[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., CALIF., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 5



TEXAS----impending execution

Death Watch: Conflicts of Interest----When your attorney goes to work for the 
D.A.


The state's death chamber fires up again after a year in which the total number 
of state-sanctioned killings (7) was the fewest since 1996, when former Gov. 
George W. Bush oversaw the execution of only 3. First set for strapping in is 
48-year-old Christopher Wilkins, convicted of capital murder in 2008, 2 1/2 
years after confessing to the shooting deaths of 2 men - Willie Freeman and 
Mike Silva - near Ft. Worth during a drug deal gone awry.

Several weeks before the murders, Wilkins left a halfway house in Houston, 
stole a truck, and drove to Ft. Worth, where he made plans to meet Freeman to 
buy drugs. Instead, Freeman presented Wilkins with a $20 piece of gravel and 
laughed at him. Williams testified during trial that he decided at that moment 
to kill his new acquaintances. During testimony Wilkins also expressed a desire 
to plead guilty, skip the remainder of the trial, and await sentencing. He told 
jurors they had a job to do.

Jurors took only 90 minutes to return a guilty verdict and sentenced Wilkins to 
death. Despite the verdict, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that 2 of the 
jurors cried during the announcement, while Wilkins mouthed "It's okay. It's 
okay." In 2010, the state's Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Wilkins' 
conviction.

Wilkins' appellate lawyers, led by Hilary Sheard, filed a federal petition for 
relief in May 2012 that claimed Wilkins' trial counsel conducted a "belated 
inadequate and cursory investigation" and violated his Sixth Amendment right to 
effective assistance of counsel. They also claimed their client suffered from a 
conflict of interest because one of his previously assigned lawyers had 
formerly represented another of Wilkins' victims: Gilbert Vallejo, whom Wilkins 
confessed to killing the night before he shot Silva and Freeman. They also 
argued that the original trial violated their client's 14th Amendment right to 
due process, in that the defendant was self-destructive and therefore incapable 
of entering a plea deal or standing trial. The petition was denied by a federal 
judge, and the Supreme Court declined a motion to stay the proceedings.

"Strickland took the case, but failed to reinvestigate the trial, and [he] had 
contracts to work with the prosecutor's office that put Wilkins on death row." 
- Hilary Sheard

A 2015 execution date was stayed in order to address potential DNA concerns 
with the case, and the execution was eventually rescheduled for this Wednesday, 
Jan. 11.

On Dec. 21, Sheard requested another stay of execution from the state's Court 
of Criminal Appeals, asking that Wilkins be given a full and fair review of his 
claims. Sheard cited the poor quality of capital habeas representation in "some 
Texas cases and the devastating consequences" such conditions have on the 
convicted. Specifically, Jack Strickland, who represented Wilkins at trial, was 
also assigned to be Wilkins' attorney during appeals. Strickland, however, had 
begun working for the Tarrant County D.A.'s office, which sentenced his client 
to death, before resigning from Wilkins' case. According to Wilkins' appeal, 
Strickland made public his plans to return to the D.A.'s office in May 2010, 
prior to filing Wilkins' habeas application, but waited until Feb. 2011 to 
withdraw from the case - after habeas had been denied. "He should have been 
appointed a new attorney, or at least been given a hearing on the issue," 
Sheard told the Chronicle. "Strickland took the case, but failed to 
reinvestigate the trial, and [he] had agreed to work with the prosecutor's 
office that put Wilkins on death row. Wilkins tried to fire Strickland 
repeatedly, but to no avail."

Late on Wednesday (Jan. 4), the CCA denied Wilkins' appeal. He currently has a 
petition for writ of certiorari pending with the U.S. Supreme Court regarding 
an absence of funding for reinvestigating the case and trial; SCOTUS has not 
issued a ruling on that, either. If the state moves forward with the execution, 
it will mark the 539th execution in Texas since the state reinstated the death 
penalty in 1976. The Department of Criminal Justice currently has 2 additional 
executions scheduled for January: Kosoul Chanthakoummane on Jan. 25 and Terry 
Edwards the following evening.

