Death Penalty is Costly, Risky, Unfair and Unnecessary

Death Penalty

Declare a Moratorium on Executions in Kentucky Pending a Determination Whether the Death Penalty is Fair, Effective and Necessary
The death penalty is too risky, too costly and too broke to fix. Capital punishment is unfair and out of step with modern thinking. No randomly selected jury in Kentucky would impose it.

The modern history of capital punishment in Kentucky is simple, unusual and cruel. Since 1962, there has been one execution, Harold McQueen (1997) and two state assisted suicides, Eddie Lee Harper (1999) and Marco Chapman (2008). And the prosecutor in the 1962 execution, the distinguished Kentucky Chief Justice William Palmore, 89, said of the death penalty in a 2007 interview:

I'm not so hot for it anymore," "I don't know that it accomplishes anything. [Courier Journal, March 12, 2007).

Kentucky jurors rarely impose the death penalty. Since only jurors who support the death penalty sit on the jury, this sentencing pattern provides a compelling, if not conclusive, indication that capital punishment is contrary to the evolving standard of decency in Kentucky and therefore cruel punishment as a matter or law.

United States Supreme Court Justice Stevens applied his independent judgment, based on his exposure to cases in which the death penalty was authorized, to conclude

… the death penalty represents the pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal contributions to any discernable social or public purposes. A penalty with such negligible returns to the State [is] patently excessive and cruel and unusual punishment…. Baze v Rees, 2008.

Conclusion

The death penalty is costly, risky, unfair and unnecessary. In the last 46 years, three people have died on death row. Two requested execution. The last study of the death penalty in Kentucky made almost 40 years ago recommended it be abolished.

A moratorium should be declared to determine whether the death penalty is too broke to fix.


DV
January 7, 2009