The Nation
Death Row
As of January 1, 2006, there were 3,373 people on death rows across the United States. Of those, 3,318 are male and 55 are female; 11 were sentenced for crimes committed as juveniles (under age 18). On March, 1, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to execute a person for a crime committed when that person was under the age of 18. Those juveniles whose death sentences were vacated by court order or other official action before January 1, 2006, have been removed from the state rosters, while the others remain.
| Race | Number | Percent |
| White | 1,531 | 45.39% |
| Black | 1,411 | 41.83% |
| Latino/Latina | 353 | 10.47% |
| Native American | 39 | 1.16% |
| Asian | 38 | 1.13% |
| Unknown | 1 | .03% |
The Moratorium Movement
Many Americans, including former supporters of capital punishment, are having second thoughts about the death penalty, and the moratorium movement has gained momentum in the last few years. Many states have instituted studies of their capital punishment laws and how they are carried out.
Most recently, the American Bar Association called for a moratorium in Georgia, having found that Georgia's death penalty fails to meet 43 ABA standards for improving the fairness and accuracy of the death penalty. Among their most significant findings were:
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Inadequate funding for defense counsel |
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Lack of defense counsel for state habeas |
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Racial disparities in capital sentencing |
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Inappropriate burden of proof for mentally retarded defendants |
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Inadequate pattern jury instructions on mitigation |
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Inadequate proportionality review |
What does the religious community say?
Nearly every large religious body in the
United States has a strong statement condemning the death penalty. But many
religious people are unaware that their group has adopted such a statement. And
very few have been challenged to discuss the issue.
Pope John Paul II has spoken frequently on the subject of the
death penalty; he is joined in opposition by people of many other faiths,
including the Orthodox Church, Quakers, Jews, and many Protestant denominations.
The statements from these various faith traditions demonstrate a number of
themes that undergird their opposition to the death penalty—that God is the
author of life, that the life of each individual has dignity and worth, the call
not to respond to evil with evil, and the call to be people of forgiveness and
reconciliation.
In April 2006 the United Methodist Church marked the
50th anniversary of its public call for an end to the death penalty. The
church's General Board of Church and Society recently issued a statement echoing
the sentiments of the church's original call for abolition and urging all United
Methodists "to practice transformative love, to comfort the victims of
crime, to humanize those convicted of crime, and to advocate for an end to the
death penalty in our criminal justice system."
Questions of innocence
Since 1973, 129 people have been released
from death row with evidence of their innocence—some within days of a scheduled
execution. The number of innocent defendants released from death row has been
steadily increasing over recent years. Between 1973 and October 1993, there was
an average of 2.5 innocent defendants released. Since then, the average has
increased to 4.6 released per year. Ten people were released in
2003. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, that ties a record set
in 1987, when ten people also were exonerated.
Twenty-two have been released from Florida—more than any
other state—but innocent people have been freed in 24 states, including
our neighboring states of Oklahoma, Missouri, and Nebraska.
Unfortunately, at least 23 innocent people have been executed
this century. Cases of mistaken guilt aren't as rare as we would hope. And some
states refuse to consider new evidence—even DNA evidence or another party's
confession of guilt—if it is submitted "too late."
On March 7, 2001, U.S. Senators Patrick
Leahy (D-Vt.), Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Russ
Feingold (D-Wisc.), joined U.S. Representatives William Delahunt (D-Mass.)
and Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) to reintroduce the Innocence Protection Act (S.486,
H.R.912) in Congress. The bipartisan legislation seeks to address problems
of fairness in the death penalty in order to avoid the risk of wrongful
convictions and executions. The bill requires states to provide qualified
and experienced attorneys to all defendants facing the death penalty, and
allows for greater access to DNA testing. Both bills began with record
levels of bipartisan support - 16 (4 R, 12 D) original cosponsors in the
Senate and 119 (19 R, 100 D) in the House. That bill was signed into law by
President Bush in November 2004.
What are people saying about the death penalty?
| Justice Harrison of the Illinois Supreme Court: Despite the courts' efforts to fashion a death penalty scheme that is just, fair, and reliable, the system is not working. Innocent people are being sentenced to death...legislatures and the courts appear to have abandoned any genuine concern with insuring the fairness and reliability of the system. |
| W. Walter Menninger, M.D., Topeka, Kansas: Capital punishment is state sanctioned revenge, an absolute and final direction of hate toward a "convicted" perpetrator. It places the state in a position of approving hateful action as a response to an individual's unlawful hateful action. We would do better to interrupt rather than perpetuate the acting out of hate. |
| Former Virginia Attorney General William Broaddus, once a proponent and enforcer of the death penalty: There's just no way I could conclude that the way we do this makes any sense. I have come to conclude that, in fact, we apply the death penalty in a very arbitrary manner. |
| Paul H. Kindling, M.D., Topeka, Kansas: Putting the gallows into a bottle, the guillotine into a syringe, requiring a physician to prepare and attend the execution of a human being can never be "humane." |
| Pope John Paul II: I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary. |
| Lt. Greg Ruff, Leavenworth, Kansas, law enforcement officer for over 20 years: Quite simply, if you believe in capital punishment as a deterrent, you believe in a big lie...Does the general public really want to deal with their fear of crime by spending tax dollars on measures such as the death penalty, which over the long run will not reduce crime in any way? |
| Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico, saying he will consider placing repeal of the state's death penalty on the 2002 agenda of the state legislature; he is a supporter of capital punishment, but believes the state could mistakenly execute an innocent person: I do think that death-penalty policy, as public policy, has flaws. |
| Justice Paul Pfeifer, a member of the Ohio Supreme Court and one of the authors of the state's death penalty law: As we stand poised on history's doorstep, I find myself wondering if it's a step that we really want to take. Should the state be in the business of ending people's lives, no matter how reprehensible those people are? Knowing what I know now, my name wouldn't have been on it. |
For additional information, see these other sites:
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Kansas Coalition
Against the Death Penalty
P.O. Box 2065
Topeka, Kansas 66601-2065
785-232-5958
kcadp1176@cox.net
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