The Birmingham News
EDITORIAL
December 10, 2008
Alabama officials want to waste no time in putting condemned inmates to death. As of this past week, five execution dates had been set for 2009. And if Attorney General Troy King has his way, those won't be the last dates set.
"It's been too long," King said.
King's belief is that families of the victims have been waiting for years to see justice done, and an execution cannot happen too soon for them. That's no doubt true for many of the grieving survivors, and most of us would probably feel the same in their shoes.
Killers don't give their victims endless appeals. But as a society, we must show more respect for life than murderers do - even for the life of murderers.
As a newspaper, we feel that should mean no executions, period. Life in prison with no chance for parole is enough to punish the killer and protect the public. If ending the killer's life would bring back the victim, maybe executions could be justified. But it doesn't work that way.
If we continue to use the death penalty, we must ensure it is imposed accurately and fairly. Unfortunately, too many public officials like King are less interested in seeing executions done right than they are in seeing them done quickly.
Which brings up an interesting point.
A number of prosecutors like to complain about the length of time it takes to carry out death sentences. Years too many - sometimes decades, they say. Yet they seldom point out what holds up executions many times is improper shortcuts taken by investigators and prosecutors.
Prosecutors say the courts scour these cases, and the inmates are afforded too many rights. But while prosecutors well know death penalty cases get special attention from judges, they still sometimes do things like withholding favorable evidence from the defense. These kinds of mistakes lead to delays and sometimes even new trials.
King, whose office handles all the death penalty appeals, is a strong supporter of the death penalty. He's entitled to that view.
But King isn't just the lawyer for families of victims. He's the lawyer for the people of Alabama. As such, he has a responsibility to ensure the ultimate punishment is imposed in proceedings that are exceedingly fair. As it stands, it's all too clear that arbitrary factors like race play far too big a role in deciding who lives and who dies, that state law makes ridiculous distinctions between what is a death-penalty offense and what is not, and that much more needs to be done to provide a good legal defense for poor people accused of capital crimes.
We understand King likes leading the charge to get executions done in a hurry. But, oh, how we wish he would also lead the charge to ensure they are done right.