The death penalty in : Time for Abolition is NOW

By Allen Ault wonder that a 2012 study conducted on the of view on other matters. Marc Hyden of the wellbeing of homicide survivors found that national group Conservatives Concerned Unjust. Unfair. Costly. Dehumanizing. those who lived in a state where the ultimate about the Death Penalty shares information penalty was life without parole fared much in an accompanying article about the recent These concerns reflect the reality of the better than those with the death penalty?” he inaugural meeting of that organization in administration of the death penalty. As such, writes. northern Kentucky. they lead to the same inevitable conclusion: It is time to abolish in The absence of change in Kentucky’s death “For pro-life conservatives who subscribe Kentucky. penalty law also means the state continues to the notion that the government shouldn’t to incur costs that exceed the resources that wrongly execute Americans and innocent It has been four years since an American would be required if life without parole were lives should be safeguarded, the death pen- Bar Association-sponsored assessment of the the maximum penalty possible. alty has become an untenable program. … use of the death penalty in Kentucky resulted Kentucky’s own track record is tainted by in a report that revealed serious problems re- An article elsewhere on these pages by mistakes. …The death penalty in Kentucky lated to fairness and accuracy. These included state Rep. David Floyd provides more detail. and elsewhere poses an undeniable hazard to an error rate of more than 60 percent, mean- “It’s counterintuitive, but taxpayers spend innocent life.” ing a majority of death sentences were over- far more on our system of capital punishment turned on appeal; caseloads far exceeding the than we would if the death penalty were not Finally, on a personal note, my opposition national average for public defenders han- an option. Every study undertaken in the to the death penalty developed as a result of dling capital cases; inadequate protections United States concludes that our death pen- my role in administering it five times. At the against death sentences for defendants with alty system is far more costly than a system in time, I was director of the Georgia Depart- mental disabilities; and no uniform standards which the maximum sentence is life without ment of Corrections, overseeing the execu- on eyewitness identifications. the possibility of parole.” tions in the maximum security prison where I had previously served as warden. These and other findings of the review by The additional costs accrue through ex- a team of Kentucky attorneys, former judges penditures by county jails and state prisons I oppose the death penalty for the reasons and law school professors were so numerous and the lengthy appeals process. “The vast articulated by my fellow writers and because and troubling that the report recommended majority of those who remain in prison un- I believe it is illogical for the state to teach suspending all executions until the issues der a death sentence just die in prison,” Rep. citizens not to kill by killing. I also am acutely were addressed. But that hasn’t happened. In Floyd writes. “We’re spending huge sums of aware of the heavy toll capital punishment fact, there have been no significant changes tax dollars on a system of death, but what we exacts from the individuals who have to carry in the death penalty law since the report was are getting is de facto life without parole.” out the sanction. As I have written before, issued. corrections officials are expected to commit These realities of families’ anguish and the most premeditated imaginable. That means the families of murder victims wasted public resources provide strong argu- must continue to live with uncertainty and ments for abolishing the death penalty – an Unjust. Unfair. Costly. Dehumanizing. the hardships inherent in our criminal justice action that 19 states and the District of Co- Kentucky must not wait any longer to join system. lumbia have taken through the years. Nebras- 19 other states and abolish the death penalty. As an accompanying article by Ben ka is the most recent, its legislature voting for Allen Ault recently retired as Dean of the Griffith points out, his brother’s murder led abolition in May 2015. College of Justice & Safety at Eastern Ken- to long decades of waiting for the system to Opposition to the death penalty also is a tucky University. During his career, he served work through appeals – forcing his family point of agreement among people with differ- as Director of Corrections for five Governors in to relive the horror of their loss. “Is it any ent, and often contradictory, political points three states. Death penalty not the answer for many victims’ family members

