2008 decline in U.S. executions has states reflecting on capital punishment

Death penalty proponents and opponents agree on at least one thing. Whether it proves to be a turning point or a footnote in the history of capital punishment in the United States, 2008 was a momentous year. The U.S. Supreme Court in April for the first time gave its constitutional blessing to the lethal injection method employed by most states and the federal government. But the year also brought renewed challenges and questions about capital punishment from across the country, and it ended with the lowest number of executions in 14 years. And the rush of executions some expected to follow that Supreme Court decision turned instead into a trickle everywhere except Texas, which carried out 18 of the country's 37 executions. The total was the lowest since 1994 and continued a decline since a 1999 peak, when executioners put 98 inmates to death. "Spending money on the death penalty is like building a bridge to nowhere," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "It takes millions of taxpayer dollars to arrive at a single execution 15 years after the trial." It is more likely, Dieter said, that death sentences will be reversed after lengthy litigation. The number of people sentenced to death in the United States also dropped in 2008–to the lowest number since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. State death sentences have decreased by more than 40 percent since the 1990s, according to the Death Penalty Information Center's year-end report. The federal system has been an exception, with federal death sentences up 50 percent during the same time period. Dieter sees the trend in state courts as a reflection of growing skepticism about the fairness and costs of the death penalty. But Dudley Sharp, a victim's advocate and pro-death penalty expert, said that the drop in new death sentences may reflect a decrease in homicides along with the reluctance of prosecutors to pursue death cases in states where judges tend to be anti-death penalty. In Missouri, four new inmates entered prison under death sentences in 2008, including Independence's Richard Davis. Missouri now has 49 death row inmates. In Kansas, only one new inmate entered prison facing a death sentence, bringing the total awaiting death to 10. Kansas has not carried out an execution since 1965. Missouri's last execution took place in October 2005. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of the lethal injection method, Missouri scheduled several execution dates, but court actions stayed all of them. Nationwide, more than 25 executions were stayed in 2008, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. A lawsuit filed on behalf of 17 of Missouri's capital punishment inmates is pending before the Missouri Supreme Court, which has scheduled oral arguments for Jan. 22. Although the courts have upheld Missouri's lethal injection protocol, the lawsuit challenges the way the protocol was adopted without the opportunity for public comment. State Rep. Bill Deeken, a Republican from Jefferson City, said he intends to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session to place a moratorium on the death penalty, so it can be studied to ensure that no innocent person is executed. "I'm for the death penalty," Deeken said. "But the last thing I want to see is an innocent person put to death." Several states convened commissions in 2008 to study the death penalty. Maryland's commission recommended that the state abolish it. A California commission found that it cost the state $138 million each year to maintain its death penalty system. State Supreme Court rulings in New Mexico and Utah also gave notice that death cases cannot be pursued unless legislatures provide adequate funding to represent indigent defendants. "At a time when states are cutting back on teachers, police officers, health care, infrastructure and other vital sources, citizens are increasingly concerned that the death penalty is not the best use of their limited resources," Dieter said. Sharp thinks that the coming year will see more states questioning the use of the death penalty. But he noted that despite a well-funded and organized anti-death penalty movement, New Jersey is the only state in the modern era that has abolished the death penalty.