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Spotlight on death penalty lays bare its many flaws
January 13, 2008 The U.S. Supreme Court is examining whether lethal injection of the three-drug variety, like Tennessee's, is cruel and unusual punishment. Many of us wouldn't worry whether, while being executed, a murderer might experience excruciating pain. Most of us, thankfully, have no reason to investigate any further than that. My mother was beaten to death; because of this tragedy, my family and I are among the unfortunate few who must wrestle directly with the death penalty and its details. Are we like the monster that murdered my mother? We seek justice, but would we want to inflict terrible pain on a man already confined and controlled? The lethal injection protocol is just one detail when we consider the larger question: After the third full decade of our modern-day experiment with capital punishment, is momentum in the U.S. and in Tennessee moving, decidedly and irreversibly, toward repeal of death penalty statutes? Our behavior, nationally and in Tennessee, shows "buyer's remorse" has set in. Executions and death sentences have dropped steadily from their 1990s highs. Illinois imposed a moratorium on executions after numerous cases of wrongful convictions were revealed. Other states followed suit, either with moratoriums or, like Tennessee, with study commissions. New Jersey repealed the death penalty in late 2007. The more we Americans
learn about how the death penalty system works, the more we look at the
important details and the more we move away from capital punishment. What are we learning? First, we're learning about innocence. From 1977 through 2007, 126 people were freed from an illegitimate sentence of death after evidence of innocence came to light, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. In Tennessee, after more than two decades of being an innocent man on death row, Paul House is still waiting for freedom from his death sentence. What are we learning from House's case? Second, we're learning about cost. Contrary to popular mythology, death sentences with all their complexity and bureaucracies cost millions of dollars more to implement than alternatives to death. In Tennessee, our legislature just opened facing a budget shortfall. Can we afford our costly death penalty? Thirdly, we are hearing more from the people most affected by the death penalty. Family members who have lost loved ones to violence and oppose the death penalty are speaking out here in Nashville and across the country. Law enforcement officials and district attorneys have spoken out against the death penalty as a costly diversion of tax dollars and as an ineffective deterrent. What do these voices teach us? The U.S. Supreme Court will issue its ruling in the lethal injection case. That ruling, while important, will focus on one detail of the way we carry out the death penalty. Yet the question will remain: When we look back upon the country's 31-year experiment with capital punishment, what have we learned? And what will we, in Tennessee, do about it?
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