Executing Human Rights

The Death Penalty in the United States

ANNA ARCENEAUX “Perhaps the bleakest fact of all is that the death penalty is AND CHRISTOPHER HILL imposed not only in a freakish and discriminatory manner, but also in some cases upon defendants who are actually innocent.”–Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr., 1994

he administration of the death pen- tional Protocol to the International Talty in the United States has been a Covenant on Civil and Political Rights failed experiment that stands in stark calling for total abolition of capital violation of the right to life unequivo- punishment. cally provided by Article 3 of the Uni- Since 1977, over 1125 people– versal Declaration of Human Rights men, women, children (at the time of (UDHR), adopted in 1948. The drafters the crime), the mentally retarded, and of the UDHR contemplated eventual the mentally ill–have been denied their abolition of the death penalty, but it right to life by execution at the hands wasn’t until 1991 that the international of the State. The United States’ ad- community, in a complementary treaty ministration of the death penalty, in 36 to the UDHR, adopted the Second Op- states, in the federal system and in the

10 Human Rights Begin At Home Executing Human Rights The Death Penalty in the United States

military, continues to violate this basic that the race of the victim has more of to choose another method, such as human right. an impact on the decision to impose electrocution, if it was legally permitted The Death Penalty in the United States Though it presents itself as a bea- the death penalty than the race of the when the sentence was given. In Ten- con of democratic values to the inter- perpetrator. A study by the American nessee, Daryl Holton, a man who may national community, the United States stands alone among its Western neigh- bors in its continued application of the Though it presents itself as a beacon of democratic death penalty. In 2006, 91% of all known executions occurred in six countries: values to the international community, the United China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the United States. As of January 2008, States stands alone among its Western neighbors in the number of people awaiting execu- tion across the country exceeded 3,300. its continued application of the death penalty. With approximately 20,000 people un- der sentence of death across the world, Sociological Review showed that minori- have been mentally ill, chose to die in the United States maintains a grossly ties who are convicted of killing white the electric chair. The Supreme Court of disproportionate share of the interna- people are more likely to have their the State of Nebraska held that use of tional death row population. death sentences carried out. Co-author the electric chair is cruel and unusual In recent years, the United States of the study and Ohio State University punishment. has taken some important steps in pro- Sociology Professor David Jacobs said, Although the Supreme Court of tecting the right to life by barring the “[w]hite lives are still valued more than the United States recently ruled that execution of juveniles and the mentally black ones when it comes to deciding the State of Kentucky’s method of le- retarded. But until this country extends who gets executed and who does not.” 1 thal injection did not amount to cruel that right to all persons facing execu- Article 5 of the UDHR states that and unusual punishment, there is still tion, the United States will continue to “no one shall be subjected to torture or significant evidence that death by that violate this most fundamental of hu- to cruel, inhuman or degrading treat- method qualifies as torture. The three- man rights. ment or punishment.” The very nature drug cocktail which is delivered intra- The drafters of the UDHR antici- of a government putting a person to venously must follow a certain order. pated that racial discrimination would death before their body fails them is The first drug, sodium thiopental, ren- remain a human rights concern and, in cruel. This is not, however, the only ders the inmate unconscious. This is Article 2, prohibited racial bias in the cruelty or torture involved with imple- important because the next two drugs guarantee of all rights and freedoms mentation of the death penalty in the are extremely painful. The second drug, pancuronium bromide, causes paraly- sis. The third drug, potassium chloride, causes cardiac arrest. If the first drug Statistics show that the race of the victim has more of does not result in unconsciousness, the an impact on the decision to impose the death penalty paralytic will prevent the inmate from expressing pain when the second and than the race of the perpetrator. third drugs are injected–leading to a horrific and inhumane death. In Florida, Angel Diaz was executed by lethal in- set forth in the document. The capital United States. The very methods used jection. The autopsy showed that there punishment system is plagued with in- in the death chambers in this country were chemical burns throughout his equities resulting from racial prejudice. are degrading and inhumane. arms, demonstrating that the IVs went According to a 2003 report by Amnesty The state of Delaware used hang- through his soft tissue. In Ohio, Joseph International, African Americans made ing to execute Billy Bailey as recently as Clark cried out while being executed, up only 12% of the population but ac- 1996. Lethal injection is the method of “It don’t work!” He also requested to counted for 40% of those on death row execution used by most jurisdictions. be given something by mouth so the in the United States. Statistics show However, some states allow a person torture would end. The execution of

