Don’t let death penalty repeal bill die in committee

Last week, the state Senate passed a bill that would repeal the death penalty in Delaware. The bill now goes to the House, where, last session, a similar bill never made it out of committee.

In recent months I’ve mentioned two books, John Grisham’s “The Innocent Man” and Bryan Stevenson’s “Just Mercy,” that described miscarriages of justice.

Stevenson’s book in particular, because it deals with multiple examples, makes a powerful case against the death penalty.

A recent letter writer disdained what he called my “emotional appeal” against the death penalty. He said he “prefers reasoning.” He admitted he didn’t read either volume, but said I drew “the wrong conclusions from the wrong books.”

That’s one form of reasoning. Some people, however, lack the discernment necessary to judge books without having read them. For these people, I wholeheartedly recommend both books.

My column also mentioned race as a factor in the application of the death penalty. The letter writer, understandably, assumed I was talking about the race of the defendant. But I was actually talking about the race of the victim.

A review of death penalty cases in Harris County, Texas, published in the Houston Law Review, said “death sentences were imposed on behalf of white victims at 2.5 times the rate one would expect if the system were blind to race, and death sentences were imposed on behalf of white female victims at 5 times the rate one would expect if the system were blind to race and gender.”

These are facts. If you can dispute the facts, fine. If you can’t, you have to admit the death penalty is applied capriciously. The state, in exercising its vast power, should never act capriciously.

But that’s Texas, you say. We do a better job in Delaware. As it happens, Cornell Law School published, in 2012, “The Delaware Death Penalty: An Empirical Study.”

Here are some statistics for Delaware. From 1977 through 2011, the study found, a white defendant was equally likely to receive a death sentence whether the victim was black or white. Race doesn’t seem to be a factor.

The numbers for black defendants, however, tell a different story.

According to the study, “Black defendants who kill white victims are seven times as likely to receive the death penalty as are black defendants who kill black victims.”

“Moreover,” it continues, “black defendants who kill white victims are more than three times as likely to be sentenced to death as are white defendants who kill white people.”

Surprisingly, in some ways, Delaware has a worse record handing out death sentences than other states.

“Even when compared to southern states,” the study says, “the Delaware rate of death sentencing for black defendants with white victims is extremely high; it is 75 percent higher than the closest contenders, Georgia and Nevada, more than twice as high as that of South Carolina or Virginia, and more than three times as high as that of its near neighbors, Maryland and Pennsylvania.”

In all of those states, according to the study, the death-sentencing rate for black defendants killing white victims is more than twice that of white defendants killing white victims. In state after state, the numbers show, the race of the victim plays a huge role in determining if the defendant goes to death row.

How can this be defended?

And this is only one aspect of the system’s flaws. The death penalty, effectively, does not apply to people who can afford the best lawyers.

My own epiphany regarding capital punishment came about 20 years ago, when O.J. Simpson was on trial. Columnist Michael Kinsely, before the verdict was announced, wrote, “They will never execute O.J. Simpson. They will never strap O.J. down in the gas chamber, seal the door, and drop the poison pellets (California’s chosen method). Even putting it in those terms proves the point. It is unimaginable.”

Given that situation, Kinsely asked, how can we, as Americans, subject others to the death penalty?

Kinsely was referring to Simpson’s celebrity status more than his ability to field a legal “dream team,” but of course he had that too.

Last week, Sen. Gary Simpson, R-Milford, and Sen. Ernie Lopez, R-Lewes, showed political courage in voting for repeal.

But those votes will go for naught unless people pressure their state representatives in the House. Don’t let the death penalty repeal bill die in committee.