Jeff. City lobby day Feb. 18
There have been no executions in Missouri since Marlin Gray was executed by lethal injection in October 2005. The ineffective and barbaric form of punishment appears to be losing its popularity among prosecutors, juries, victims’ families and the general public. A flailing economy is also adding pressure to the cracked system.
In its 2008 Year End Report, the Death Penalty Information Center cited a 14-year low in the continued trend away from executions. Only 37 executions took place last year, most of these taking place in only nine states. And new death sentences remained at a 30-year low.
This report, along with numerous others, found that the public’s penchant for the death penalty has waned, favoring life without parole over a death sentence. Some of this has been due to the tireless work of death penalty opponents busting such myths as it’s a deterrent to crime or that it brings closure for the victim’s family.
Studies show that the number of innocent people exonerated has been a riveting factor in the shift of public opinion that all is not just in our criminal justice system. The disproportionate number of these are African-American and Hispanic men.
There have been 232 people exonerated through DNA; 17 of these served time on death row. The total number of death row exonerations on death row now tops 130, including the 17 DNA cases. Groups like the Innocence Project and Centurions Ministries were created to address these wrongful convictions.
The three top reasons for these gross travesties are misidentification by eyewitnesses, junk science (false use of forensics) and false (forced) confessions. Prosecutors seem to be willing to prosecute by any means necessary to further their political careers, even if it means that innocent people get caught in their twisted net.
This is how you get the Ellen Reasonovers, Reggie Clemons and Darryl Burtons of the world. Reasonover and Burton were exonerated after spending years in prison being spared a death sentence; Clemons sits on Missouri’s death row from crimes many believe he didn’t commit.
We may start to see dramatic shifts in states’ application of the death penalty because of the deepening financial crises. In states on the brink of bankruptcy like California, $137 million is spent annually on pursuing death sentences. This has meant that crime prevention measures and social service programs were denied these dollars that would have had a greater impact on society.
States will be forced to make different decisions about not just the death penalty but even which crimes will be punishable by lengthy sentences in an overcrowded prison system. Over two million people are housed in the U.S. prison system, the most of any country in the world.
The Democratic Party quietly dropped the death penalty from its party platform in 2004. This change was probably influenced by John Kerry, the presidential nominee from a state that ruled the death penalty unconstitutional and hasn’t had any executions since it was reinstated in 1976. Overall, the once zealous support for the death penalty by candidates has decreased significantly and has faded from campaign literature, ads and debates.
In Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s State of the State address, mention of the death penalty was conspicuously absent. It’s too early to tell what that truly means, but the General Assembly will get another chance to pass a moratorium on executions this year.
HB 484 has been introduced, and a lobby day is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 18 in Jefferson City. A free bus from St. Louis (first come, first served) departs at 6:45 a.m. from Central Reform Congregation, 5020 Waterman at Kingshighway (call Colleen at 314-397-6691 for more information).
It’s past time to take a serious look at how the state administers this lethal punishment.
Visit www.moratoriumnow.net or call 314-397-6691 or 573-449-4585 for more details.