Georgia is planning to excute William Earl Lynd at 7 PM on May 6. If the lethal injection goes forward, this would be first execution in the U.S. since September 25, 2007. On that day, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the lethal injection process in Baze v. Rees. On April 16, 2008, the Court upheld the process of lethal injection as practiced in Kentucky, signalling a probable end to the 7-month moratorium on executions. However, the possible resumption of executions comes at a time when serious concerns about the accuracy and fairness of the death penalty have also become more prominent. UPDATE: William Lynd was executed in Georgia on May 6, the first execution of 2008.

In Lynd’s case, the jury’s vote for a death sentence rested in part on an autopsy report prepared by a non-doctor. Georgia’s law has subsequently been changed, requiring that such reports be made by medical doctors. A subsequent review by a licensed medical doctor of the autoposy report used in the trial concluded that the original report had “no basis in medical science.” Lynd’s attorneys have also presented evidence to the courts that Georgia’s lethal injection process is substantially different from that used in Kentucky.

Around the country, the 129th person was recently freed from death row in North Carolina. Levon Jones was exonerated after his conviction was overturned because of inadequate representation. The state’s star witness has also recanted her testimony implicating Jones. The District Attorney dismissed all charges against him on May 3. Jones is the sixth person to be freed from death row in the past 12 months, the eighth person from North Carolina, and the 3rd from North Carolina since December 2007. The last four inmates who have been freed from death row in the U.S. are black.

In Dallas County, Texas, there have been 18 exonerations through DNA testing in recent years. Although these were not death penalty cases, some of the defendants could have been sentenced to death. Texas leads the country by far in the number of executions.

New Jersey and New York recently abandoned the death penalty. Maryland, North Carolina, California, and Tennessee have initiated legislative death penalty studies. A moratorium on all executions continues in Illinois, which is also looking into death penalty reforms.

In Baze v. Rees, Justice John Paul Stevens announced his conclusion that the death penalty no longer meets constitutional standards:

I have relied on my own experience in reaching the conclusion that the imposition of the death penalty represents “the pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal contributions to any discernible social or public purposes. A penalty with such negligible returns to the State [is] patently excessive and cruel and unusual punishment violative of the Eighth Amendment.” (quoting Justice White, Furman v. Georgia (1972)).

(Stevens, J., concurring).
Posted May 6, 2008; see DPIC’s prior news. See Press Release, Attorneys for William Earl Lynd, May 1, 2008. See Innocence and Lethal Injection.