Coast to coast the death penalty system is on the defensive
Numbers tell part of the story. Executions reached a 10-year low in 2006, with 53 people executed, compared with a high of 98 people executed in 1999. Currently, executions are on hiatus in as many as eight states because of concerns surrounding how lethal injection works – and whether it is as painless and trouble-free as its backers maintain.
And by the time Lifelines went to press, legislation to abolish the death penalty had been filed in 18 states, with legislation advancing in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska and New Mexico and other proposals prepared to move forward in Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey.
Executions have been stayed from coast to coast, as Florida and California grapple with the question of how to prevent future botched executions. Other states also have stayed executions: Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina and Tennessee. Indeed, more than one third of the nation’s approximately 3,350 death-row prisoners are in states where a moratorium exists on carrying out the death penalty.
North Carolina, perhaps more than any other state, symbolizes the current state of affairs. There, state law requires that a doctor participate in executions. However, the North Carolina Medical Board has passed a guideline warning that any doctor who participates in an execution may face sanctions. Executions are on hold, perhaps indefinitely, while state officials study whether they can “solve” the impasse. In Florida, then-Gov. Jeb Bush, a death penalty supporter, was forced to suspend executions and order a blue-ribbon panel to study how they were carried out.
NCADP has worked with activists in many of these states. In Florida, NCADP called for a fair and open process as the state studies its lethal injection protocols. In Florida and in a number of other states, NCADP also has provided expert witness testimony shining light on problems relating to lethal injection.
In South Dakota, facing an uphill battle, NCADP assembled a team of seasoned professionals to oppose efforts in the legislature to “fix” the state’s lethal injection protocol. And in Florida, NCADP helped shine media attention across the nation on the latest botched execution – that of Angel Nieves Diaz, who died 34 minutes after officials failed to properly insert needles into both of his arms. After the needles slipped, Diaz sustained lengthy chemical burns on both arms and, according to newspaper reporters who witnessed the execution, suffered intense pain during the execution process.
“Quietly but definitively, brick by brick, the foundation of the death penalty system is crumbling across the country,” reports Diann Rust-Tierney, NCADP’s executive director. “The latest developments only underscore the fact that from start to finish – from trial to faulty appeals processes to failed execution protocols – the death penalty is being exposed as a failed public policy.”
And by the time Lifelines went to press, legislation to abolish the death penalty had been filed in 18 states, with legislation advancing in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska and New Mexico and other proposals prepared to move forward in Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey.
