Alabama - A Renewed Call for Moratorium and Reform

Last week, Alabama executed Darrell Grayson.  It was the 37th execution since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983; the second this year.  In November 2005, the Birmingham News ran a landmark six-day editorial series on capital punishment in Alabama, ending with a call for life:

But even the most ardent supporter of the death penalty shouldn't want to see the state
execute the wrong person for a crime. Most of us can agree, at least in theory, that a death sentence ought to be imposed only after a diligent legal review, only in a process that is exceedingly fair, and only against those who can be held fully responsible for their actions.

To insist on that isn't to coddle criminals. It's certainly not to devalue the lives of murder victims. Our belief is that taking a killer's life doesn't add value to his victim's life.

Indeed, we believe that taking life to show how much we value life - much like destroying embryos to get life-saving stem cells - represents a contradiction in logic that cannot be reconciled.

Life has value: the life of a microscopic smattering of cells, the life of an aging person beset by Alzheimer's, even the life of someone who has killed another.

In a death penalty state, The Birmingham News chooses life.

Sadly, the series does not seem to be available on the News' website now, and StandDown's coverage of the series is on a shattered server that went bad prior to our move to Typepad just over a year ago.  I do have the text of the entire series, however, and I'll be happy to forward to loyal readers who would like a copy.

It seems that last week's execution has renewed calls for a moratorium and much-needed legislative reforms in the state.  Since the publication of the 2005 series, an ABA assessment team of Alabama lawyers issued its report and called for a moratorium.  Coverage of that 2006 report is here and here.

Today's Birmingham News has the editorial, "Prosecutorial Discretion."

Shelby County's former district attorney has joined a chorus of Alabama voices calling for at least a temporary halt to the death penalty. Good.

Billy Hill has seen Alabama's criminal justice system from both sides of the aisle - as a prosecuting attorney and as a defense attorney. So when he says the state needs to take a breather on the death penalty, Alabamians and their elected leaders should listen particularly closely.

Not because Hill raises new reasons to object to Alabama's use of the death penalty. Hill's concerns echo what's been said over and over by people who oppose capital punishment and especially the way it is imposed in Alabama.

But Hill's reservations about the death penalty - which he expressed publicly one day after the execution of someone he'd sent to Death Row - are grounded in a breadth of experience most of us simply don't have.

Based on his experience, Hill said he would welcome a moratorium on the death penalty. He also said he questions whether the use of it "is a wise and humane use of our resources."

For one thing, Alabama allows the death penalty in more circumstances than most other states, and some of the criteria are based on silly distinctions that have no apparent basis in justice.

The Tuscaloosa News has an editorial today, "State's death penalty lacks safeguards."

Darrell Grayson, convicted in the rape-murder of a Montevallo woman, was executed by lethal injection last week without the benefit of a DNA test.

It’s telling that even the prosecutor who put Grayson on Death Row 27 years ago says the state needs a moratorium on the death penalty and the appointment of a study group.

The former prosecutor, Billy Hill, now is a public defender. He says he has no doubt that Grayson was guilty. But he also says there are capital cases in which defendants may have been sentenced unjustly.

There are many reasons for concern over Alabama’s administration of the death penalty.

The Grayson case spotlighted the fact that our state, unlike most others, does not provide DNA testing for people convicted of crimes before the science was developed. Grayson sought a postponement to allow for a test but Gov. Bob Riley refused.

On Saturday, the Birmingham News had an article, "Re-think death penalty, ex-DA says."

The prosecutor who put Darrell Grayson on Death Row 27 years ago now says he would like Alabama to rethink capital punishment.

The day after Grayson's execution by lethal injection Thursday for the 1980 rape-murder of Annie Laurie Orr of Montevallo, Billy Hill said he had no doubt of Grayson's guilt but still would like to see changes in Alabama's laws.

"I would welcome a moratorium on the death penalty and the appointment of a study group," Hill said. "I don't question that the state has the right to do it. I do question whether it is a wise and humane use of our resources."

Hill, 56, was the district attorney for Shelby, Coosa and Clay counties from 1979 until 1986. Today he is Shelby County public defender. The move from prosecution to defense has helped him change his perspective, Hill said.

And:

In some cases there is the question of certainty. Two guys on Alabama's Death Row have been exonerated. With the limited resources the state has available, so many are sentenced to death who have not had the benefit of top-flight representation," he said.

And finally, "in 30 years of observing violent offenders," he said, "I find three factors present in almost all of them: some kind of childhood abuse, either physical or sexual; some type of chemical dependence, either alcohol or drugs; and neurological damage."

The state needs to provide the costly resources such as testing for those problems if it wants to apply the penalty fairly, he said.

The News also had another editorial, "Just a test," on Sunday.

Most other states provide DNA testing for those who were convicted of crimes before the scientific method was developed. Why doesn't Alabama?

Darrell Grayson was put to death Thursday without benefit of a DNA test that would have at least shed some light on his role in the 1980 death of an 86-year-old Montevallo woman.

Gov. Bob Riley could have, and should have, delayed Grayson's execution long enough to allow for a test. He did not.

If there's good to come from this, it's that the case is a reminder of how Alabama's law has not kept up with the times when it comes to scientific advances in criminal investigations.

While DNA testing is routinely used when crimes occur today, Alabama is one of only eight states with no provision in the law for testing those convicted before DNA was developed as a method to identify perpetrators through their blood, semen or other body tissues.

Legislation has been proposed to establish access to what's called postconviction DNA testing. But it has so far gone nowhere.

And finally, prior to the Grayson execution, John Carroll, dean of the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, renewed his call for a moratorium.  Carroll had served as a member of the ABA assessment team.  The Birmingham News covered his remarks in, "Death penalty needs study, law school dean says."

"There are so many positive things happening in this state," he said, referring to economic development projects such as the planned ThyssenKrupp steel mill near Mount Vernon. "We may have a first-class state, but according to this report, we have a second-class way of deciding who lives and who dies."

Carroll said attempts have been made to talk to state officials about the study's findings with no success.

"We may make a renewed effort to engage some discussion again," he said.