"For Law Enforcement Purposes Only"

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice filed a lawsuit on Jan. 3 in a 
Galveston federal court against the Food and Drug Administration and 
Commissioner Robert Califf, arguing the FDA has failed to make a prompt final 
decision on the lethal injection drug sodium thiopental. The 2 agencies have 
been in a standoff since July 2015, when the FDA intercepted a shipment of 
sodium thiopental being sent from India, arguing on three grounds that the drug 
shouldn't be allowed into domestic commerce. The FDA issued a tentative 
decision last April that "thiopental sodium appeared to be an unapproved new 
drug that violated" several FDA guidelines. The agency has not yet issued a 
final ruling. TDCJ is calling the delay "unreasonable." The suit states the FDA 
is exempt from regulating drugs that do not affect public health. The 
department considers its 2015 shipment aboveboard and in accordance with this 
exemption: The labels are marked "For law enforcement purposes only."

It's been a rough go for the state and its effort to obtain execution drugs 
recently, as more and more companies refuse to have their drugs used for lethal 
injection. In 2011, Danish pentobarbital manufacturer Lundbeck prohibited sales 
to U.S. pharmacies. Last May, Pfizer (the last FDA-approved manufacturer of 
execution drugs) established new rules preventing death penalty states from 
obtaining those drugs. The state has contracted with anonymous compounding 
pharmacies to get its supply of pentobarbital since 2013, but that supply has 
dried up. Sodium thiopental, a barbiturate that produces unconsciousness and 
anesthesia and works as a primer drug for a cocktail that kills inmates, was 
the choice sedative in Texas and a more common execution drug nationwide until 
the UK banned its export in 2010.

(source: Austin Chronicle)






FLORIDA:

Florida's high court takes puzzling turn on death penalty


Possibly showing its hand on the future of capital punishment in Florida, the 
state Supreme Court by a 5-2 vote on Wednesday forbid the state from imposing 
the death penalty in pending prosecutions, only to withdraw the order hours 
later as "prematurely issued."

The highly unusual move was made necessary by an "internal error," according to 
a statement issued by court spokesman Craig Waters.

But it leaves prosecutors in a troubling limbo, signaling that they may be 
taking a risk if they pursue the death penalty in murder cases at this time. 
One prosecutor said the Florida Legislature needs to act quickly to craft a 
death penalty law that passes constitutional scrutiny.

"These are the most serious cases we handle, and are incredibly emotional in 
the best of circumstances," said State Attorney Jack Campbell, who this week 
took over as the lead prosecutor for several north Florida counties. 
"Uncertainty in the law is terrible for the victim's families, for the 
defendants. It's very important to me they get this sorted out as quickly as 
possible, as definitively as possible."

Florida's death penalty law was upended as a result of a case involving Timothy 
Lee Hurst, who was convicted using a box-cutter to kill a co-worker at a 
Pensacola Popeye's restaurant in 1998. A jury had divided 7-5 over whether 
Hurst deserved to die, but a judge imposed the death sentence.

The state Supreme Court initially upheld that sentence, but the U.S. Supreme 
Court in January 2016 declared the state's death penalty sentencing law 
unconstitutional because it gave too much power to judges to make the ultimate 
decision.

The Legislature responded by overhauling the law, but rejected calls to require 
a unanimous jury decision in future cases, instead allowing the death penalty 
to be imposed by a 10-2 jury vote.

In October, however, the state Supreme Court voted 5-2 to strike down the new 
law and require unanimous jury decisions for capital punishment.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi promptly asked the court to reconsider, with 
one of her senior attorneys arguing in court filings that clarity is needed to 
"avoid any potential miscarriage of justice." Bondi's office also asserted that 
pending death penalty cases could move ahead as long as their juries 
unanimously agreed to the punishment.

Then in December, the state justices upended another set of capital 
punishments, citing a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that only juries, not 
judges, can determine whether evidence justifies the death penalty. That ruling 
made a group of inmates sentenced after 2002 eligible for new sentencing 
hearings, and could lead to them being released from death row.

On Wednesday morning, the high court rejected Bondi's request, and said the 
entire sentencing law "cannot be applied to pending prosecutions." But only 
hours later, this firm conclusion was withdrawn.

Lawyers for death row inmates and opponents of capital punishment have warned 
prosecutors for years that Florida's death sentencing law was unconstitutional.

Attorney Martin McClain, a veteran of death penalty cases, asserted that as of 
right now, there "is not a valid process in place" for death penalty cases to 
proceed in Florida.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

California rejects proposed new death penalty rules


Efforts to revive the death penalty in California were dealt another blow late 
last month when a state agency tasked with reviewing regulatory changes 
rejected a proposed new lethal injection protocol.

