Decline in Executions

www.nola.com is the website for our local news over here. I think its run by The Times-Picayune which is our local paper (I should really find out how they came up with that name..hmm). Yesterday Michelle Krupa and Katy Reckdahl wrote an article about the death penalty in Louisiana, the headline read “Louisiana has seen dramatic decline in executions, in line with national trend.”

“The dramatic decline in Louisiana executions since 1987, when the state briefly led the nation in that statistic, comes at a time when, nationally, both executions and the imposition of new death sentences have waned significantly.” At one point the States were sentencing over 300 people a year to death, in 1999 284 people received a death sentence, in 2009 it dropped to 106.

Krupa and Reckdahl open by saying that in 1987 eight men were executed in Louisiana over a brief span of eleven weeks. But last week’s execution of Gerald Bordelon (see previous blog for details) was the first in 8 years, the prior execution being in 2002 of Leslie Dale Martin executed for the rape and murder of Christina Burgin committed in 1981.

The long wait between conviction and execution, they say, can be “interminable” for victim’s families. At this point I would like to interject that it is not only the appeals process which takes so long but also the trial itself! I know of one person who has waited 4 years just to be tried for the crime which keeps him incarcerated!! For four years he has been locked up in prison without a single judge or peer having declared him guilty of anything.

To be fair they go on to write about the importance of caution when a person’s life is at stake. According to statistics they have received from the Capital Appeals Project, 50% of cases heard by Federal Judges since 2000 have been sent back to trial court for new trials. I too have been playing with state statistics and came up with these numbers :-
60% of death row sentences handed down in Orleans (the parish which contributes the greatest number of inmates to death row in Louisiana) are amended at the direct appeal level. Of the 37 people who have received the death sentence in Orleans – 11% have been executed, 16% have been exonerated, and 49% have had their sentence commuted to life!
In Louisiana on the whole, 213 people have been sentenced to death since 1978, of which 12% have been executed. 45% have been exonerated or had their sentence commuted. A mere 40% remain on death row, and may still be successful in appeals and reduces that proportion further. (For those mathematicians out there wondering what happened to the missing 3% - they died while on death row).


The article goes on: the Louisiana Supreme Court has set up a committee to examine the appeals process for all sentences. Cheney Joseph sits on this panel and expresses a desire to speed the process up, thankfully he explains, “so that error can be identified as quickly as possible”. A comment further supported by Chief Justice Kathy Kimball who clarified “the committees aim is not to hurry up and execute people.” This is more favorable to our cause than the proliferate argument for Louisiana to adopt a system more in line with that of Texas who proudly leads the country in execution rates, killing off their inmates at a steady rate and with much less ‘delay’ between conviction and execution. Since 1978 1,191 people have been executed in the United States, 38% of those were in Texas. In 2009, 52 inmates were executed throughout the country, Texas was responsible for nearly half of them. (For those of you who may be wondering by now what the significance of 1978 is – it is the year the Death Penalty was re-instated in the United States – more about that in another blog to come).

The director of Capital Post Conviction Project Louisiana is quoted, indicating the most important factor in the argument against aligning our system with that of Texas: they executed an innocent man, namely Cameron Todd Willingham. Willingham was executed in 2004 for the murder of his three children in a house fire, forensic experts have determined it was an accidental fire with no one to blame. (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann)

In the article the lengthy process in Louisiana is credited to the State providing defense lawyers sufficient time to carry out their work effectively. The reduction in sentencing nationwide, they say, reflects not only juror attitudes, but a steep reduction in the number of cases in which prosecutors seek the death penalty.

The District Attorney in Calcasieu Parish say they seek the death penalty less often having given consideration to the toll it takes on the victim’s family when a case is reversed and has to be retried. Surely the DA’s office wouldn’t prosecute an innocent person, why therefore be concerned with a guilty verdict being overturned? If the defendant is guilty and the prosecution and police have played by the rules there would be no reason for a judge to grant the inmate a new trial!

