Unless something unexpected happens, on Friday shortly after midnight, the people of Delaware will kill. That is the blunt, impolitic way to say that the state of Delaware, after a 6-year hiatus, will resume the practice of execution. As citizens, we must all take responsibility for the state's actions. Resuming executions in Delaware is completely contrary to trends across the country. Four months ago, on a bipartisan vote, Illinois repealed its death penalty, commuted the sentences of 15 death row prisoners to life without parole, and decided to use the taxpayer dollars saved to train police officers and provide services for murder victims' families.
Illinois followed New York, New Jersey, and New Mexico, and became the 4th state to repeal the death penalty since 2005, the last time Delaware executed. There are now 16 states without capital punishment -- the highest number rejecting the death penalty in more than 30 years. All indications are that this trend will continue. There are a growing number of states across the country questioning the use of the death penalty and looking at reforms. In 2011, 19 state legislatures considered repeal or significant restrictions to the use of the death penalty. Serious efforts in Montana, Maryland, Kansas, Connecticut and Nebraska will certainly result in one, two or all of these states abolishing the death penalty in the next few years.
The trend away from capital punishment is also reflected in national statistics: Executions in America dropped by more than 60 percent between 2000 and 2010, and the number of new death sentences imposed in 2010 was the lowest in 34 years.
Many states are turning against the death penalty due to its high cost. In a tight budget climate, it's tough to choose to spend millions of dollars on a chronically flawed death penalty system while taking funds away from such things as the police, schools, environmental protection and services for the victims of crime.
Many also question the fundamental validity of the punishment. For example, the American Law Institute, the leading organization in the country dedicated to improving the law, created the modern legal framework for the death penalty in 1962. In 2009, they removed capital punishment from their Model Penal Code, saying that it can never be administered fairly because the system is arbitrary, fraught with racial and economic disparities, and unable to assure quality legal representation for indigent defendants.
The Illinois repeal is an indication of another growing national trend -- a movement toward alternatives to the death penalty and an increased focus on murder victims' families and the prevention of crime.
Given our national economic climate, the general public also recognizes that resources used for the death penalty should be diverted to higher budgetary priorities. A 2010 poll conducted by Lake Research Partners showed that 61 % of U.S. voters chose various alternative sentences over the death penalty as the punishment for murder.
The same poll listed the death penalty last in a list of priorities for state spending after job creation, emergency services, schools and libraries, public health care, police and crime prevention, and roads and transportation.
As in other parts of the country, violent crime in Delaware has been steadily declining since the mid-1990s. Between 2008 and 2009 (the most current FBI statistics available), the murder rate here dropped over 28 %. Yet, Delaware has the largest death row in the country based on our population, the third highest execution rate based on our murder rate, and laws that allow the state to pursue the death penalty more easily and frequently than almost any other state in the country with capital punishment.
Do these circumstances truly reflect who we are as Delawareans and how we want our state to respond to violent crime?
We think it's time for all Delawareans to take a closer look at the death penalty and engage in a dialogue about its use. Is this how the state should be spending our hard-earned tax dollars? Does the death penalty keep us safer? Is it applied fairly? Does it serve the needs of families who have lost a loved one to murder?
Illinois aimed a spotlight on the death penalty in 2000 when it became the first state to enact a moratorium against its use. States have been debating the pros and cons ever since.
Isn't it time we joined the conversation?
Source: Opinion, Rosemary Haines and Tom Eleuterio are co-presidents of Delaware Citizens Opposed to the Death Penalty. Kathleen MacRae is executive director of ACLU of Delaware, and Janet Leban is executive director of the Delaware Center for Justice----The News Journal, July 26, 2011
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