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Christopher Newton, also in Ohio, took tal murder trials therefore face not an These same judges campaign with a so long that he was given a bathroom impartial and independent jury of their “tough on crime” platform. Electoral break. peers but a jury biased to vote for death. partisanship has no place in the pro- Executions carried out in the Studies of jurors who have actually cess of deciding who will live or die and United States violate Article 5 of the served on a capital murder trial reveal clearly violates Article 10. UDHR’s prohibition on torture and cruel disturbingly inaccurate perceptions of The United States legal system punishment because they torture the their duty under the law. United States does not offer sufficient protections condemned. When holding the electric law is clear that there are no specific to prevent innocent people from being chair unconstitutional, Nebraska Su- circumstances under which the death sentenced to death. During jury selec- preme Court Judge William Connolly penalty is required. However, many ju- tion, in order to serve on a capital jury, stated, “We recognize the temptation rors erroneously believe that the death jurors are repeatedly asked to affirm to make the prisoner suffer, just as the penalty is required by law if the murder their willingness to impose the death prisoner made an innocent victim suf- was heinous or if the defendant poses penalty should they convict the defen- fer. But it is the hallmark of a civilized a potential danger in the future. Simi- dant of murder. Studies of capital jury society that we punish cruelty without larly, many jurors believed the death behavior illustrate that this process it- practicing it.” penalty to be the only acceptable pun- self persuades them that the defendant Article 10 of the UDHR entitles ishment for specific crimes such as the must be guilty, otherwise the court all people “in full equality to a fair and murder of a police officer or multiple would not be so concerned with punish- public hearing by an independent and victims. ment at this initial stage. Consequently, impartial tribunal.” Juries and judges The great majority of death pen- at the outset of the trial, before hearing fail to uphold this right to capital defen- alty jurisdictions in the United States any evidence, many jurors have already made up their minds that the defen- dant is guilty. This violates Article 11 of Nebraska Supreme Court Judge William Connolly the UDHR which provides the right to presumption of innocence until proven stated, ‘. . . it is the hallmark of a civilized society guilty. It is no surprise that since 1973, 130 people in 26 states have been exon- that we punish cruelty without practicing it.’ erated from death row. Strong evidence suggests that many innocent men have dants across the country. Any potential fail to uphold the right of capital defen- been executed and many more remain juror asked to serve on a capital trial dants to an impartial tribunal through on death row across the country. must undergo the process of “death the election of its judiciary. In the capi- Philip Alston, the United Nations qualification,” meaning that they must tal punishment context, this violation Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, be able to consider death as a punish- manifests most troublingly in states summary, or arbitrary executions, ment. United States Supreme Court like Alabama and Florida, where the recently examined the death penalty jurisprudence provides that any juror judge has authority to override a jury’s system in the United States, concen- who will be substantially impaired in his recommended sentence of life impris- trating on the states of Texas, with the ability to impose the death penalty may onment. The increasingly partisan in- highest number of executions in the be excluded from service. What results terests in judicial campaigns, in the country, and Alabama, with the most is a systematic exclusion of jurors who words of former U.S. Supreme Court death sentences per capita. In those oppose the death penalty and a jury Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, “threat- states, Alston noted particularly egre- stacked towards conviction and death. en the integrity of judicial selection.” gious violations: defendants regularly By virtue of their views on the death The practice of judicial override is par- lack adequate legal counsel, the sys- penalty, certain religious groups are ticularly troubling in Alabama, where tem of selecting judges through the systematically disenfranchised from approximately 20% of Alabama’s death electoral process is defective, and the service on death penalty trials, and peo- row inmates were sentenced to death states show no sense of urgency in re- ple of color continue to be routinely ex- by an elected judge after a jury had rec- forming their blatantly flawed criminal cluded from service on capital juries for ommended–sometimes unanimously– justice systems. Alston also noted that pretextual reasons. Defendants in capi- that the defendant be sentenced to life. procedural barriers in the federal legal

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