and Murder Victim Families for Human Mark S., Marquette Law Review, Fall 2012. Rights (MVHR). There are thousands of us Vol. 96, Article 3.) This difference in our By Ben Griffith who are opposed to this revenge killing. And wellbeing has every connection to the differ- as the momentum to abolish the death penal- ence in how long the justice system takes to My brother Chris was murdered on Sep- ty continues to grow state by state, one com- find final resolution. Appeals to life without tember 9, 1986, at a state-owned shooting mon thread to each new victory for abolition parole are resolved in a couple of years on range in Salina County, Missouri. His mur- has been the presence of murder victim fami- average. Compared to the decades-long av- der was the fourth committed by Donald lies who are opposed to the death penalty. I erages of resolving death penalty appeals in Reese on that day; Reese knew none of his can assure the commonwealth that we will be death penalty states, survivors in life without victims. My brother was shot in the back present at any legislative judicial committee parole states are more able to find a way for- four times as he was fleeing 75 yards from the hearing where a serious consideration of abo- ward. This is a big reason why I fight for the gruesome scene. As he sat against the trunk lition is on the agenda. abolition of the death penalty in Kentucky. It of an oak tree losing his life, Reese put a bul- is healthier! let in his head. I am aware of some victim survivor fami- lies who feel differently than I do about the So maybe with some of the money our Given the steadfastness of the notion that death penalty. I can only give them my un- state saves by abolishing the death penalty, the death penalty gives closure to homicide derstanding that I, too, have wanted the mur- better victim services can be provided in the survivors, most people would understand the derer to die. It is my experience that most commonwealth. It is certainly my family’s anger I felt when my brother Tim called me survivors become somewhat ambivalent to experience that we would be better served if at my Frankfort home in the middle of the the death penalty – for or against. The long victim services were moved out of prosecu- night with the news of his murder. Most decades of waiting for the justice system to tors’ offices and kept independent because people would understand how I would have work through all the appeals only rekindles we feel that the system for victim survivors is loved to have seen Donald Reese die right our horror to be relived. often too closely managed in the prosecutor’s then and there. And certainly for my first interests and not in the interests of the long- Many of us become weary of that anger year of living with the knowledge of how term health of survivors. Chris died, I had some feelings that justice and wish for some resolution so we might es- may be served by another death. cape living in the past and get back into life. My family was literally discarded and We don’t want to keep hearing all the argu- shunned by the prosecutor’s office when my This reasoning is often the final argument ments for sparing a life or for taking a life. parents announced opposition to the death that death penalty proponents will advance Indeed, the thing uniting all survivor families sentence during Reese’s sentencing phase. It after the many good reasons have been es- is the strong feeling that the only thing that was a small victory for abolition when the tablished on why the death penalty system is would ever truly repair our hurt is the life and judge gave Donald Reese life without parole broken and should be abolished. breath of our loved one restored. for Chris’s murder. However, for the other , a death penalty was issued and Re- My job here is to help debunk the notion Is it any wonder that a 2012 study con- ese was executed on August 13, 1997. His that all homicide survivors want more death ducted on the wellbeing of homicide sur- death made me feel victimized yet again. and that it is the state’s job to sanction our re- vivors found that those who lived in a state venge. For you see, many of us “survivors” are where the ultimate penalty was life without Ben Griffith lives in Frankfort with his wife, unable to support the death penalty because parole fared much better than those in a Patricia. He is secretary on the Board of the of our moral or religious convictions. state with the death penalty? (Assessing the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Pen- I now belong to two national organiza- Impact of the Ultimate Penalty Sanction on alty, a practicing Quaker and works as a profes- tions of other like-minded survivors: Murder Homicide Survivors: A Two State Compari- sional piano technician in Central Kentucky. Victim Families for Reconciliation (MVFR) son. Amour, Marilyn Peterson and Umbreit,

THE DEATH PENALTY IN KENTUCKY: • August 1977: Larry Bendingfield becomes • June 1997: Public Advocate Ernie Lewis calls A TIMELINE the first defendant sentenced to death after for a moratorium on executions. passage of the new law. His death sentence • June 29, 1972: U.S. Supreme Court holds • July 1,1997: Harold McQueen Jr. is executed was overturned, and he was retried and that the death penalty constitutes cruel in the . sentenced to serve 75 years. and unusual punishment in violation of the • March 31, 1998: becomes the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. • July 13, 1984: The penalty of life without usual means of execution, with exceptions for parole for 25 years is added to the statute • July 2, 1976: U.S. Supreme Court rules that those sentenced to death prior to the effective as another possible punishment for capital the death penalty for the crime of murder date of the legislation who are allowed to murder. does not, under all circumstances, violate the choose method of execution. Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. • December 1988: The Kentucky Coalition to • March 31, 1998: Life without parole as a Abolish the Death Penalty is incorporated. • December 22, 1976: Gov. Julian Carroll possible penalty for a capital crime is added to signs into law a bill that establishes death, life • July 13, 1990: The law is amended to exclude state law. or a term of years as punishment for capital certain mentally disabled persons from crimes. execution. (This does not include persons considered mentally ill.) The death penalty has been a bad investment for Kentucky