A further factor worth considering which is not raised in the article is this: District Attorneys are elected officials. Much like the politicians in England, being seen to be “tough on crime”, was a sure and simple way of securing votes – and what could possibly be more ‘tough on crime’ than the death penalty? If the DA’s office is not committing themselves to as many death sentences as before, perhaps it is because they no longer hear the demand for blood from the election pool. This leads on to the possibility that there is no longer such great public support for the death penalty. And if that is the case, the State should consider abolishing the death penalty altogether, as the Supreme Court have before said they cannot abolish it while the general public continue to support it – if the support is no longer there, it follows that the requirement to keep it ceases to exist also…. Just my thoughts anyway.

Juxtaposing my inference that the general public no longer support the death penalty I’d like to share with you some comments made on www.nola.com following the publishing of the article mentioned above. (My additional comments in blue):-

Death by lethal injection seems like an "easy way out" to me for criminals of brutal crimes. Get the injections, then go into a deep sleep and die, how easy is that?
(Actually not easy at all – we don’t know for sure what they feel, obviously, but they aren’t actually ‘put to sleep’ per say, its more like they are paralyzed while their hearts are stopped and lungs fail…)

Personally I was always for the death penalty but realized that was too easy. When a criminal is found guilty and realizes he'll get life in prison they'd rather die. Why give them what they want. Can you imagine what your life would be in prison with no chance of parole? I've said most of my life, if someone is sentenced to a certain amount of time in prison, lock the door, slide food and water in, hose it out every now and than and give them books to read, nothing else. Let it be so bad that they think about what they did to get there and never want to go back when they get out. Won't happen, we have too many bleeding hearts in charge of this coutry for that to happen. Our prisoners are treated better than many of our law abiding citizens. Go figure huh!
(Does this mean I’m a bleeding heart? I’ll take that badge and wear it proudly! As for prisoners being treated better than law abiding citizens, my next blog will be about the State Correctional prison – its not pretty or an easy life – in short the wardens philosophy is ‘work them hard during the day so they’re no trouble at night’!)

I vote for an express lane from court room conviction to the table. All of the appeals that stop execution only leave felon's in jail, in prison, for the rest of their life. At the end of the day it cost the tax payer
(Umm… there’s actually another comment next about the tax argument, I’ll leave it to him)

You know if you burn shoplifters alive in Jackson Square every week, that too will have a dissuading effect on shoplifting. Why not hang all criminals? This logic is flawed. Also: too many people have been exonerated. If one innocent person is murdered by the state, that's not acceptable. Perfect punishments inside an imperfect judicial system is nuts. Also: I'd rather die than spend the rest of my life in solitary. I'd compromise by implementing Supermax-style treatment for convicted murderers.
PS: All those money worshiper sin our society using the financial argument for capital punishment (e.g. get rid of appeals and kill them quick because it costs less money): that's just sick and depraved. The people that use the financial argument for expedited capital punishment are the same people who would deny health coverage to low-income children if it mean paying less taxes. That's a depraved stance
(Don’t really agree with the whole “supermax-style treatment” or let them live because its worse than dying… but at least he’s apparently against the death penalty! And those arguing on the basis of tax – “a depraved stance” – that I like!)

one execution isn't enough Gerald Bordelon need to executed for
the brutal rape and killing of his step-daughter he did the right
thing by waving his appeals and so should Len {Scumbag} Davis
They need to use that execution chamber at angola at least once
every six months to send a message to all killers baby raptist
woman raptist / boy raptist/ and especially on any-one who
commit domestic violence against there wife or husband or live-in
spouse by murderer
(Pretty sure being a “raptist” of any kind isn’t a crime in this ‘free country’….)

The death penalty is not per se immoral, but we ought to end it in favor of life without parole. The government has no business killing people unless it's in a just war.
(Again, don’t entirely agree – pretty sure (in fact, certain) the death penalty is immoral – but yay another one against the death penalty!)

I'm pro capital punishment. Anyone who's read a few of my posts might say I'm right of Genghis Khan. But if this is true..."Since 1989, seven men have left Louisiana's death row as free men after they were exonerated based on DNA and other evidence." ... It gives me pause. A free society should err on the side of freedom
(This guy might think he’s pro-capital punishment, but it looks to me that if he is properly educated about the system currently in place (and the fact that as the system is run by humans it is impossible to ever ensure it is without error) he will join our team in no time!)