University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Law Faculty Publications School of Law 2017 Following Finality: Why Capital Punishment Is Collapsing under Its Own Weight Corinna Barrett Lain Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/law-faculty-publications Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Criminal Law Commons, and the Law and Society Commons Recommended Citation Corinna Barrett Lain, Following Finality: Why Capital Punishment Is Collapsing under Its Own Weight, in Final Judgments: The eD ath Penalty in American Law and Culture (Austin Sarat, ed., Cambridge University Press 2017). This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Final Judgments The Death Penalty in American Law and Culture Edited by Austin Sarat Final Judgments THE D EATH P ENALTY IN AME RICAN LAW AND CULTURE Edited by AUSTIN SARAT Amherst Coll ege University of Richmond AUG 07 201 7 law Library CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Un ive rsity Pr inting I lorrsc, Cambridge c 11 2 8Bs , United Kingdom One Liberty Pla1.a, 20th l' loo r, New York, 'IY 10006, US;\ +77 'v\lilli am slow n Road , Port Me lbourn e, vie 3207, ;\ustrn li ;r 4i:>+3h-f, 211d l' loor, f\ nsari Rm1d, Dmyagan j, Delhi - 11 0002, India 79 f\ nso11 Road, li o(i-04/06, Si11 g;1 porc 07<)906 Ca mbridge U11 ive rsit y Pre ss is 1x1rl of tir e Uni ve rsit y of Cambridge . It furtl1 crs tir e U11 ivcrsity's miss io11 by di .ssc lll inaling knowledge in tir e pursuit of cdu c;rl'i on, learn ing, ;md resc<nclr at th e highest inlcnrat io1ial le ve ls of exce ll ence. www.c;11 nbridge .org Info rm ati on 011 this tit-le: www .carnbridge.org/978 uo7155+80 IJ O I : 10.1017/978 1316658765 (\;) C<mrbr icl ge Un iversit y Press 2017 This publica tion is i11 copyright. Subj ect lo sta tut ory exception and lo tir e provisions of relevant· collecti ve li censing agree nr cnls, no reproducti on of any part llla y l<rke pl<J cc without· tir e wri tt en perrni ss ion of Cambridge Uni ve rsit y Press. First publi slr ccl 2017 J\ ntlalogue record fur !his /Jublica lio11 is available /iu111 the 13rilish Librmy Libre/I)' of Co 11 gress Calalogi11 g- i11 -P11blicaliim Data 'l,\\ll•:s : Sar;rl , f\ ustin , editor. 'l'J'l' LJ·: : l1i1wl judgme 11ts : tir e dca t·lr penalty in ;\111er ican law and cultu re I edited by i\ustin S;rrnl , f\1nlr ersl College. 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Contents List of Contributors /Jage ix Acknowledgments XI Introduction: Starting to Think about I• inality in Capital Cases A11 sti n Sara t Finality and the Capital/Non-Capital Punishment Divide 9 Cari ss a Byrn e 1-l ess ick 2 Following Finality: Why Capital Punishment Is Collapsing under Its Own Weight Corinna Barrett Lain 3 The Time It Takes to Die and the Death of the Death Pen~1lty: Untimely Meditations on the End of Capital Punishment in the United States 52 Jennifer L. Cu lberl 4 Grand Finality: Post-Conviction Prosecutors and Capital Punishment 90 Daniel S. Meclwecl 5 Existential Finality: Dark Empathy, Retribution, and the Decline of Capital Punishment in the United States 123 Daniel LaChance Afterword: Death and the State Jenny Carroll Index VI I 2 Following Finality vVhy Ca/Jital Punishment Is Co lla/Jsing under Its Own Weight Corinna Barrett Lain* Death is different, th e adage goes - different in its seve rity and different in its fina lity. ' Dea th , in its fin ality, is more th an just a punishm ent. Death is th e encl of our existence as we knovv it. It is fin al in an ex istential way. Because death is fin al in an ex istential way, th e Supreme Court has held th at spec ial ca re is clu e when th e penal ty is imposecl. 