Last week there were two additional reversals of Kentucky death
sentences.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
reversed Roger Wheeler’s death sentence. The February 20, 2015 decision recognized that a juror was improperly excused from potential jury service in
violation of the right to a fair cross section of the community as required by
the 6th Amendment protection.
On February 19, 2015 the Kentucky Supreme Court reversed Michael D. St. Clair’s capital conviction due to
improper introduction of prejudicial 404(b) evidence of an unrelated murder in
New Mexico allegedly committed by St. Clair, and improper evidence of the New
Mexico victim's background.
There has to be a fix to the broken capital system in Kentucky.
Without significant changes, Kentucky’s death penalty
system will continue to be inefficient and ineffective
The American Bar Association Kentucky Assessment Team
examined all death sentences imposed in the Commonwealth since 1976, and found
that, as of November 2011:
§
78 people have been sentenced to death
§
52 of these individuals have had a death
sentence overturned on appeal by Kentucky or federal courts, or been granted
clemency,
§
an error rate of 67%
Since 2012 there have been 2 additional death sentences
and 2 additional reversals. There are 33 persons on Kentucky’s death row.
The Kentucky Assessment Team found that capital
prosecutions occur in far more cases than result in death sentences, concluding
that, “This places a significant judicial and financial burden on Commonwealth
courts, prosecutors, defenders, and the criminal justice system at large, to
treat many cases as death penalty cases, despite the fact that cases often
result in acquittal, conviction on a lesser charge, or a last minute agreement
to a sentence less than death.”
The comprehensive 2011 program Audit recommended changes
must be made to eliminate waste, abuse and error. Areas of needed reform
identified by the ABA Kentucky Assessment Team audit included:
- Inadequate Protections
to Guard against Wrongful Convictions (Chapters 2, 3, 4).
- Inconsistent and
Disproportionate Capital Charging and Sentencing (Chapter 5).
- Deficiencies in the
Capital Defender System (Chapter 6).
- Capital Juror Confusion
(Chapter 10).
- Imposition of a Death
Sentence on People with Mental Retardation or Severe Mental Disability
(Chapter 13).
- Lack of Data (Chapter
12).
- Prevention of Wrongful
Convictions (Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5).
- Improvement of Defense
Services (Chapter 6).
- Ensuring Proportionality
in Capital Charging and Sentencing (Chapters 5, 7).
- Error Correction During
Post-Conviction Review (Chapters 8, 13).
- Gubernatorial Clemency
Powers (Chapter 9).
- Improved Juror
Instruction and Comprehension (Chapter 10).
Senator Robin Webb’s Senate Bill 190 implements many of
the important reforms recommended by the ABA Kentucky Assessment Audit in an effort
to ensure the system works. It does the following:
- Creates minimum standards for eyewitness identification
procedures to eliminate mistaken or false identifications
- Directs that interviews of suspects be recorded so
courts and juries receive accurate and reliable information about a
defendant’s statement
- Prohibits the execution of a person with a severe
mental illness
- Assures the independence and proficiency of the state
crime lab
- Requires ongoing training and competency on death
penalty issues for law enforcement, public defenders, prosecutors,
corrections officers, and judges
- Creates a statewide database for reliable ongoing
information relating to capital cases
- Mandates the Department of Public Advocacy to enforce
standards for death penalty cases to be handled by trained competent
defense attorneys
An overwhelming majority of
Kentuckians support fixing the state’s death penalty system
A 2011 poll shows that a majority of Kentuckians support
a suspension of executions to allow time for problems within the system to be
remedied. The November 30 - December 4, 2011 survey of 405 most likely voters
statewide found 62 percent support a temporary halt to executions. The support
was consistent across the state: a majority of men, women, urban, suburban, and
rural, Republican, Democratic, and Independent voters all favored a temporary halt
to executions. The poll, with an error rate of plus or minus 4.9 percent, was
conducted for the Kentucky Assessment Team by Lake Research Partners of
Washington, D.C.
The two death sentence reversals in the last week are further
evidence the Kentucky death system is broken. The time is
now to fix the Kentucky death process or eliminate it. There
are some people who should be imprisoned for the rest of their life. Life
without parole meets all appropriate needs of our society.
Contributed by Public Advocate Ed Monahan
