Death Decisions
By Michael Nevin (04/08/04)
In 1965 Robert Lee Massie killed Mildred Weiss in San Gabriel, California while robbing her and her husband. He received the death penalty. However, in 1972 all the death sentences in California were commuted to life, so in 1978 Massie was paroled. On January 3, 1979 Robert Massie shot and killed San Francisco liquor store owner Boris Naumoff and wounded a store clerk during yet another robbery.[1]
On February 6, 2001 San Francisco District Attorney Terrence Hallinan addressed a San Francisco court refusing to file a motion to set the execution date for Robert Lee Massie. Hallinan told the court, “The death penalty does not constitute any more deterrent than life without parole.”[2] Hallinan, a longtime and outspoken opponent of the death penalty, let his personal feelings outweigh his duty as a district attorney to carry out state law. The California State Attorney General’s office was forced to step in and set the date of execution. Although it was too late for one San Francisco liquor store owner, Massie faced the ultimate deterrent as fate would eventually catch up with him.
Former Illinois Governor George Ryan, who commuted the death sentences of all 167 Illinois inmates in 2002, addressed the California Legislature last year saying, “I don’t know what’s wrong with calling a delay for a couple years.”[3] Ryan, who is under federal indictment for taking payoffs while Illinois Secretary of State, was nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to stop the death penalty.[4] He joined illustrious company that includes California death row inmate and L.A. Crips street gang co-founder Stanley “Tookie” Williams. Williams, a convicted killer of four, was nominated twice for the same peace award.[5] I would suspect Mumia Abu-Jamal, honorary citizen of Paris and executioner of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, would lend his support for Ryan’s nomination.
Ryan called for a moratorium in California where only 10 people have been put to death since 1977, although the state has sentenced 795 people to death between 1976 and 2002. Imperial County District Attorney Gilbert Otero stated, “The state’s citizens can take solace in the extraordinary safeguards used to ensure that only those murderers who are most deserving receive the death penalty. There is no need whatsoever to impose a so-called ‘moratorium’ in California.” California limits the death penalty to first-degree murder with special circumstances, train wrecking, treason, or perjury causing execution. A Cornell University study released in March 2004 found that California has a death sentence rate of only 1.3% while the national average stood at 2.2%.[6]
Several myths about the death penalty have been reported but continue to be debunked upon closer examination. The Liebman study at Columbia University, “Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995,” released its results in 2000 claiming serious flaws in the system, including a high “error” rate. It was later revealed that the misleading “error” included any issue requiring further review by a lower court, even when the court upheld the sentence. The 23-year study found no cases of mistaken executions.[7] The numerous appeals in capital cases demonstrate the extraordinary adherence to due process. The fallacy that innocent people are being executed cannot be validated, and it is intellectually dishonest for opponents of the death penalty to perpetrate this myth. The death penalty in America is undoubtedly one of the most accurately administered criminal justice procedures in the world.
The issue of race has been cited by critics, who complain that minorities are unfairly chosen for death sentences. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up more than half of those under sentence of death. In 2002, 71 persons in 13 states were executed: 53 were white and 18 were black. The Cornell University study found that African Americans represented 41.3% of condemned inmates while they committed 51.5% of homicides.[8]
Upon closer examination, an issue can be made of the small number of executions compared to the number of people under sentence of death. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, at yearend 2002, 37 states and the federal prison system held 3,557 prisoners under sentence of death (all for committing murder), but only 71 were executed. In 1954 147 prisoners were under sentence of death, and 81 were executed. Many condemned inmates today are more likely to die of old age than lethal injection. Of the 6,912 people under sentence of death between 1977 and 2002 only 12% were executed.[9] A 2003 Clemson University study by Professor Joanna Shepherd concluded: “If criminals prefer lengthy death row waits to short ones, as their numerous appeals and requests for stays suggest, then shortening the time until execution could increase the death penalty’s deterrent impact…I find that shorter waits on death row increase deterrence. Specifically, one extra murder is deterred for every 2.75-years reduction in the death row wait before each execution.”[10] People behave economically by weighing cost and benefit. Incentive is a human behavior that cannot be overlooked when it comes to deterrence. The death penalty saves innocent lives when it is properly administered, making it a worthy punishment.
States that have the death penalty must provide extraordinary safeguards to ensure guilt. Once guilt has been established and appeals are exhausted, justice should be swift. The families of the victims deserve nothing less. The Pro-Death Penalty.com website offers a startling statistic: “The 518 killers who were executed between 1998 and 2003 had murdered at least 1111 people. That is an average of 2.14 victims per executed killer.” The people on death row made disastrous decisions while members of society. The next decision these killers should make is choosing menu items for a final meal.
**Author's Note: This revised article originally posted on this site May 8, 2003.
[1] “Robert Lee Massie,” Death Penalty Focus of California (Internet) http://www.deathpenalty.org/facts/cases/Robert_Lee_Massie.shtml
[2] “Gays, Hate Crimes, and the Death Penalty,” CounterPunch.org, 02/23/01
[3] Martin, Mark, “Call for California to stay executions,” San Francisco Chronicle, 04/24/03
[4] “Ex-Illinois governor Ryan indicted,” CNN.com, 12/17/2003
[5] Mintz, Howard, “Killer, crusader faces death,” Knight Ridder Newspapers , 04/13/03
[6] Blume, Eisenberg and Wells, “Explaining Death Row’s Population and Racial Composition, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, March 2004 (the authors used data from 1977 to 1999)
[7] Eddlem, Thomas, “Ten Anti-Death penalty Fallacies, “ The New American, 06/03/02
[8] Blume
[9] Bonczar, Thomas and Tracy Snell, Capital Punishment, 2002 U.S. D.O.J. Bureau of Justice Statistics
[10] Shepherd, Joanna, “Murders of Passion, Execution Delays, and the Deterrence of Capital Punishment,” Clemson University, August 2003
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