Poor execution

Thirty-six states, the Federal government and the U.S. military are currently holding a total of 3,251 inmates on assorted death rows. California (721), Florida (398), and Texas (321) lead the pack in terms of sheer numbers, although California is something of a pretender. After all, Texas (276 since the year 2000) and Florida (25 since the year 2000) do actually pull folks off death row fairly frequently and put them to death.

I’ve read – and occasionally written – so many opinion pieces over the years on the subject of capital punishment that I’d convinced myself I was tapped out on the subject. But today, something went twang in my brain and here I am, tapping again.

I’ve never had a problem emotionally or philosophically with execution per se. Some folks are never going to be rehabilitated and some crimes are horrific. Murderers, rapists, child molesters can all be dumped in the same convenient pit for all I care.

The thing is, we don’t administer the pit competently, fairly or even compassionately.

Troy Davis spent 22 years on Georgia’s death row for murder of an off-duty police officer before being executed by lethal injection September 21^st. Even after he breathed his last, some folks believe he was wrongfully convicted. Seems like 22 years might have been enough time to be sure. If so, why the wait and if not, well, oops!

Neither Charles Manson nor any if his minions were ever executed for crimes that were both horrendous and gleefully acknowledged. I would have willingly thrown the switch on any of that crowd. Of course, the difference between me and the Manson tribe members is that I wouldn’t have been doing it for personal entertainment.

Down in Oregon, Gary Haugen has been declared legally competent, allowing him to refuse further appeals, which in turn clears the way for his execution in the near future. He’s being snuffed for the murder of another inmate. He and a buddy crushed the guy’s skull and stabbed him 84 times. At the time, Haugen was already in prison for the 1981 murder of his ex-girlfriend’s mother. I’m not sure there’s much doubt that this is a guy we don’t want walking around free. I’ve no problem at all with the prospect of his life being foreshortened.

And then there are the folks who’ve spent years on assorted death rows, only to be exonerated through scientific methods such as DNA comparison that weren’t available at the time they were sentenced to die. And of course, one must presume there were others who were actually executed for crimes they didn’t commit before forensic science techniques that might have cleared them were available.

We can argue ad nauseum  – actually have – about the pros and cons of capital punishment.  My own views have changed over the years. But I’ve settled on the following:

                We need not argue this question on the basis of ethical, philosophical, constitutional or religious precepts. In fact, for me, those arguments are just not reached. They’re moot. Because capital punishment just doesn’t work.

                They say there is a special place in hell reserved for people who commit certain crimes. Since I don’t believe in hell, this does nothing to balance the books for me. But neither does judicial execution. We just don’t do it effectively.

                This is not to say we don’t know how to kill people. We have that covered. But we don’t do a good job of choosing our candidates for state-sanctioned erasure. And once we do, we’re so unsure of our decision, that we end up storing them for years and spending obscene amounts of both money and emotional energy trying to be sure before we slide the needle in. In most cases, we never do. Slide it in, that is.

                It’s time to bow to the obvious. Execution for capital crimes in the U.S. is neither effective nor fair in its administration. Let’s just stop.