REPORTING FOR NEWS TEAM ONE
Covering the U.S. Southern Region: Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina
Recently the states of Tennessee and Florida have debated on re-instituting the electric chair for delivering a death penalty sentence, if lethal injection drugs are not available. On May 23, 2014, Tennessee governor Bill Haslam signed the new law into effect, on the heals of, NPR’s Alan Greenblatt report of the drug combo being in short supply.
It is also worth noting the U.S. Supreme Court ruling 2-days early which halted the execution by lethal injection of Missouri’s death row inmate, Russell Bucklew. This all in culmination of last months botched lethal injection of Oklahoma’s death row inmate Clayton D. Locket.
We should tackle the toughest stance on death by electrocution first. If you or someone close to you have been a victim of a criminal offense which lead to irreparable damage, injury or death, electrocution may seem like the easy way out for a criminal. On the other hand if you ever had a family member or someone equally close to you, condemned to death unjustly, there is nothing louder then the clock ticking down the time to a scheduled death.
Their are differing views to this debate each one deserving equal consideration but there are no easy answers, so instead we will focus on the judiciary business model that leads to a “Death Penalty” sentence. I think after a careful review most people will consider whether it is necessary to electrocute our citizens versus spending life in prison and paying restitution. As of October 2013 Florida has the largest number of death row inmates in the Southern United States with a count of 412. Enforcing the death penalty costs Florida $51 million a year above what it would cost to punish all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole. Based on the 44 executions Florida had carried out since 1976, that amounts to a cost of $24 million for each execution.
| The Death Penalty and Race Factor |
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| In Louisiana, the odds of a death sentence were 97% higher for those whose victim was white than for those whose victim was black. (Pierce & Radelet, Louisiana Law Review, 2011) |
| A comprehensive study of the death penalty in North Carolina found that the odds of receiving a death sentence rose by 3.5 times among those defendants whose victims where white. (Prof. Jack Boger and Dr. Isaac Unah, University of North Carolina, 2001). |
| In 96% of states where there have been reviews of race and the death penalty, there was a pattern of either race-of-victim or race-of-defendant, discrimination, or both. (Prof. Baldus report to the ABA, 1998). |
Here are some of the statements released to the media shortly after the botched execution of Clayton Locket a black man, who 15 years earlier was convicted of killing 19-year old Stephanie Nieman a white woman from rural Oklahoma. It is fair to note during the 15 years of Locket’s incarceration he did not serve his time in civility, however much you can muster in prison. In addition, he threatened witnesses who testified in his case after his conviction and reportedly involved himself in several violent prison incidents.
“Retired district attorney who worked the case, Mark L Gibson, If anyone ever deserved the death penalty, Lockett did.
“Mary Fallin, the governor of Oklahoma who pushed for the execution wrote, The people of Oklahoma do not have blood on their hands. They saw Clayton Lockett for what he was: evil.
In contrast just 5 months earlier, white Ohio death row inmate, Dennis McGuire also experienced a botched lethal injection execution, the longest recorded execution in U.S. history. The governor and prison officials simply issued a statement reaffirming the process and protocols where all adhered to during the execution. They issued no disparaging statements regarding Dennis McGuire or spoke about the rape and murder of the pregnant newlywed victim. McGuire’s family have elected to pursuit a lawsuit against the state of Ohio.
As the debate heats up this will become a hot button issue. We are also equipped with more information and data which at one time went unreported. The call to action is clear, I would rather an inmate spend the rest of their lives paying restitution to the victims family or a similar cause, then to see tax payer dollars spent on the fight for legal murder.
Sources:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/some-examples-post-furman-botched-executions?scid=8&did=478
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/methods-execution
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/05/22/314972115/tennessee-gov-oks-allowing-electric-chair-for-executions
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/deathrow/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/02/clayton-lockett-botched-execution_n_5251261.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/fake-suffocation-dennis-mcguire_n_4676765.html
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