Additionally, counties are burdened with While money is only one consideration for all associated incarceration costs from cap- our justice system, it still is a serious consider- By David Floyd ture through sentencing. And in state peni- ation. Any professional audit would prove tentiaries, security and personnel costs are that the death penalty system in Kentucky “Just kill ‘em; it’s cheaper.” This from a higher than for other inmates. is a waste of taxpayer dollars, squandering friend of mine who, while accepting strong resources while other needs go unanswered. arguments favoring life without parole over The subsequent necessary appeals require Kentucky’s budget has been trimmed con- the death penalty, believed that execution more court time and cost more money. Yet, siderably over the last decade because of gen- was less expensive than housing an inmate for the vast majority of those who remain in pris- erally declining state revenue. Many Ken- life. His conclusion was based on a percep- on under a death sentence just die in prison. tuckians cry out for increased spending on tion that a suspect is caught, convicted and We’re spending huge sums of tax dollars on a education, health care, infrastructure, pen- executed, all within a couple of years. I love system of death, but what we are getting in- sion stability, but often the answer to such the guy, but that’s far from the case. stead is de facto life without parole. requests is: “We just don’t have the money.” It’s counterintuitive, but taxpayers spend Since 1976 Kentucky has prosecuted hun- Our gut reaction to murderers is, as with far more on our system of capital punishment dreds of capital cases and sentenced 92 peo- my friend, “Just kill ‘em.” There are those than we would if the death penalty were not ple to die. Of those 92, 56 died while in pris- who, without a doubt, did horrible things to an option. Every study undertaken in the U.S. on or had their conviction or death sentence another human being. But it cannot reason- concludes that our death penalty system is far reversed. Thirty-three remain on death row ably be argued that we reserve the death pen- more costly than a criminal justice system in today, many of whom still have pending legal alty only for the worst people since it is clear which the maximum sentence is life without challenges. Of 92, three have been executed. that we also convict, sentence to die, and ex- the possibility of parole. So the huge majority of death penalty cases ecute people who did not commit the crime. It costs far more to process a death pen- are reversed on appeal, while the state absorbs Consider our character as a people. Are we alty case from trial to execution than it does the entire cost of the trial and appeals. Usu- willing to execute the occasional innocent to house a 20-year-old man in prison until ally, the case is pleaded out to a non-death person just so we can kill the truly guilty? his natural death in his 70s. One study from conclusion – which defeats the purpose of If you can get past that (and I cannot), do Florida said it costs them six times as much. pursuing the death penalty in the first place. we really want to cling to a justice system that Studies indicate that for the trial itself, you Why is the death penalty a bad investment fails miserably, costs tens of millions more can increase by at least 50 percent – some es- for Kentucky? After spending hundreds of than effective alternatives, executes hardly timates are as high as 600 percent – the cost millions of dollars on the death penalty since anyone, and costs more than $50 million per of seeking death over what’s needed in a trial 1976, we are left with the following results: execution? where the maximum sentence allowed is life a) the majority of those sentenced to death in Momentum is building to abolish the without parole. That’s because of increased, Kentucky had their death sentences reversed death penalty in Kentucky. Legislation filed up-front costs: experienced attorneys (twice by the courts; b) in the majority of cases in in your General Assembly seeks open con- as many); additional expert testimony; more which the death penalty was sought, judges sideration in House and Senate committees. court time; extra investigators and mitigation and juries imposed sentences other than Please call your state legislators and ask them specialists; extra death penalty training; full death; and c) only 3 percent of those sen- to support repeal. post-conviction review; and special atten- tenced to death actually die from execution. tion to the possibility of executive clemency. Given the high cost of maintaining this sys- David Floyd, R-Bardstown, is a member of There is no way to cut back on these death- tem and the results it yields, is this not a bad the Kentucky House of Representatives from penalty-related costs. investment for Kentucky? the 50th district.