The decision by the Office of Administrative Law came one day after the 
California Supreme Court blocked implementation of Proposition 66, an 
initiative passed by voters in November to expedite capital punishment, pending 
the outcome of a lawsuit.

In a 25-page decision of disapproval released on Dec. 28, the OAL cited 
inconsistencies and ambiguities in the protocol, insufficient justification for 
some regulations and a need for further response to public comments. The 
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has four months to 
remedy the issues and resubmit its proposal.

The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Executions were halted in 2006 because of legal challenges alleging that 
California???s lethal injection method violated the constitutional prohibition 
on cruel and unusual punishment.

The corrections department began developing a new protocol last year that 
replaced its old 3-drug cocktail with a 7.5-gram, single-drug dose of 1 of 4 
barbiturates: amobarbital, pentobarbital, secobarbital or thiopental.

Among the questions raised by the OAL was why inmates would be injected with 
7.5 grams of a barbiturate when corrections officials acknowledged 5 grams is a 
sufficiently lethal dose. It also asked for additional explanations on a $50 
limit for inmates' last meals and why inmates would be offered the option of 
taking a sedative before the execution begins.

The majority of the decision focused on ambiguities in the protocol that the 
OAL said needed to be clarified. These included the timeline for steps taken in 
the days and hours leading up to an execution, how to proceed if an inmate does 
not immediately die, what sedative options are available and who must 
administer them, what proposed monthly "security and operational inspections" 
of the execution chamber would entail, and under what conditions a warden 
should raise inquiry into an inmate's sanity.

(source: Sacramento Bee)






WASHINGTON:

Governor defends reprieve of death row inmate, calls penalty 'unfair to 
taxpayers'


Governor Jay Inslee has called on state lawmakers to abolish the death penalty 
once and for all, calling it an "archaic" punishment that does nothing to 
reduce crime and costs taxpayers millions of dollars.

8 men remain on Washington state's death row after a 9th died Sunday when he 
went into cardiac arrest while being treated for an existing medical condition, 
the Washington Department of Corrections said.

Dwayne A. Woods, 46, passed away while under in-patient observation at the 
Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, Wash. He had been on death row 
since 1997 for the aggravated murders of Telisha Shaver, 22, and Jade Moore, 
18.

Woods' death came just days after Governor Inslee quietly granted a reprieve 
for another death row inmate - Clark Richard Elmore.

Elmore, 65, has been on death row since 1995 for the rape and murder of 
14-year-old Christy Onstad in Bellingham. Onstad was the daughter of Elmore's 
live-in girlfriend.

In an interview Wednesday on "Q13 News This Morning," Inslee defended his 
reprieve of Elmore and once again urged lawmakers in the state to change the 
law and put an end to capital punishment for good.

"It costs millions and millions of dollars. It is inequitably applied because 
it is not applied in the vast majority of the state of Washington ... because 
counties can't afford to prosecute people," he said, referring to the cost of 
capital cases. "So it's an archaic thing that needs to be changed and I've 
taken a position to respect what I believe is fairness in our system and 
justice for taxpayers."

In 2014, Inslee issued a moratorium on the death penalty, which prevents future 
inmates sent to death row from being executed while he is in office. Meanwhile, 
with capital punishment still on the books in Washington, some prosecutors 
continue to pursue capital cases - often spending millions of dollars to fight 
for a punishment that may never be carried out.

"The moratorium that Governor Inslee announced several years ago and the 
reprieve that he announced last week, they don't change the law and they don't 
change the sentences for the individuals involved," King County Prosecutor Dan 
Satterberg said Wednesday.

"It just, basically, kicks the can down the road for the next governor or 
governors who might have a different view. So, all the things that have been 
complained about - that it's too slow, too expense - are actually made worse by 
the moratorium. It actually takes longer now because we know for the next 4 
years we're not going to be able to carry out any sentences."

In 2015, Satterberg, on behalf of The Washington Association of Prosecuting 
Attorneys, called on lawmakers to send a death penalty referendum to voters.

"I think we want to know before we go down this road of capital ligation, which 
can take 20 years from the time a person is convicted to the time they're 
executed, is we want to know whether we have the public support to do it," 
Satterberg told Q13 News.

Governor Inslee disagrees. He hopes lawmakers will handle the issue on their 
own.

