Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 20, 2006 15:23:56 GMT -5
Death equity----Report casts new light on executions
Many Floridians have good reasons for supporting capital punishment, while
many others reject it out of hand. But one point on which most would agree
is that this ultimate power of the state should be carried out with utmost
care and fairness. To put to death an innocent person is as criminal as
the killings that those who reside on Florida's death row carried out
without conscience.
As Floridians awaited today's scheduled execution of Clarence Hill, who
shot to death Pensacola police officer Stephen Taylor during a 1982 bank
robbery, a report emanating from 2 years of study by an American Bar
Association committee was released for public consideration.
It offers our state a more sure-footed way to carry out this punishment
with confidence that the process is fair and accurate and minimizes the
risk of executing innocent people.
The numbers offer ample evidence of how high that risk is: Florida has
released more people from its death row than any other state - 22
exonerated since 1973 - with 392 Florida inmates still awaiting execution.
Nationwide, 123 have been released from death rows after evidence proved
their innocence.
The 8-member committee, which includes two Tallahasseeans - retired
Florida Supreme Court Justice Leander J. Shaw Jr. and Florida State
University faculty member Mark Schlakman, an attorney who directs the
Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at FSU - set out not to support
or oppose the death penalty. Its goal was to identify issues and problems
that should be addressed, from the assurance of competent legal
representation to changing clemency rules.
Florida is the 4th state that the ABA has worked with in assessing capital
punishment, and the recommendations here and elsewhere don't constitute
ABA policy. The ABA in 1997 called for a death-penalty moratorium so that
states could identify the recurring issues that should be addressed and
minimized. These range from creating ways to prevent wrongful convictions
to reviewing in orderly ways factual claims of innocence, studying racial
disparities and deciding what crimes should be eligible for the death
penalty.
Supporters of the death penalty such as State Attorney Harry Shorstein of
Jacksonville, a committee member, want to counter criticism of capital
punishment by administering it fairly and equitably instead of unevenly
and ineffectively.
The revelation in recent years of the importance of DNA testing, for
example, has perhaps done more than anything to open the public's eyes to
the unevenness of this punishment. Otherwise it has largely been an
emotional, often spiritual debate, one expressing values ranging from
mercy to vengeance and covering all manner of legal, financial and
practical concerns.
This 462-page Florida evaluation, along with those done in other states,
is largely administrative for the ABA, but it provides the underpinnings
for more dispassionate, informed and practical discussions among
policymakers, citizens, lawyers and civil-rights organizations.
Florida lawmakers, when they reconvene after the elections, would do well
to appoint special committees to scrupulously review this important
document. They need to see what applications are important and changes
necessary to make the law we have in Florida the best one we can have if,
in fact, the majority of Floridians continues to support it as our best
way of holding criminals accountable.
(source: Tallahassee Democrat)
Many Floridians have good reasons for supporting capital punishment, while
many others reject it out of hand. But one point on which most would agree
is that this ultimate power of the state should be carried out with utmost
care and fairness. To put to death an innocent person is as criminal as
the killings that those who reside on Florida's death row carried out
without conscience.
As Floridians awaited today's scheduled execution of Clarence Hill, who
shot to death Pensacola police officer Stephen Taylor during a 1982 bank
robbery, a report emanating from 2 years of study by an American Bar
Association committee was released for public consideration.
It offers our state a more sure-footed way to carry out this punishment
with confidence that the process is fair and accurate and minimizes the
risk of executing innocent people.
The numbers offer ample evidence of how high that risk is: Florida has
released more people from its death row than any other state - 22
exonerated since 1973 - with 392 Florida inmates still awaiting execution.
Nationwide, 123 have been released from death rows after evidence proved
their innocence.
The 8-member committee, which includes two Tallahasseeans - retired
Florida Supreme Court Justice Leander J. Shaw Jr. and Florida State
University faculty member Mark Schlakman, an attorney who directs the
Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at FSU - set out not to support
or oppose the death penalty. Its goal was to identify issues and problems
that should be addressed, from the assurance of competent legal
representation to changing clemency rules.
Florida is the 4th state that the ABA has worked with in assessing capital
punishment, and the recommendations here and elsewhere don't constitute
ABA policy. The ABA in 1997 called for a death-penalty moratorium so that
states could identify the recurring issues that should be addressed and
minimized. These range from creating ways to prevent wrongful convictions
to reviewing in orderly ways factual claims of innocence, studying racial
disparities and deciding what crimes should be eligible for the death
penalty.
Supporters of the death penalty such as State Attorney Harry Shorstein of
Jacksonville, a committee member, want to counter criticism of capital
punishment by administering it fairly and equitably instead of unevenly
and ineffectively.
The revelation in recent years of the importance of DNA testing, for
example, has perhaps done more than anything to open the public's eyes to
the unevenness of this punishment. Otherwise it has largely been an
emotional, often spiritual debate, one expressing values ranging from
mercy to vengeance and covering all manner of legal, financial and
practical concerns.
This 462-page Florida evaluation, along with those done in other states,
is largely administrative for the ABA, but it provides the underpinnings
for more dispassionate, informed and practical discussions among
policymakers, citizens, lawyers and civil-rights organizations.
Florida lawmakers, when they reconvene after the elections, would do well
to appoint special committees to scrupulously review this important
document. They need to see what applications are important and changes
necessary to make the law we have in Florida the best one we can have if,
in fact, the majority of Floridians continues to support it as our best
way of holding criminals accountable.
(source: Tallahassee Democrat)