Tag Archives: death penalty

Don’t Shoot

Utah has decided to bring back the firing squad. This decision was motivated by a shortage of lethal injection drugs, whose European manufacturers refuse to sell them to U.S. prison officials for the executions.

Screen Shot 2015-03-27 at 9.08.23 PMIt’s no surprise that European drug companies aren’t on board with the whole execution thing: the only country in Europe still executing people is Belarus (2 people were executed in Europe last year). In contrast, the only countries that use the death penalty more than the U.S. are Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and China. Woof.

The death penalty is on the decline nationwide; 2014 had the smallest number of execution in 20 years with 39 people executed, and fewer death sentences were handed down as well. Changing public sentiment may be guiding the shift. One widely shared concern relates to the alarming rate of false convictions: 150 people on death row have been exonerated nationwide, and the National Academy of Sciences estimates that 1 in 25 death row inmates are likely innocent.

But some experts believe that the decline is largely due to unavailability of lethal injection drugs, which became a significant issue for prison officials in 2011 when the European Commission blocked exports of all known lethal injection drugs with the explicit purpose of “abolishing the death penalty worldwide.”

Screen Shot 2015-03-27 at 10.20.59 PMSo what to think about Utah’s archaic “solution” to the shortage? Sister Helen Prejean, human rights leader and anti-death penalty activist, thinks it’s a good thing. “I think the firing squad is more honest in a way and transparent, that you’re actually killing a person,” she opined. “You’re going to see the blood dripping from the chair. I think, in a way, it’s more transparent. I think it’s going to help end it quicker.”

I agree that lethal injection seems to put an incongruously “humane” face on killing a person. But I worry that we’ve simply gone too far down the road of dehumanization to be much moved by watching someone get shot to death and bleed onto the floor.

Corrections officers, prison administrators, and even prison medical personnel have witnessed (and caused) incredible pain and suffering, both physical and mental, to people in their custody and dismissed it as faked, provoked, or deserved. A couple of weeks ago Missouri executed a 74-year-old man with severe brain damage for goodness’ sake. And, like every other problem associated with the criminal justice system, this is some racist shit: death sentences are more likely to be given to Black offenders, and they’re most likely when the victim was white.

Like Sister Prejean, I hope that this alarming move on Utah’s part will serve as a well-needed wake up call, but until we recognize the people we’re killing as people, I’m skeptical that society will be “up in arms” about it.

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Life until death: The numbers

1 in 11: The proportion of the U.S. prison population currently serving life sentences.

141,000: The number of people serving life sentences in the U.S.

29: The average number of years served by people sentenced to life in prison. This is up from 21 years in the 1990’s.

1 in 3: The number of people with life sentences who have life without parole.

2,000: The number of people serving life sentences in Mississippi. Also the number of people serving life sentences in Germany. (Mississippi’s total state population is about 2% of Germany’s total population.)

2,500: The number of people serving life without parole sentences for crimes committed when they were under the age of 18.

43,000: The number of people in California serving sentences as a result of “3 strikes and you’re out” legislation.

$19 billion: The amount of money California spends each year incarcerating 3 strikes prisoners, half of whom are incarcerated for non-violent offenses.

Life without parole is often gestured to as a humane alternative to the death penalty. But since life without parole has been increasingly used as a sentence, few potential capital punishment convictions have been “reduced” to life without parole. Instead, people who would never have received a death sentence receive more and longer life sentences. A lot of noise is made about the 3,300 people on death row in the U.S. Perhaps some noise should also be made about the 141,000 who have received the “other death sentence.”

Check out Marie Gottschalk’s excellent article on this topic for the Prison Legal News.

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