• July 15, 1998: The Kentucky Racial Justice • August 1, 2002: Larry Osborne is acquitted • January 2015: Bills to repeal the death penalty Act, which allows a defendant to use statistical and freed from a sentence of death imposed are filed in both chambers of the General evidence to show racial bias in capital trials, is in a trial in 1999. The Kentucky Supreme Assembly by Republican and Democratic added to state law. Court unanimously vacates his conviction and lawmakers. Bills calling for a study of the costs • May 25, 1999: Edward Lee Harper Jr. sentence and grants a new trial. of the system to Kentucky taxpayers are also waives any further appeals and becomes the • December 7, 2011: A team of leading filed. No hearings are held on any of these first person executed by lethal injection in Kentucky legal professionals issues a report measures. Kentucky. detailing nearly 100 areas in which the • November 21, 2008: Marco Allen Chapman Kentucky system of capital sentencing fails waives any further appeals and is executed by to meet a set of protocols of the American lethal injection. Bar Association to ensure fairness and just outcomes. Recommendations include a suspension of executions until problems with the system are addressed. The death penalty is an entirely avoidable government failure

By Marc Hyden

The Northern Kentucky Conservatives and appeals in capital cases along with the Despite all these problems, some still be- Concerned about the Death Penalty hosted heightened security on death row generates a lieve that it’s worth hanging onto the death its inaugural event on October 14 where a program that study after study has found to penalty to support murder victims’ fami- group of Kentuckians with initially mixed cost millions more dollars than life without lies. Unfortunately, their wellbeing is not emotions on capital punishment attended. parole. Capital proceedings have even been always considered when determining the ac- However, as the attendees learned how the directly responsible for tax increases in some cused’s sentence. Capital cases are complex death penalty is administered, many were counties due to the increased costs at the trial and protracted, generating an abundance of shocked by the repeated and egregious fail- level, which usually is the most expensive media attention, which forces victims’ friends ures in its application. Capital punishment’s portion of a capital case. and family members to relive the worst chap- reality really is offensive, especially to con- ters of their lives publicly and repeatedly. The servatives who value life, fiscal responsibility additional trauma often inflicted in death and limited government. penalty cases could be easily avoided by seek- For pro-life conservatives who subscribe ing life without the chance of release. Murder to the notion that the government shouldn’t victims’ families deserve better than this, and wrongly execute Americans and innocent Additionally, capital for this reason, many have concluded that lives should be safeguarded, the death pen- capital punishment is a complete failure. alty has become an untenable program. More punishment costs The death penalty is quite clearly broken than 155 individuals have been wrongly beyond repair, but capital punishment’s al- convicted, sentenced to die, and eventually much more than life ternatives are safer, cheaper and more ef- released from prison, while others have been fective. More conservatives are recognizing executed even though serious questions re- in prison without this point. Political and thought leaders in- garding their convictions persisted. cluding Jay Sekulow, Dr. Ron Paul, Colonel Kentucky’s own track record is tainted by the possibility of Oliver North and Michael Steele have joined mistakes. The commonwealth has executed the growing number of conservatives who three men and released one from death row. believe that the death penalty is neither use- Kentucky has sentenced dozens of people to release. ful nor necessary, and many have determined die, and 50 of those convictions have been that capital punishment is simply dangerous overturned on appeal for one reason or an- in the hands of our error-prone government. other. The death penalty in Kentucky and Marc Hyden is the National Advocacy Co- elsewhere poses an undeniable hazard to in- If taxpayers received something in return, ordinator for Conservatives Concerned about nocent life. Mistaken eyewitness testimony, then perhaps the conversation would be dif- the Death Penalty. He comes most recently prosecutorial misconduct, unreliable and ferent, but the death penalty provides few if from the National Rifle Association (NRA) falsified forensic evidence, and the fallibility any tangible benefits, despite the high risks where he served as a Campaign Field Repre- of human nature guarantees that wrongful and costs. Studies find no credible evidence sentative in the State of Florida. convictions will continue as long as the death to suggest that it deters crime, and some penalty is an option. states that have repealed the death penalty Additionally, capital punishment costs witnessed their murder rates drop. The death much more than life in prison without the penalty not only risks the lives of the wrongly possibility of release. The lengthy trials convicted, it fails to keep the public safe.

To learn more about the death penalty, visit the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty at www.kcadp.org. Contact the Coalition at 502.636.1330 or by email: [email protected]. The Coalition also is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KCADPKY and on Twitter at twitter.com/kcadp.

These articles initially appeared in The Courier-Journal.