisoner, he’d likely have gone after a guard at some point even if in solitary. They have to move him some time just for the mandatory minimum exercise and/or the infirmary (should he fake illness just to attack).
Darren,
Prof. Turley did not write ths article. I did. If you do life imprisonment without parole, how does one get out to kill again?
While Professor Turley more likely is correct in writing the death penalty might not be a deterrant, I can say with complete certainty that nobody who has been executed repeated their crime.
Gene and OS,
That is an amazing case from Virginia. You would think solitary confinement might have made sense after the first murder.
In a lot of ways Texas does not make any sence to me.. Has to do with foresight or thinking or something I do not, yet, recognise. And it helps make America look bad in areas of human rights.
All of my ex’s live in Texas.
Raff,
As a native…. I am saddened by that fact…… And yet you’ll hear the former governor and president scream about how bad Iraq treats its citizens…. It is a good thing that Illinois saw the error…..
Deterrent value? OS sent me this link during the week for a story suggestion but other duties (spring cleaning/garage sale) prevented me from writing a column this weekend, however, it is germane to this discussion.
“Inmate who killed twice for death penalty has cases reviewed
By: | TriCities.com
Published: April 19, 2012
RICHMOND, Va. —
BY FRANK GREEN
Media General News Service
In 2009, inmate Robert Charles Gleason Jr. murdered his cellmate and hours later ate the victim’s lunch as well as his own next to the undiscovered body.
He threatened to kill again unless sentenced to death and, in 2010, Gleason strangled a second inmate, this time in Virginia’s ultra-secure Red Onion State Prison near Pound, in the guise of fitting him for a religious necklace.
Afterward, he told would-be resuscitators, ‘You’re gonna have to pump him a lot harder than that to get him back.’
Gleason’s execution wish was advanced last year when two death sentences were imposed in Wise County Circuit Court by Judge John C. Kilgore. Gleason waived appeals and his sentences are before the Virginia Supreme Court for mandatory review this morning.
‘This is the kind of case that turns the whole death penalty on its head,’ said David I. Bruck, director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse at Washington and Lee University, on Wednesday.
Instead of deterring murder, capital punishment appears to have motivated someone who wants to die by execution, said Bruck. ‘In other words, if there had been no death penalty, there might well have been no murder at Red Onion State Prison.'”
rafflaw, it is more about wealth than mental issues in Texas. Though there are a few who claim mental issues are in play in the case, the most common culprit in landing on death row is CASH.
That should read ” but it is a big part of the capital punishment issue”.
Dredd,
I didn’t discuss the mentally challenged indviduals who continue to be executed due to space limitations, but it is. Big part of the capital punishment issue.
Pride!
In Texas, and I’m sure elsewhere, District Attorney’s run on the “i’ll kill’em real good” ticket. There is no shortage of pride in their decisions. They never admit they are wrong. Todd Willingham case is the most stark example to date but there are countless other cases where evidence supported suspending the death penalty in particular cases only to have that evidence ignored in favor of looking tough.
The macho garbage that is Texas is why they won’t drop the death penalty any time soon.
I have always opposed the death penalty. Sadly many people who claim to be Christian like to use the excuse “an eye for an eye” to justify their demands on the death penalty. To me the true Christian is the person who is a loved one of someone murdered who can and does say they want the criminal spared from the death penalty because they don’t believe that will bring their loved ones back. And many of those people forgive the perpetrator.
I find it to be really very barbaric.
“Why does Texas continue to execute people when many experts assert that the death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime?”
Cause they like to kill people, to see them squirm, to see family and friends cry.
They are in the process of changing the state motto to “childruns do learn” …
(Christopher HItchens, The Nation). And he is the cream of that crop of power brokers.