Death penalty decline in US may keep more black inmates alive

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A wind of change is sweeping across the United States of America. For the first time death sentences dropped to below a 100 in a single year, which is the lowest since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, leading some death penalty critics to say this will keep more black inmates alive.

These latest stats are a huge milestone for anti-capital punishment advocates who condemn the practice on moral and fiscal grounds, also pointing to the racial and class disparities inherent in the way death penalties are applied in the United States.

theGrio: From Troy Davis to Mumia – Have we turned a corner on the death penalty?

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), compiled the data. He told theGrio there is growing unease about unfairness, “the drop is indicative of the deep concern about the accuracy of the death penalty.”

“Jurors are hesitant to impose an irreparable punishment, which has had reverberations throughout the system’ Dieter says. “Judges are granting additional appeals, governors are granting stay of execution and clemency, legislators are abolishing or restricting the death penalty and even the US Supreme Court is applying more restrictions on the death penalty.”

Recent media coverage of the Troy Davis case — an African-American Georgia inmate — has also helped shape public opinion and shed light on a practice, which opponents say is riddled with doubt.

“There was strong evidence of his innocence but the system failed,” says David A. Love, a Grio contributor and executive director of Witness to Innocence, a national organization that supports exonerated former death row survivors, mainly African-Americans, and their families. Several key witnesses changed their testimony against Davis, yet despite this, amidst national outcry, he was still executed, Love says.

Executions, nevertheless, have also been steadily declining with 43 in 2011, representing a 56 percent drop since 1999. Developments in various states illustrate the growing discomfort, for example, in January the Illinois legislature voted to repeal the death penalty, replacing it with a sentence of life without parole. Kent Scheidegger, a legal practitioner and outspoken supporter of the death penalty, however, says the DPIC findings do not tell the entire story. “The data is mainly because of greater selectivity of say for instance prosecutors seeking execution or jurors less willing to impose the death penalty.”

“Polls consistently show the majority of people, about two-thirds, are in favor of the death penalty and this cuts across every socioeconomic group, except black Americans,” Scheidegger says.

In fact, he is right, the majority of Americans support executing convicted murderers depending on the “nature of the crime.” This year, though, the Gallup poll, which measures public opinion on the death penalty recorded the lowest level of support and the highest level of opposition in 40 years, with 61 percent supporting the death penalty compared to 80 percent in 1994.

Love says racial, socioeconomic and geographical disparities continue to play a role in death penalty cases. “This is not an accident, particularly when you look at the Southern States who are the most enthusiastic supporters of the death penalty,” Love says. “These states have a long history of lynching, racial violence and dehumanization.”

“African-Americans make up only 13 percent of the nation’s population” but “almost 50 percent of those currently on the federal death row are African-American,” said the NAACP in 2007.

Numerous studies also indicate those who murder whites are more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murder blacks. “Often those who are executed lack the resources to defend themselves,” Love says.

Scheidegger, however, believes, “For some crimes anything other than the death penalty is an inadequate. Love disagrees, “innocence is the most compelling reason for the abolition of death penalty,” he says. “You can never be certain that everyone who is executed is guilty of the crime.”

Since 1973, 138 people in 26 states have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence, according to the death penalty Information Center. On average, exonerated prisoners spent about ten years behind bars.

“Many of these people are still dealing with trauma, health issues, problems with gaining employment and a host of other challenges,” Love says of the fifty or so innocent former inmates who were condemned to die and later exonerated but are now supported by Witness to Innocence.

“One way to empower them is to get their stories and powerful messages heard across the country. Some people even change their minds about this barbaric practice after they hear their compelling stories.”

The “US stands alone” as one of the few Western countries that still uses the death penalty, which undermines the U.S.’s authority on human rights, Love says.

Despite this, he is optimistic the abolition of capital punishment is just a matter of time. “We are hopeful by 2025 the death penalty will be abolished,” Love says. “Our strategy is to work at state level with activists and various organizations; with the faith that one day the US Supreme Court will intervene to abolish capital punishment.”