Diann Rust-Tierney

A Tipping Point On The Death Penalty
In The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, author Malcolm Gladwell describes the process by which something unique becomes common. 

I’ve pondered lately whether the United States is at a tipping point when it comes to capital punishment. Just a decade ago the idea that the death penalty represents a failed public policy, and prevents us from seeking real solutions to our problems, was embraced only at the margins. Today, the idea is becoming widely accepted. Indeed, late last year the Gallup Poll found that a slightly greater number of Americans prefer the alternative of life without parole to the death penalty.

Polling data aside, signs that we have reached a tipping point and that we are heading to abolition are all around us. Last year 53 people were executed – down from 60 the year before and the fewest executed in a decade. An estimated 114 death sentences were handed down – against 283 in 1999. New Jersey became the first jurisdiction to enact a moratorium on executions through legislation; a study commission strongly recommended that the death penalty be abolished. In Illinois, a moratorium on all executions continued for a seventh consecutive year. In Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a moratorium on executions so that a special commission could study why a December execution was botched.

In state after state after state, executions have been suspended as we discover that a method of execution once promised to be foolproof contains its own chamber of horrors.

Although recent headlines have focused on the problems with lethal injection, the fact is that the death penalty is under attack from all fronts. Consider: 

• In Maryland, Gov. Martin O’Malley pointed out to state legislators that the death penalty has cost taxpayers $22.4 million above and beyond the cost of life without parole. “That $22.4 million could pay for 500 additional police officers or provide drug treatment for 10,000 of our addicted neighbors,” O’Malley said. “Unlike the death penalty, these are investments that save lives and prevent violent crime. If we knew we could spare a member of our family from becoming a victim of violent crime by making this policy change, would we do it?”

• In New Jersey, a report issued by the Death Penalty Study Commission found that the state’s death penalty, which has not been used in more than four decades, costs taxpayers more than life without parole and shortchanges murder victims’ family members who are further traumatized by the unsure nature of the death penalty appeals process.

• In North Carolina, state law requires that a doctor participate in executions. Yet, the State Medical Board approved a rule warning doctors that they face sanctions if they participate. The conundrum could lead North Carolina into a lengthy moratorium on executions – one that could extend beyond the state’s 2008 elections.

Thirty years after executions were allowed to resume in the United States there are as many unanswered questions today about whether the death penalty can be administered fairly and legally as there ever were. Should mentally ill people be executed? Can a jury really sentence someone to death without knowing everything about his or her background? Does newly discovered evidence of innocence matter? Can lethal injection executions be performed humanely, and what should a doctor’s role be?

Now, more than ever it is clear that the death penalty experiment has failed. We have reached a tipping point. Our job is to recognize this opportunity and push forward. It is time to abolish the death penalty.