The debate over the effectiveness and morality of capital
punishment in California has been revisited in recent weeks.
The media attention given to the December execution of Stanley
“Tookie” Williams and Tuesday’s execution of
Clarence Ray Allen, the 12th and 13th people to be executed by the
state since it reinstated the death penalty in 1977, has brought
this debate back to the forefront of the public’s mind.
And while neither Williams nor Allen should be the poster boy of
death penalty reform ““ no single person should be ““
they both got people thinking about a complex issue that will
continue to crop up every time someone is about to be executed.
Few issues in the modern political landscape are this divisive,
even among like-minded people.
And this editorial board was as divided as seven people could be
on any issue.
While it’s clear that the threat of capital punishment
isn’t a deterrent, it’s unclear whether it was ever
meant to be one.
And while the state-sanctioned executions seem like an
antiquated method at odds with civilized society, they do fit into
the moral framework the Founding Fathers envisioned.
Regardless of our individual beliefs about the death penalty,
this editorial board is reassured by the methodical legal process
required to execute someone in California and wholeheartedly
supports the recently proposed two-year moratorium on
executions.
During this two-year period, the California Commission on the
Fair Administration of Justice would compile a report on the
effectiveness of the justice system.
In the nearly 30 years since California juries received the
option to dole out capital punishment, the state has executed a
relatively small number of people (Texas executed 23 in 2004 alone,
nearly twice as many as the Golden State has since 1977).
In those same three decades, according to the Los Angeles Times,
14 death-row inmates nationwide have been cleared based on DNA
tests.
Based on the evidence of innocent people sitting on death row,
the governor of Illinois imposed a ban on executions six years ago.
New Jersey lawmakers did the same last week.
The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice
was set up two years ago and is currently examining cases that may
have resulted in wrongful convictions due to cracks in the court
system.
With nearly 650 inmates on death row, the state needs to ensure
it has a system that is completely free of errors before it makes a
mistake that nobody has the power to undo.
Regardless of the investigation’s result, the
commission’s assurance that California policies are
safeguarded against punishing the wrong person will make the
moratorium a welcome break from the midnight vigils outside San
Quentin.
The two years will also give people the opportunity to initiate
a legitimate discussion about what our society should be doing
about this issue ““ and not merely hold a last-minute rally in
an attempt to save one old man from lethal injection.