Democracy in America | The death penalty

Worse than Texas

The execution capital of America

By E.G. | AUSTIN

AS A follow-up to last week's discussion on the death penalty, I wanted to highlight a new report (pdf) from the Equal Justice Initiative. I hadn't realised this, but in per-capita terms, Alabama beats the notoriously intransigent Texas in both death sentences and executions, and a unique feature of their system is judicial override. That is, in Alabama judges, who are elected, can override the verdict of the jury and change a life-without-parole sentence to death.

Since 1976, when America's death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court, judges have handed down nearly 100 death sentences by overriding jury decisions. Alabama is the only state that allows this. (Delaware and Florida allow for judicial override, but subject to stricter provisions and almost always in the opposite direction—commuting death to life without parole.) "Because Alabama judges continue to have virtually unfettered discretion in overriding jury sentencing verdicts," the report explains, "there is haphazard and inconsistent application of the ultimate sanction." I like Alabama. Lovely state. But I do get a little squeamish when I hear about judges with "virtually unfettered discretion" about life and death decisions.

Would any of the death-penalty enthusiasts among our commenters care to defend this system? It seems a little bit capricious and unnecessary. Surely if a jury has decided that the death penalty isn't necessary for catharsis or public safety or any of the other supposed functions of the death penalty, there isn't any need for the judge to step in and tell them otherwise. As a more general response to last week's comments, I understand the argument that people sentenced to death aren't getting any worse than they've given the world. Still, I think that the state could and should be held to a slightly higher standard of behaviour than that which we expect from people who are literally deemed worthy of being killed like animals. What can I say? I'm an inveterate optimist.

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