by Vicki Schieber and Carolyn Leming
Feb. 16, 2007
The Gazette

We write as moth­ers who have been scarred by the death penal­ty.

Our sto­ries are very dif­fer­ent, but they are both sto­ries of jus­tice gone wrong. They are sto­ries that con­vince us the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem in Maryland and across the coun­try is bro­ken beyond repair.

One of us, Carolyn, almost lost an inno­cent son — con­demned to death for a crime he did not com­mit. It took 10 long years for the truth to come out and set him free.

The oth­er, Vicki, lost a beau­ti­ful daugh­ter — killed in a bru­tal rape and mur­der that ripped her away in the prime of her life. The pos­si­bil­i­ty of a death sen­tence in the case threat­ened to keep the fam­i­ly in lim­bo for decades, reliv­ing the crime again and again with every appeal.

Carolyn’s son, Ray Krone, spent near­ly four years on death row in Arizona — and a total of 10 years in prison — after being con­vict­ed of mur­der in 1991. Ray had been a mod­el youth, had spent sev­en years in the Air Force and had nev­er been in trouble.

At tri­al, the main evi­dence against him was pro­vid­ed by an expert wit­ness who was paid more than $50,000 but whose con­clu­sions were wrong.

The news that he was sen­tenced to death was almost too much for his fam­i­ly to bear. All had great faith in police and pros­e­cu­tors and were con­vinced that the sys­tem could not get a mur­der case so hor­ri­bly wrong. But it did.

And it has hap­pened here in Maryland as well. Ray is just one of near­ly 125 peo­ple who have been exon­er­at­ed after a judge or jury sen­tenced them to die. People can and will make mis­takes; undo­ing one after an exe­cu­tion is impossible.

Some say there are solu­tions to the prob­lems of wrong­ful con­vic­tions — more DNA test­ing, increased pro­tec­tions, greater care and scruti­ny by the courts. But it took 10 years of appeals for Ray’s inno­cence to come to light. And it is all of those appeals and pro­tec­tions designed to reduce wrong­ful con­vic­tions that make the sys­tem so incred­i­bly painful for vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers like Vicki.

Vicki’s daugh­ter, Shannon Schieber, grew up in Chevy Chase. She was 23 years old and fin­ish­ing her first year of grad­u­ate school in Philadelphia when she was killed.

After the suspect’s arrest, Vicki and her hus­band urged the pros­e­cu­tor not to seek the death penal­ty. They knew that if Shannon’s killer were sen­tenced to die, the death penal­ty process would drag on for years, even decades.

With each court deci­sion, the murderer’s name would have been splashed across the head­lines. As in all death cas­es, the sys­tem that promised swift and sure jus­tice would instead creak along for years, delay­ing heal­ing and pro­long­ing pain. The enor­mous amounts of mon­ey spent pur­su­ing the few exe­cu­tions that do hap­pen diverts resources and atten­tion from the ser­vices that would have real­ly helped Vicki and her family.

Some say there are solu­tions to the pro­longed suf­fer­ing of mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers when it comes to the death penal­ty — few­er appeals, less scruti­ny, a cheap­er sys­tem. But a short­er and cheap­er sys­tem means more mis­takes, more peo­ple like Ray caught in the sys­tem or even worse, exe­cut­ed quick­ly — before they can prove their innocence.

Separately, our sto­ries are a stark reminder that the sys­tem has failed. But togeth­er, our sto­ries prove that it can nev­er be fixed. For every reform designed to pro­tect peo­ple like Carolyn’s son, we add anoth­er year or decade of pain and wait­ing for vic­tims’ fam­i­lies like Vicki’s. Victims need jus­tice to be swift — but due process takes time, and when a life is on the line there is sim­ply no room for error or hastiness.

For these rea­sons, more peo­ple and law­mak­ers around the coun­try are com­ing to under­stand that these prob­lems are insol­u­ble. In just the last few weeks, com­mit­tees in Nebraska and Colorado passed bills to repeal the death penal­ty. A New Jersey com­mis­sion of law enforce­ment and vic­tims has rec­om­mend­ed the same.

We hope Maryland will also repeal its death penal­ty and replace it with a sen­tence of life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole.

Vicki Schieber lives in Chevy Chase; Carolyn Leming lives in Dover, Pa.