2009 and the Death Penalty

A brief overview of the death penalty in the US last year

2009 was a turbulent year for the death penalty. Between the economic crisis, the botched execution of Romell Broom and, of course, the uproar over the execution of the recently-deemed-innocent Todd Willingham, eleven states considered abolishing the death penalty, with one actually doing so.

2009 had the fewest death sentences since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 – only 106 new inmates were sent to death row compared to the 111 sentences in 2008, and the incredible 328 sentences of death in 1994. The number of death sentences has been steadily declining for 7 years now. The drop is especially noticeable in Texas – this year, only 9 death sentences were passed as opposed to the average of 34 per year during the 90’s. Only 11 of the 35 states upholding the death penalty carried out an execution in 2009.

The decline can mostly be attributed to the economic crisis. With states facing severe budget deficits, the cost of pursuing even one capital case almost certainly swayed some prosecutors from seeking the death penalty. In a national poll released in 2009, the nation’s police ranked the death penalty last in their priorities for effective crime reduction, as they did not believe it acted as deterrent to murder and thought it was one of the least efficient uses of tax dollars in the fight against crime.

Despite this, the number of actual executions rose since 2008 (probably due to the 4 month long de facto moratorium of 2008 when the Supreme Court addressed the controversy surrounding lethal injection). 52 inmates, all male, were executed in the United States in 2009, 51 by lethal injection and one via the electric chair. Only 37 sentences were carried out the previous year. The Southern states accounted for 45 out of 52 executions (87%), with Texas alone carrying out 24 of these (46% of the total executions for 2009). The Midwest can be blamed for the other 13% of the executions, with none taking place in the West or Northeast.

Of the eleven states which considered dropping the death penalty, only one actually did. In March, New Mexico became only the 15th state to end the death penalty, leaving 35 states upholding it.

2009 also had the second highest number of exonerations since the death penalty was reinstated. Nine men who had been sentenced to death were exonerated and freed, having spent a combined 121 years in prison between receiving their death sentences and being exonerated. This brings the total number of exonerations since 1973 to 139.

On August 17th 2009, the Court ordered a new evidentiary hearing for Troy Davis, an inmate on death row in Georgia. The case had drawn worldwide attention due to new evidence which suggested his innocence and stayed his execution. It was the first time in nearly 50 years that the Court favorably responded to a petition sent directly to them, rather than as an appeal from lower courts. Only two Justices were writing in opposition so the court ordered a lower federal court to the hear Davis’s evidence.

Since the man’s original conviction in 1991, at least 7 eyewitnesses against Davis have retracted their testimony. Significant new evidence points to another suspect as the actual killer. Justice Stevens, with Justice Breyer and Justice Ginsburg agreeing, wrote:

“The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly
provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing.”

Despite such hopeful developments in the issue of innocence for Troy Davis, 2009 has provided the first solid proof that an innocent man has indeed been executed. Cameron Todd Willingham (pictured above) was executed on February 17th 2004 after being found guilty of starting the fire which killed his 3 daughters in his home in Corsicana, Texas, in 1991. But in 2009, a prominent forensic scientist commissioned by a state legislative panel reported that the evidence of arson that was used to convict and sentence Willingham to death failed to show any crime had been committed. This report concurred with similar reports on the case from leading forensic scientists commissioned by the Chicago Tribune and the Innocent Project. Willingham’s jury was misled by faulty evidence to believe that he set the fire which killed his children. The Governor, Rick Perry, has been accused of covering up the investigation of whether or not Texas has indeed executed an innocent man until after the March 2010 primary election. Perry had denied clemency for Willingham despite reports stating his innocence surfacing as early as January of 2004.
June 2nd 2009 was the date that the 200th person was executed in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in December 2000.

October 2009 also saw hundreds of people converge on the Texas capitol in Austin to call for abolition of the death penalty in Texas during the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. The skies were blue and enthusiasm was high as told over 500 people, including myself, took part in the march which was the largest rally against the death penalty in Texas since

2000. The March included the delivery of a petition to Rick Perry that was signed by over 6000 people calling for a complete investigation into Todd Willingham’s case and an overall moratorium on executions. Special guests included 3 innocent and exonerated former death row inmates, the pen-pal of Todd Willingham who first investigated his innocence, and the man’s last lawyer, Walter Reaves.

And of course I didn't forget, 2009 marked the creation of Stardoll's first (and sort of only) organization dedicated to the abolition of the death penalty. Death Watch; Stardoll currently has over 360 supporters and is growing fast. We plan to keep up the good work in the New Year!

2009 is done and dusted and now all we can do is look to the future and hope that changing attitudes surrounding the death penalty are maintained over the coming year. With more and more leaders concluding that the death penalty is a wasteful and expensive part of a broken system badly in need of reassessment, it seems clear that if an end does come to the death penalty it will be due to money. For now, all we can do is sit back and hope that such opinions don’t vanish as soon as the economic crisis is over.

Data compiled and written by ScofieldBurrows and ..Dark_Angel..

Sourced from: The Death Penalty Information Centre, Texas Monatorium Network, Death Watch International, and Death Penalty News.