"What I would suggest is that the legislature change the law," he said. "It 
would bring clarity to it and that would be the best way to deal with this."

(source: Fox News)






USA:

Dru Sjodin's killer fights death penalty


The Dru Sjodin case continues as prosecutors asked to interview Rodriguez's 
trial lawyer under oath.

It's been more than 13 years since Dru Sjodin was kidnapped and murdered by 
Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr., a convicted sex offender. While a federal jury 
sentenced Rodriguez to death more than a decade ago, the case remains active 
today.

In 2003, Sjodin, a 22-year-old college student at the University of North 
Dakota, was kidnapped from a mall parking lot in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Her 
body was found months later in Crookston, Minnesota. Rodriguez, a sexual 
offender, was arrested. Because the crime crossed state lines, prosecutors were 
able to charge Rodriguez under federal laws - making his trial the 1st federal 
death penalty case in North Dakota.

In 2007, a federal appeals court upheld Rodriguez's death penalty and 
conviction. In 2011, new lawyers filed an appeal - arguing Rodriguez was 
"denied effective assistance of counsel," the trial featured "junk science and 
false forensics," and that Rodriguez is "mentally retarded."

On Dec. 28, prosecutors filed a motion to interview Rodriguez's trial lawyer 
under oath due to the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. The current 
appeal is almost certainly Rodriguez's last shot at avoiding the death penalty.

"This comes to no surprise to us at all," Linda Walker, the mother of Dru 
Sjodin, told Fox 9. "I think a lot of people don't understand that when people 
are on death row, they have only 1 hour a day outside their confinement ... So 
he really honestly has to sit and think about what's done, day in and day out."

It's difficult to estimate how much longer the case may last. On average, 
condemned inmates spend nearly 16 years on death row before they are executed. 
However, the statistics are based on state death row inmates, not federal. 
Federally, only 3 people have been executed since the federal death penalty was 
reinstated in 1988.

Condemned inmates are entitled to an automatic appeal, and another at their 
request.

(source: KMSP news)

***********************

Even Dylann Roof should not receive a death sentence


A Charleston, S.C., jury convicted racist murderer Dylann Roof of hate crimes 
last month, and now the only question is whether the state will put him to 
death. We oppose the death penalty even for the Dylann Roofs of the world. But 
if the jury disagrees with us, at least it would hand down the ultimate 
punishment in retribution for a truly unusual crime and without a shadow of 
doubt about Mr. Roof's guilt. The same cannot be said for many other cases that 
resulted in death sentences over the past several decades, in which the 
punishment was meted out too often, without the restraint that even 
death-penalty advocates should favor.

That is why we were heartened to read through the Death Penalty Information 
Center's year-end report, which came out Dec. 21. The group found that 30 new 
death sentences were handed down in 2016, a drop of 19 from 2015's historic 
low. In fact, 2016's total represents the lowest number in decades.

20 people nationwide were executed, which is the lowest number in 25 years, and 
only 5 states carried out executions, the lowest number in 33 years. As usual, 
a few states stood out. Texas and Georgia put the most people to death. But 
even in these states, attitudes may be changing: The death penalty was issued 
only 4 times last year in Texas, and no one was sentenced to death in Georgia. 
In fact, California led the pack in death sentences, with 9, 4 of which were 
issued in Los Angeles County alone. That's right: L.A. County equaled the 
entire state of Texas in death sentences. Ohio tied with Texas for the 2nd-most 
death sentences.

There are many possible reasons for the waning use of the death penalty. Over 
the past several years, anti-death-penalty advocates have attempted to sabotage 
the machinery of capital punishment, making it difficult for states to source 
the drugs they inject into the veins of the condemned. With crime rates still 
near historic lows, one would also expect fewer death sentences around the 
country.

But we hope the trend also reflects shifting attitudes. It has long been clear 
that the death penalty is extremely expensive for the government to administer, 
ineffective as a deterrent to crime and too often has resulted in innocent 
people being sentenced to die. The practice of killing human beings, even with 
all the due process in the world, is also in tension with the inherent dignity 
Americans should ascribe to human life. The sooner the United States gets to 
zero executions, the better.

(source: Editorial, Washington Post)

*********************

Judge refuses to move Fell death-penalty trial


A federal judge has rejected Donald Fell's request that his new death-penalty 
trial, expected to start in February, be moved out of state.

