The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial is, "Report cites numerous failings in applying death penalty," regarding the recently issued ABA Missouri Assessment.
When Gov. Jay Nixon spared the life of killer Richard Clay last January, he, perhaps unwittingly, highlighted a key shortcoming in how the death penalty is applied in Missouri.
Mr. Nixon decided that Mr. Clay shouldn't die for the 1994 murder-for-hire of Randy Martindale in Missouri's Bootheel, but he didn't say why.
At the time of Mr. Nixon's decision, a panel of distinguished Missouri legal scholars already was one year into an exhaustive study into whether the state's application of death penalty statutes complies with the American Bar Association's protocols to ensure fairness and accuracy.
That report, which was released last week, found numerous, serious problems with how the death penalty is applied in Missouri. Among the findings is that the last step in the process, whether or not the governor offers some form of clemency, is not transparent.
And:
Every man or woman on death row deserves a public airing of his or her case. Every decision regarding the state's immense power to decide life or death deserves a transparent process so that, at the very least, there can be public confidence that the ultimate punishment is applied fairly and accurately to the most heinous killers.
That is not the case in Missouri today.
In December the ABA issued its Kentucky Assessment Report. Today's Lexington Herald-Leader publishes the OpEd, "Prosecutors: Ky. capital punishment unfair."
Of the 78 people sentenced to death in Kentucky since 1976, 50 have had a death sentence overturned on appeal by Kentucky or federal courts because of significant legal errors. That is an unacceptable error rate of more than 60 percent.
Kentucky's justice system is at an historic moment. As a matter of basic fairness, we must pause to understand and reform the way capital punishment is administered in our state.
Each of us is a current or former prosecutor, some of whom have prosecuted capital cases in our commonwealth.
As prosecutors, we continue to believe that heinous criminal conduct must be punished severely in a way that advances public safety.
However, punishment must be a result of a fair process that produces valid results in which we have full confidence. It is time to suspend executions in Kentucky until the reforms recommended by a groundbreaking professional study are implemented.
Over the last two years, the American Bar Association Kentucky Assessment Team on the Death Penalty, consisting of two retired Kentucky Supreme Court Justices, a former chair of the House Judiciary Committee, distinguished law professors and bar leaders, conducted the most extensive evidence-based analysis of the manner in which the death penalty is administered in Kentucky in the history of the commonwealth.
It's signed by John L. "Jack" Smith, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky; Alexander T. "Sandy" Taft, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky; Stephen B. Pence, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky and former Lt. Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky; Marc S. Murphy, former Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney; Michael J. "Mike" O'Connell, Jefferson County Attorney; Joe Gutmann, former Jefferson County Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney; Scott C. Cox, former Assistant U.S. Attorney; Larry D. Simon, former Jefferson County Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney; Will Collins, former Letcher County Commonwealth's Attorney; Jeffrey A. Darling, former Fayette County Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney; J. Stewart Schneider, former Boyd County Commonwealth's Attorney.
The Kentucky Assessment on the Death Penalty is available in Adobe .pdf format at the ABA Moratorium Implementation Project's website.
Earlier coverage of the Kentucky and Missouri reports begins at the links.
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