Delawarean’s experience with death penalty cases argue for repeal

Local activist Joanne Cabry has issued a call for death penalty repeal advocates to attend a hearing on Senate Bill 40, which, if passed by the General Assembly and signed by the governor, would end capital punishment in Delaware.

The hearing will be held at 2 p.m., Wednesday, March 25, at Legislative Hall. Repeal Delaware, however, is asking people to come earlier so that they can speak to their representatives.

During the last session, a similar bill, SB 19, passed the Senate 11-10, with two Sussex Republicans, Sen. Ernie Lopez of Lewes and Sen. F. Gary Simpson of Milford voting in favor. The bill was sent to the House, but never made it out of committee.

Support for repealing capital punishment in this session again crosses party lines, with Simpson among the bill’s sponsors.

Last year I wrote about my reaction to reading John Grisham’s nonfiction book “The Innocent Man.”

The book reminded me of the old Mark Twain line about how fiction, unlike reality, had to be credible.

Grisham, much more famous as a novelist, told the story of the real-life Ron Williamson, who was railroaded onto death row. A novel spinning a similar tale would have been derided as implausible and heavy-handed: There’s no way, we’d like to think, that law enforcement could display such contempt for the law or that the judicial system would go to such lengths to thwart justice.

As it was, Williamson and his alleged accomplice - neither of whom had anything to do with the crime - spent years on death row and narrowly avoided execution.

It’s hard for me to understand how anyone could read the book and remain a death penalty advocate.

At the opposite side of justice’s scale, we have the lurid tale of Robert Durst, heir to a New York City real estate fortune, who admitted to killing and dismembering a man, hiding the body parts and fleeing, but who was acquitted by reason of self-defense, a story unsupported by evidence. But what Durst lacked in evidence, he made up for in high-priced legal talent.

To paraphrase Jack Nicholson’s character in “Chinatown,” to get away with murder you need a lot of dough and a lot of class.

I realize, of course, that not all Delawareans would be persuaded by “The Innocent Man.” That case is from Oklahoma. We like to think that we in Delaware adhere to a higher standard.

But now we have another book, “Just Mercy.” This case of justice running off the rails is not from Delaware, but its author is: Bryan Stevenson, a 1977 Cape Henlopen graduate who now heads the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala.

People would be forgiven for expecting “Just Mercy” to be a heartfelt if soft-hearted polemic against the death penalty.

Instead, it’s a hard-headed legal thriller, all the more engrossing for being true.

As in the Grisham book, a horrible crime has been committed. A young woman from a nice family has been murdered. There is enormous pressure to bring the killer to justice.

Police wind up arresting a man, Walter McMillian, based solely on the testimony of a jailhouse snitch, Ralph Myers. Myers had first accused another man, but when he turned out to have a concrete alibi - he was in jail - Myers fingered McMillian.

That was bad enough, but Myers’ story also made no sense. It was a bizarre tale of McMillian forcing Myers to drive him to the crime scene, even though McMillian himself was perfectly capable of driving.

Worse, the state had no physical evidence linking McMillian to the crime scene. Its case began and ended with Myers’ testimony. Worse still, McMillian had multiple witnesses able to testify to his whereabouts at the time of the murder: a church-sponsored fish fry.

It took the jury three hours to find McMillian guilty.

(This brief account merely hints at how ludicrous the charges against McMillian were. The whole story is much, much worse. Read the book.)

No, neither of these cases happened in Delaware, but unless you think human nature changes at the state border, you have to recognize the obvious: We can make mistakes here in Delaware too.

As the ultimate punishment, the death penalty would require ultimate fairness in its application. It has been proven over and over we are incapable of doing this. The justice system is made up of imperfect human beings subject to political pressure.

Add to that mix factors relating to race, class and money, and you have an indefensible position. It’s time we in Delaware condemn the death penalty to its own demise.