OPINION: ​“Kill the Death Penalty”

The edi­tor of the edi­to­r­i­al page of the Palm Beach Post recent­ly called for an end to the death penal­ty in Florida. Citing DPIC​’s recent report on the costs of the death penal­ty, Randy Schultz notes that, ​“Every objec­tive study shows that life impris­on­ment costs much less than sen­tenc­ing some­one to death.” ​“Money,” he writes, ​“dri­ves the new debate in Florida about crim­i­nal jus­tice.” In 2009, the state leg­is­la­ture declined the $3 bil­lion for pris­ons the state’s Department of Corrections need­ed to con­tin­ue cur­rent prac­tices. The death penal­ty should face the same fis­cal scruti­ny. Schultz also states that Florida sees lit­tle in return for the mon­ey it puts into cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. He calls Florida’s death row a ​“fraud,” and notes that, ​“Almost all those on Death Row will die of old age or dis­ease.” Read the full opin­ion piece below.

Kill the death penalty

Even if Florida gets smarter on crime, will Florida get smart enough to abol­ish the death penalty?

Business groups have joined the depart­ments of Corrections, Juvenile Justice and Children and Families in call­ing for major changes in how Florida admin­is­ters crim­i­nal jus­tice. They want more reha­bil­i­ta­tion behind bars and more sup­port for new­ly released inmates. They want diver­sion pro­grams for addicts who com­mit crimes because of their depen­den­cy. They want prison reserved for the dan­ger­ous, not the annoying.

All of it makes sense, so it may be lost on a Legislature that slurps up fed­er­al stim­u­lus mon­ey while denounc­ing the fed­er­al stim­u­lus pro­gram. Landmark reform, too, would mean touch­ing the untouch­able issue of capital punishment.

Money dri­ves the new debate in Florida about crim­i­nal jus­tice. This year, the Legislature actu­al­ly refused to approve the $3 bil­lion for pris­ons the Department of Corrections said would be nec­es­sary if cur­rent prac­tices con­tin­ued. Florida, leg­is­la­tors decid­ed, could­n’t be that tough on crime. Money also dri­ves the new look nation­wide at the death penal­ty. In October, the Death Penalty Information Center released ​“Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty at a Time of Economic Crisis.” The cen­ter’s phi­los­o­phy leans toward abo­li­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Still, the study con­tains hard num­bers to show that while 65 per­cent of the respon­dents to an October Gallup poll sup­port the death penal­ty, the real-life num­bers are run­ning the other way.

During the 1990s, states were hand­ing down rough­ly 300 death sen­tences a year. Now, it’s about 115. Between 1976, when the Supreme Court allowed exe­cu­tions to resume, and 2009, 41 states exe­cut­ed no one. Executions nation­wide peaked at 98 a decade ago. This year, there have been 52.

One recent devel­op­ment helps to explain the dichoto­my. More states have cre­at­ed a sen­tence of life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole — as opposed to just life in prison — as an alter­na­tive to the death penal­ty. Florida made the change in 1994, and death sen­tences have been trend­ing down ever since. A 2006 Gallup poll showed that, giv­en this choice, 47 per­cent pre­ferred cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment while 48 favored life without parole.

Florida offers the best expla­na­tion for that cau­tion. No state has released more Death Row inmates (23) because of exon­er­a­tion. Another died of can­cer before he could be released. No juror wants to wor­ry that he or she might have sent an inno­cent per­son to his death.

On top of that, Florida’s Death Row is a fraud. In this state, 390 peo­ple are under sen­tence of death — 389 men and one woman. Florida, though, has exe­cut­ed just 68 peo­ple since 1979, when John Spenkelink was elec­tro­cut­ed. Since 1985, Florida has exe­cut­ed four or more peo­ple in a year just three times. Almost all those on Death Row will die of old age or disease.

Every objec­tive study shows that life impris­on­ment costs much less than sen­tenc­ing some­one to death, because of the costs for lawyers who han­dle spe­cial­ized, com­plex death penal­ty appeals. To Jeb Bush, the answer was to lim­it the num­ber of years dur­ing which an inmate could appeal. The Florida Supreme Court shot him down. Good thing. Under Mr. Bush’s 10-year lim­it, Florida would have killed peo­ple before they could be exonerated.

It’s one thing to say that Danny Rolling, sadis­tic slay­er of five col­lege stu­dents in the Gainesville area 19 years ago, should be exe­cut­ed. There was no ques­tion of guilt, and no messy ques­tions of racial fair­ness. As the Death Penalty Information Center notes, though, 80 per­cent of vic­tims in cas­es where the killer was exe­cut­ed were white. Nationally, only 50 per­cent of mur­der vic­tims are white.

Deterrence? Police chiefs don’t con­sid­er the death penal­ty a deter­rent. And the South, which has the high­est rate of exe­cu­tion, also has the high­est murder rate.

Politically, though, cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment retains its vis­cer­al, eye-for-an-eye appeal. Thirty-five states still have it on the books, down from 38 at the start of this decade. It’s hard to be smart about some­thing that many peo­ple can’t think clearly about.

(R. Schultz, ​“Kill the death penal­ty,” The Palm Beach Post, December 20, 2009). See Costs and New Voices.