Dan Abrams
From a special punishment to a garden variety one
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | It's supposed to be designed for the worst of the worst, recidivist criminals whose crimes shock the conscience - miscreants so evil and dangerous that no other punishment would suffice. In that context, I support the death penalty.
BUT THESE DAYS, it's gone from a special punishment to a garden variety one.
Prosecutors sometimes seek the death penalty just to get a tougher jury empanelled or to use it as a bargaining chip. In many states, prosecutors are expected to seek it for anyone associated with any killing - the getaway driver, the accomplice, even if he didn't know that his partner would end up killing someone.
Prosecutors under pressure to always seek death. Why is life without parole suddenly a softie sentence?
And while I support the death penalty, to deny its problem is to deny reality. A study released yesterday shows that in Maryland, the race of the victim played a big role in who received it. Illinois is reviewing all its cases after 13 people were found to have been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death. Those problems can be addressed, and I disagree with those who say the penalty should be unconstitutional or that all sentences should be commuted.
But my concern is, I just don't trust the way some of these prosecutors are making the decision. They seem to have lost sight of the fact that death is different. That the bar should be much higher. A penalty at the U.S. Supreme Court has called unique in its severity and irrevocability.
I shudder when I read about prosecutors taking pride
in the number of defendants they've sentenced to death,
starting little societies, wearing ties with nooses on them to
court. Prosecutors should stop treating death like just
another possible sentence and use it far more sparingly.
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JWR contributor Dan Abrams anchors “The Abrams Report,” Monday through Friday from 6-7 p.m. ET on MSNBC TV. He also covers legal stories for “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw,” “Today” and “Dateline NBC.” To visit his website, click here. Comment by clicking here.
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