Judge Boyce Martin took the occa­sion of his final death-penal­ty deci­sion from the bench of the U.S. Court of Appeals to sharply crit­i­cize cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in this coun­try. While uphold­ing the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence of the defen­dant, Harold Nichols, Judge Martin said, ​“I con­tin­ue to con­demn the use of the death penal­ty as an arbi­trary, biased, and bro­ken crim­i­nal jus­tice tool.” He not­ed that the many years since Nichols’s con­vic­tion in 1990 have con­sumed ​“count­less judi­cial hours, mon­ey, legal resources, and pro­vid­ing no clo­sure for the fam­i­lies of the vic­tims.” He added that resources spent on the death penal­ty could be bet­ter used for oth­er pro­grams: ​“The time, mon­ey, and ener­gy spent try­ing to secure the death of this defen­dant would have been bet­ter spent improv­ing this country’s men­tal-health and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions, which may help pre­vent crimes such as the ones we are pre­sent­ed with today.” Judge Martin has served as a judge on the Sixth Circuit for more than three decades.

(Nichols v. Heidle, No. 06 – 6495, 6th Cir. (July 25, 2013), Martin, J., con­cur­ring). Nichols is from Tennessee. See New Voices and Costs.

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