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The injustice in our death-penalty system By Bishop John McCarthy
Bishop John McCarthy
2/23/2000
The concerns the bishops of Texas and other citizens have about the administration of the death penalty have been heightened by the recent use of DNA evidence and the decision of the Illinois governor to suspend executions. In that state, 13 death row inmates had been wrongfully convicted, and throughout the nation some 75 convicted death-row inmates have been freed as a result of DNA evidence. The tragedy of these revelations is that there is no way to know how many of the approximately 600 people who have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 were actually innocent. Only those inmates who have had competent attorneys with adequate resources to pay for DNA testing have had a chance to prove their innocence.
When some of the leading prosecutors now admit that many of the defense lawyers in the trials that ended in death sentences were poorly financed and often incompetent, it is time for the citizens of our state to ask these same moral questions. Texas by far leads the nation in executions, and there are many examples of DNA evidence freeing Texas inmates. Sadly, there is also adequate evidence that in too many cases the state has furnished defense attorneys who were not prepared to protect the rights of offenders in capital cases.
As Stephen Bright states in his study "Death in Texas": "The state's highest criminal court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals . . . appoints lawyers incapable of preparing post-conviction petitions and filing them on time and then punishes the condemned inmates for the incompetence of the lawyers it appointed.
"United States District Judge Orlando L. Garcia found that the appointment of an inexperienced lawyer with serious health problems to represent Ricky Kerr in post-conviction proceedings constituted a cynical and reprehensible attempt to expedite (Kerr's) execution at the expense of all semblance of fairness and integrity. Kerr's lawyer had failed to raise a single issue in what one member of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge Morris Overstreet, called a "non-application" for post-conviction relief.
"Judge Overstreet said that the failure to provide Kerr with a competent lawyer rendered the review of the case by the Court of Criminal Appeals a "farce," a "travesty" and a "charade" and warned that the court would have "blood on its hands" if Kerr were executed.
In one of several cases in which the Court of Criminal Appeals refused to review a capital case because the lawyers it appointed missed the filing deadlines, Judge Overstreet said the court's action "border(ed) on barbarism." Judge Charles Baird said in another case that the court had failed `to accept our statutory responsibility for appointing competent counsel.' "
The slipshod manner in which attorneys are appointed in Texas -- and the almost scandalous compensation paid them once appointed -- speak volumes about the quality of justice acceptable to public policy-makers, judges and governors. Such a system will inevitably result in miscarriages of justice, such as attorneys who are allowed sleep through the trial of a defendant. With such an inadequate system of representation, what confidence can we have that true justice can ever be achieved except in those few cases in which there is a level playing field between prosecutors and retained quality defense counsel who have demonstrated and specialized expertise in defending capital cases?
A license to practice law certainly does not constitute competence to defend a citizen charged with the most serious crime allowed in law. If public policy-makers would simply acknowledge this statement of the obvious, it would constitute a major leap forward in the quality of justice afforded capital case defendants. To refuse to acknowledge this and act upon it is quite simply shameful and immoral.
As flaws in our current utilization of the death penalty continue to be exposed, more and more Texans are having serious doubts about our criminal-justice system. Last year, the Texas Senate voted 23-7 to ban the execution of mentally retarded inmates, but the bill failed to pass the House. It will take another year to bring this legislation forward again, but at least Texans are becoming increasingly aware of the injustice in the system. The bishops of Texas are strongly committed to continue our efforts to strive for justice in every aspect of our legal system.
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The
Moratorium Campaign
P.O. Box 13727 New Orleans, LA 70185-3727 Tel: (504) 864 - 1071 Fax: (504) 864 - 1654 info@moratoriumcampaign.org Copyright 2001 The Moratorium Campaign privacy statement |