Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 14, 2006 21:24:42 GMT -5
If anything should be non-negotiable when it comes to the death penalty, it's this: The process should be exceedingly fair, and only guilty people should be executed.
Which means in Alabama, there should be no death penalty, at least for the foreseeable future. The system our state currently operates doesn't fulfill the very basic requirements - that is, fairness and accuracy - in inflicting the ultimate punishment.
The point was reinforced this week with the release of findings from the American Bar Association's review of Alabama's death penalty system. The 20-month assessment - conducted by prominent Alabama lawyers and scholars including a former judge, a prosecutor and a state senator - found glaring deficiencies in the way Alabama administers the death penalty.
The ABA has developed 79 standards for measuring the way a state carries out the death penalty. Alabama - the second state to undergo the ABA review - fully complied with only four. It partly complied with 14 others, and wholly failed on 37 of the remaining standards.
Among the problems cited:
The state doesn't provide adequate or consistent legal defense for those charged with capital crimes, either at the trial level or during appeals.
The state doesn't have a process for making sure the death penalty is used uniformly for similar crimes.
The state doesn't have a law to address people who were convicted of capital crimes before DNA testing was developed for blood, semen and other biological evidence.
Even when Alabama juries recommend a defendant receive life in prison with no chance for parole, elected judges can impose a sentence of death.
The sad thing is, these deficiencies aren't a shock. They have been raised time and again, but apparently, not often enough to trouble state leaders. Witness Attorney General Troy King's response to the Bar Association's findings. "The ABA is a liberal, activist organization with an agenda they constantly push," King said.
That's a cheap insult to the bright Alabama legal minds that invested their time in this review.
Notice King didn't argue Alabama runs a flawless death penalty operation. That's because he can't. The system is frighteningly flawed.
That's why this newspaper's editorial board members - and all members of the Alabama ABA assessment team except for Bessemer Cutoff District Attorney Arthur Green - advocate a temporary halt to executions to allow time for these flaws to be minimized.
No system run by humans will ever be perfect. DNA exonerations have shown us that judges, juries, eyewitnesses and victims aren't infallible. But if Alabama wants to continue using the death penalty, it needs at the very least to limit the chance of executing an innocent person. It also needs to make sure the death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst, and that decisions about who lives and dies are based on the crime, not on the race of the victim, the wealth of the defendant or the abilities of the defense lawyer.
Then, and only then, will Alabama meet what should be the basic
requirements for inflicting the death penalty.
(source: Opinion, Birmingham News)
Which means in Alabama, there should be no death penalty, at least for the foreseeable future. The system our state currently operates doesn't fulfill the very basic requirements - that is, fairness and accuracy - in inflicting the ultimate punishment.
The point was reinforced this week with the release of findings from the American Bar Association's review of Alabama's death penalty system. The 20-month assessment - conducted by prominent Alabama lawyers and scholars including a former judge, a prosecutor and a state senator - found glaring deficiencies in the way Alabama administers the death penalty.
The ABA has developed 79 standards for measuring the way a state carries out the death penalty. Alabama - the second state to undergo the ABA review - fully complied with only four. It partly complied with 14 others, and wholly failed on 37 of the remaining standards.
Among the problems cited:
The state doesn't provide adequate or consistent legal defense for those charged with capital crimes, either at the trial level or during appeals.
The state doesn't have a process for making sure the death penalty is used uniformly for similar crimes.
The state doesn't have a law to address people who were convicted of capital crimes before DNA testing was developed for blood, semen and other biological evidence.
Even when Alabama juries recommend a defendant receive life in prison with no chance for parole, elected judges can impose a sentence of death.
The sad thing is, these deficiencies aren't a shock. They have been raised time and again, but apparently, not often enough to trouble state leaders. Witness Attorney General Troy King's response to the Bar Association's findings. "The ABA is a liberal, activist organization with an agenda they constantly push," King said.
That's a cheap insult to the bright Alabama legal minds that invested their time in this review.
Notice King didn't argue Alabama runs a flawless death penalty operation. That's because he can't. The system is frighteningly flawed.
That's why this newspaper's editorial board members - and all members of the Alabama ABA assessment team except for Bessemer Cutoff District Attorney Arthur Green - advocate a temporary halt to executions to allow time for these flaws to be minimized.
No system run by humans will ever be perfect. DNA exonerations have shown us that judges, juries, eyewitnesses and victims aren't infallible. But if Alabama wants to continue using the death penalty, it needs at the very least to limit the chance of executing an innocent person. It also needs to make sure the death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst, and that decisions about who lives and dies are based on the crime, not on the race of the victim, the wealth of the defendant or the abilities of the defense lawyer.
Then, and only then, will Alabama meet what should be the basic
requirements for inflicting the death penalty.
(source: Opinion, Birmingham News)