Tuscaloosa News
EDITORIAL
December 8, 2008
Although the death penalty has never been proved as a deterrent to crime, the Alabama Supreme Court has scheduled five capital punishment dates for the first five months of 2009.
Of the five inmates scheduled for execution, one has been on death row for 18 years, one for 19 years, one for 21 years and two for 26 years.
The state's death penalty advocates seem almost giddy. Alabama went all of this year without an execution, though some were scheduled. Appeals delayed them, and appeals may delay executions scheduled next year.
Aside from the appellate process, however, Alabama ought to delay all executions to allow for a thorough study of its capital punishment process.
Alabama executed three people last year — and saw its murder rate rise from 8.3 per 100,000 population to 8.9. It has steadily increased since 2005, when the murder rate for Alabama rose from 5.6 per 100,000 to 8.2. There were four executions in the state that year.
Attorney General Troy King argues that executions help bring closure to the families of victims.
'It's been too long. It's welcomed news,' he said of the five death dates that the Supreme Court set last week. 'We have five families who have been waiting — some more than 20 years — to see an execution date, to see justice delivered.'
It is true that the extraordinarily long delays between sentencing and execution have caused mental anguish for all involved. But even convicted murderers have constitutional rights, and the wheels of justice sometimes turn slowly in Alabama.
The bigger issue is whether the state should continue to use the death penalty.
According to Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, capital punishment is growing more infrequent nationally. Only Alabama and Texas seem to be committed to the death penalty.
If the majority of Alabamians fully support capital punishment, the state is entitled to continue to schedule executions. However, it is hard to see how conscionable citizens can justify them, considering the serious objections that have been raised to how Alabama administers the death penalty.
The state is notorious for its unique law that allows a judge to override the recommendation of a jury in a capital case and order death instead of life without the possibility of parole.
It also is notorious for failing to guarantee legal representation for inmates appealing their capital convictions. And the effectiveness of attorneys assigned to defend indigent suspects is questionable.
Moreover, there are issues of income and race.
For the past few years, Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, has asked for a moratorium to allow the state to study its capital punishment system. That makes better sense than scheduling multiple executions as the Supreme Court has done next year.