John Whitehead's Commentary
Time-Out on Injustice & Error: A Moratorium on the Death Penalty
Since the United States resumed executions in 1977, it has put to death 752 men and women, with more than 600 of these executions occurring in the past 12 years alone. Presently, 38 states subscribe to the use of the death penalty. Illinois may become the next to join those states opposed to the death penalty, depending on the reaction to a soon-to-be released report from its Commission on Capital Punishment.
Two years ago, Gov. George H. Ryan declared a moratorium on executions of Illinois death row inmates until a commission he appointed to conduct a review of the administration of the death penalty in Illinois could make recommendations to him.
"I have grave concerns about our state's shameful record of convicting innocent people and putting them on death row," stated Ryan. "I cannot support a system, which, in its administration, has proven to be so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare, the state's taking of innocent life. Thirteen people have been found to have been wrongfully convicted."
From the death penalty's reinstatement in Illinois in 1977 up to the time of Ryan's remarks, 12 death row inmates had been executed while 13 had been exonerated. Yet, as statistics show, Illinois's track record on the death penalty is no better and no worse than most states'. Echoing a concern that no innocent person be put to death, Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.) last year proposed the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001 to institute a federal moratorium on all executions pending recommendations of a federally commissioned study on the death penalty.
Lacking a bipartisan co-sponsor, the bill has yet to be voted on, but the pressure is building. An increasing number of individuals, both for and against the death penalty, have begun calling for a federal moratorium on this form of judicial judgment.
Thus far, the greatest argument in favor of a moratorium rests in the overwhelming evidence that the system is consistently error-bound and flawed. In "A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995," a Columbia University study on 5,760 capital cases, the report found an overall rate of error of 68 percent. In other words, courts found serious reversible errors in nearly 7 out of 10 capital cases. The most common errors included egregiously incompetent defense lawyers, prosecutorial suppression of evidence and other misconduct, misinstruction of juries, and biased judges and juries.
In "A Broken System," the team of legal analysts concluded that the death penalty system was "collapsing under the weight of its own mistakes. They reveal a system in which lives and public order are at stake, yet for decades has made more mistakes than we would tolerate in far less important activities. They reveal a system that is wasteful and broken and needs to be addressed."
Yet the longer the U.S. delays, the blacker its human rights record looks internationally. In fact, while the U.S. leads the charge on human rights abuses overseas, it continues to be targeted by groups such as Amnesty International as one of the worst human rights abusers in terms of how it punishes criminals. Currently, more than half the countries in the world --many of which are U.S. allies in our war on terrorism--have abolished the death penalty. Incredibly, in continuing the death penalty, the U.S. is in the company of such primitive countries as Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.
While U.S. politicians wait to act on a death penalty moratorium, the clock continues to count down for those condemned to die for their alleged crimes. It also ticks for those who continue to insist on their innocence.
Within a matter of days or weeks from now, the hundredth individual to be exonerated from death row will walk free. Since 1973, 99 individuals have been exonerated after evidence of their innocence was brought to light. Yet human nature and the law of averages decree that if approximately 100 individuals have prevailed in proving their innocence, there must be many more who have not been able to do so. Whether through lack of resources, opportunity or time, these individuals go to their deaths innocent of the crimes for which they were charged.
Even if most of those condemned to die prove to be guilty, if just one innocent person is wrongly executed, that is one too many. No matter what our individual views on the death penalty, its application clearly deserves closer scrutiny. And a moratorium simply acknowledges the need for more justice, not less. If compassion means anything, it means a baseline commitment to justice for all, regardless of race, color or creed.
It is a hard road the U.S. judicial system must walk in doling out judgment. Yet as our leaders strive to uphold the rule of law, I believe we must strive to be more just, more compassionate, and more willing to acknowledge the flaws within our judicial system and government and work to fix them.