In the decision, U.S. District Court Judge Geoffry Crawford rejected 3 key 
requests from a change-of-venue request filed on behalf of Fell, 36, in 
October.

Crawford declined to move the trial out of court, citing a 2010 case, United 
States v. Skilling.

"In the Skilling decision, the Supreme Court rejected the presumption of 
prejudice found in 3 prior decisions on pretrial publicity in which the trials 
took place in a circus-like atmosphere," Crawford wrote. "No circus occurred in 
the Skilling trial, and none is likely in this case either."

The judge also denied a request to move the trial out of Rutland if the case 
couldn't be move out of state.

Lawyers representing Fell also asked that the court reject jurors from 
southwestern Vermont because they would presumably be too familiar with the 
case.

"Jurors with existing information and beliefs can be found in all three 
districts, and the disparities are not great enough to exclude a regional 
division," Crawford said.

In 2005, Fell was already tried and convicted by a federal jury for the death 
of Terry King, 53, of North Clarendon.

Police said Fell and his friend, Robert Lee, carjacked King in the parking lot 
of the Rutland Shopping Plaza in November 2000. The 2 men took King to New York 
state and killed her, police said.

According to police, Fell, at that time, was fleeing the state because earlier 
in the day he killed his mother, Debra Fell, and her friend, Charles Conway, in 
Rutland.

In 2006, Fell was sentenced to death but the conviction was overturned because 
1 of the jurors in the case had done some independent investigation outside of 
the trial and shared information with other jurors.

In a separate decision released Tuesday, Crawford rejected a request to dismiss 
the case based on the intent by federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty 
even through Vermont has not used the death penalty since 1954.

"This argument was previously made and rejected by courts in federal 
death-penalty cases pending in states and other jurisdictions which have 
themselves rejected the death penalty," Crawford said.

(source: Rutland Herald)

*********************

Dylann Roof: 'There's nothing wrong with me psychologically'


Convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof began making his case in court 
Wednesday, addressing jurors for the first time as they weigh whether to give 
him a death sentence.

"There's nothing wrong with me psychologically," Roof said during his brief 
opening statement.

3 people who'd been sitting in the section of the courtroom reserved for 
friends and family of the victims walked out while Roof spoke. One said, "This 
is all crap," as he left.

Roof, wearing a gray knit sweater and speaking so softly that people in the 
courtroom strained to hear him, told jurors to disregard the arguments his 
attorneys made in the earlier phase of the trial.

"Anything you heard from my lawyers in the last phase, I ask you to forget it," 
he said. "That's the last thing."

Prosecutor details Roof's jailhouse journal

Last month jurors convicted Roof of federal murder and hate crimes charges for 
the June 2015 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 
Charleston.

Now the white supremacist who killed 9 people at the historically black church 
is representing himself in court as the jury decides whether he will face life 
in prison or the death penalty.

Assistant US Attorney Nathan Williams argued Wednesday that a number of factors 
show Roof deserves to face a death sentence. Among them: the avowed white 
supremacist's motive, his lack of remorse and the shooting's impact on the 
victims' families.

"The defendant didn't stop after shooting 1 or 4 or 5 people. That's why this 
case is worse," Williams said. "He killed because of the color of their skin. 
He thought they were less as people. He wanted to magnify and incite violence."

The prosecutor presented new evidence, including a jailhouse journal that he 
said was written six weeks after Roof's arrest.

"I do not regret what I did," the journal entry said, according to Williams. "I 
am not sorry. I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed. I do 
feel sorry for the innocent white children forced to live in this sick county. 
I do feel sorry for the innocent white people that are killed daily at the 
hands of the lower races. I have shed a tear of self-pity for myself. I feel 
pity that I had to do what I did in the first place. I feel pity that I had to 
give up my life because of a situation that should never have existed."

The journal entry echoes racist statements from Roof that prosecutors presented 
earlier in the trial.

But the jailhouse writings reveal something significant, Williams argued.

Roof, the prosecutor said, is capable of remorse -- but felt none for his 
crimes.

Family, friends of victims testify

Also on Wednesday, the jury began hearing from people who lost relatives or 
friends in the massacre.

Jennifer Pinckney, widow of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, was in a nearby room with a 
daughter when the shooting occurred. She testified about her relationship with 
her husband and about the shooting.

When police arrived, a female officer told the daughter they were going to play 
a game, Pinckney said. The officer encouraged the girl to put her head on her 
shoulder and keep her eyes closed.