2 We need to ge t it ri ght. My claim in thi s chapter is that th e constitubonal regulation designed to implement that ca re has led to a se ri es of cascading effects th at threa ten th e continued viability of th e death penalty itself. Getting death ri ght leads to things go ing wrong, and things go ing wrong lead to stales letting go. l am not th e first to see how th e Supreme Co11rt's regulati on of th e death pena lty has led to its des tabi li za ti on over tim e. Others ha ve written abou t it.3 And severa l judges have now brought the conversation full circle, recogni zin g Special ilwnb lo Ron Bac igal, Ji1n Cibso 11 , and Mary Ke ll y Talc for co111 111 cnls 011 an ea rl ier cl ra fl , and lo I-l oll y \Milson and Zack Ma cDonald for their exc cllcni· research ass islancc. Beck v. i\l:1ba1na , 447 U.S. 625, 637 11980) ("As we ha ve oft en stat ed, !here is a signifi cant constilutional difference bciwccn th e dea th penally and lesser punish1ncnts. 'Deat h is a different kill(! of p11 11i slllncnt· fro111 any oth er whi ch 111a y be i111poscd in thi s co untry... Frolll the point of view of th e defendant, it is different in both its seve rity and its lina lil y.'" ). 'v\loodso n v. North c,1ro li 11a , .µ 8 U.S. 280, 305 (1<)76). For th e Sup re1ll C CcJllrt 's dcd1rnt io11S to lh is effect, sec text acco111panying nolcs 5- 7. Carol <1 ncl Jordan Siciker's work is parlicul arly nolcworl hy in lhis regard . Carol S. Siciker and Jordan M. St·ciker, "Enlrc nclllncnt and/or Deslabilization? J{ eAccl ions on IAno lh er) Two Decad es of Co11slil ut"io1w l Reg1d aiio 11 of C1 pil al Punislllncnl·," Law o· /11 eque1lity (2012): 211; Carol S. Siciker and Jordan M. Stcikcr, "Cosl and Capital Pu nishmcnl : A New Considcralion Transfo nns an Old Dcbai c," University u( Chicago Legal /iurum 12010): 144; Jordan Stcikcr, 'The Am eri ca n Dea lh Pena lly from a Conscqu enlidisl Perspeclivc," '/'exas '/'ech La w Hevie1v 47I1995): 21 4; Jordan Stcikcr, "Restru cl uri ng Pos t-Conviclion Review of J!ecJ eral Conslilulional C laims Ra ised by Sialc Priso ners: Confron ling ihc New J!ace of fo:xc.:css ive Proc.:c duralism," University of Chicago Legal /ion.1111 (i998): )20 . Polfv111i11g Finality: Wh y Cc1/Jital Punishment Is CvllafJsing under Its Oum We ight 31 th e constitutional implications of this ph enom enon. 4 But thus far, th e rol e of Fin ality has received little attention in th e discourse. This chapter aillls to give it its clu e. To make Ill)' point, T First di sc uss th e role of Finality in th e ea rli es t developm ents of th e modern dea th penalty era - constitutional regulation, habeas litiga tion , and th e ri se of a spec iali ze d capital defense bar to naviga te th ose complica ted strudures. Beca use dea th is {med, we need to get it right. Next I turn to th e effects of those developlll ents - a ma ss ive tim e lag betwee n dea th sentence and exec uti on, and with it, th e di scovery of innocents among th e co ndelllned, skyrocketing costs, and concern s about th e conditions of long-term solitary confinement on dea th row. Getting death right leads to things going wrong. Finall y, I exa mine th e cascading effec ts of th ose developments - fa lling dea th sen tences and executions, penological justifi ca ti ons th at no longer make sense, and a growing number of states concluding that capital punishm ent is lllore trouble than it is worth .