The U.S. has prided itself on its ability to lead the way in the fight for justice. But we cannot continue to do so if we are unwilling to act on the injustices within our own country. If we fail to right these wrongs, the system fails and so, too, does our way of life. After all, the greatest thing our nation has to offer is a system of government built on justice, equality for all and our U.S. Constitution.
Two years ago, Gov. George H. Ryan declared a moratorium on executions of Illinois death row inmates until a commission he appointed to conduct a review of the administration of the death penalty in Illinois could make recommendations to him.
"I have grave concerns about our state's shameful record of convicting innocent people and putting them on death row," stated Ryan. "I cannot support a system, which, in its administration, has proven to be so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare, the state's taking of innocent life. Thirteen people have been found to have been wrongfully convicted."
From the death penalty's reinstatement in Illinois in 1977 up to the time of Ryan's remarks, 12 death row inmates had been executed while 13 had been exonerated. Yet, as statistics show, Illinois's track record on the death penalty is no better and no worse than most states'. Echoing a concern that no innocent person be put to death, Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.) last year proposed the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001 to institute a federal moratorium on all executions pending recommendations of a federally commissioned study on the death penalty.
Lacking a bipartisan co-sponsor, the bill has yet to be voted on, but the pressure is building. An increasing number of individuals, both for and against the death penalty, have begun calling for a federal moratorium on this form of judicial judgment.
Thus far, the greatest argument in favor of a moratorium rests in the overwhelming evidence that the system is consistently error-bound and flawed. In "A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995," a Columbia University study on 5,760 capital cases, the report found an overall rate of error of 68 percent. In other words, courts found serious reversible errors in nearly 7 out of 10 capital cases. The most common errors included egregiously incompetent defense lawyers, prosecutorial suppression of evidence and other misconduct, misinstruction of juries, and biased judges and juries.
In "A Broken System," the team of legal analysts concluded that the death penalty system was "collapsing under the weight of its own mistakes. They reveal a system in which lives and public order are at stake, yet for decades has made more mistakes than we would tolerate in far less important activities. They reveal a system that is wasteful and broken and needs to be addressed."
Yet the longer the U.S. delays, the blacker its human rights record looks internationally. In fact, while the U.S. leads the charge on human rights abuses overseas, it continues to be targeted by groups such as Amnesty International as one of the worst human rights abusers in terms of how it punishes criminals. Currently, more than half the countries in the world --many of which are U.S. allies in our war on terrorism--have abolished the death penalty. Incredibly, in continuing the death penalty, the U.S. is in the company of such primitive countries as Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.
While U.S. politicians wait to act on a death penalty moratorium, the clock continues to count down for those condemned to die for their alleged crimes. It also ticks for those who continue to insist on their innocence.
Within a matter of days or weeks from now, the hundredth individual to be exonerated from death row will walk free. Since 1973, 99 individuals have been exonerated after evidence of their innocence was brought to light. Yet human nature and the law of averages decree that if approximately 100 individuals have prevailed in proving their innocence, there must be many more who have not been able to do so. Whether through lack of resources, opportunity or time, these individuals go to their deaths innocent of the crimes for which they were charged.
Even if most of those condemned to die prove to be guilty, if just one innocent person is wrongly executed, that is one too many. No matter what our individual views on the death penalty, its application clearly deserves closer scrutiny. And a moratorium simply acknowledges the need for more justice, not less. If compassion means anything, it means a baseline commitment to justice for all, regardless of race, color or creed.
It is a hard road the U.S. judicial system must walk in doling out judgment. Yet as our leaders strive to uphold the rule of law, I believe we must strive to be more just, more compassionate, and more willing to acknowledge the flaws within our judicial system and government and work to fix them.
The U.S. has prided itself on its ability to lead the way in the fight for justice. But we cannot continue to do so if we are unwilling to act on the injustices within our own country. If we fail to right these wrongs, the system fails and so, too, does our way of life. After all, the greatest thing our nation has to offer is a system of government built on justice, equality for all and our U.S. Constitution.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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