But Jennifer Pinckey was unable to avoid catching a glimpse of the scene. She 
said she was walking to the door when she saw blood on the floor.

"I felt sick," she said. "I leaned over and they rushed me out."

She believes she survived to continue her husband's legacy.

"He did so much. And he was so many things to so many people," she said.

Some family members of victims have appeared torn over whether Roof should be 
sentenced to death.

Roof also is scheduled to be tried on state murder charges, for which he could 
also be sentenced to death.

Only 3 federal inmates have been executed in the United States since the 
federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988 after a 16-year moratorium:

-- Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on June 11, 2001, 6 years after he 
killed 168 people.

[My note----MeVeigh received the federal death sentence for the killing of 8 
FBI agents in the Oklahoma City bombing]

-- Juan Raul Garza on June 19, 2001, 8 years after he was convicted of running 
a marijuana drug ring and killing 3 people.

-- Louis Jones on March 18, 2003, 8 years after he kidnapped and murdered 
19-year-old Army Pvt. Tracie McBride.

Few federal inmates on death row have been executed

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was the last person to get a federal 
death sentence. He's one of 62 federal prisoners awaiting execution, according 
to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit.

(source: CNN)

*****************

The price of death


The idea of capital punishment came with European settlers as they began to 
settle in the new world. The 1st recorded execution in the new colonies was 
that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. The 
death penalty has gone through various changes over the years, such as moving 
away from hangings and burning at the stake and moving toward more humane ways 
of ending life, such as lethal injections. More than 1/2 of the countries in 
the international community have abolished the death penalty completely; 58 
countries still have the death penalty. Capital punishment is usually reserved 
for the following types of cases: first degree murder, treason, and aggravated 
murder. 31 states in the U.S. have the death penalty and in those states, there 
are 2,943 inmates who are on death row as of January 1, 2016.

The death penalty, it is often said, helps deter crime, and brings about 
justice for the victims. It is assumed that criminals will think twice before 
they commit a crime if the punishment could include death. It can provide 
closure for many families and in some cases the victims, but many families are 
horrified when they witness the inmate being executed and they are left with an 
empty feeling, not the feeling of justice that many think they will receive.

The death penalty is often put in a good light as it is supposedly cheaper and 
more humane then a life sentence, but is it really? The average inmate spends 
178 months on death row between sentencing, multiple trials, and execution. A 
quarter of the deaths of inmates in the Unites States who are on death row are 
caused by natural causes. Cases without the death penalty cost an average of 
$740,000, while cases where the death penalty is sought cost anywhere from $1 
million to $1.6 million, depending on the state. Maintaining each death row 
prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 more per year than a prisoner in general 
population.

There are alternatives to capital punishment that not only cost less but also 
keep dangerous criminals off the street for their lives. On average, taxpayers 
pay execution costs that are twice as much as keeping an inmate in prison for 
life. Dr. Gross, a Creighton University economics professor, estimated that the 
death penalty costs states with capital punishment an average of $23.2 million 
more per year than alternative sentences. Life in prison guarantees that the 
individual will not be released back on the streets to commit more crime. It 
also does not require so many trials, so it is less expensive than the death 
penalty.

Support for the death penalty is shrinking. In 1936, 61% of Americans favored 
the death penalty and thirty years later the support had shrunk to 42%. 
Throughout the 70s and 80s, the % of Americans in favor of the death penalty 
increased steadily, culminating in an 80% approval rating in 1994. As of 2015, 
61% of Americans continue to support capital punishment, even though it is 
outlawed in 19 states. I believe that support is shrinking because cases that 
include capital punishment are often on the news and pressure can be put forth 
to close the case quickly and while cases may be taken out of the news, capital 
punishment cases are never closed quickly. Most Americans do not consider that 
we are a nation that carries out "an eye for an eye," and when other countries 
use the policy, we see it as barbaric. An example would be when someone gets 
his hand cut off for stealing, we do not do this in America but when we hear 
that other countries do, and we are horrified.

While the death penalty sounds like a good thing at first, once you dig deeper 
into it, then it begins to look ugly. It not only costs tax payers thousands 
more each year, but it also does not deter crime nor give families the feeling 
that justice has been done. Is death really the best option?

(source: Rebecka Edwards is a University of Central Arkansas 
student----thecabin.net)