Senate Sketches #960 - Capital City Free Press

Volume 4, December 2005

Senate Sketches #960

(Your response goes here.)

Write a letter to the editor: Holler@capcityfreepress.com Just include your full name, and city/county, state and/or country from which you are writing. (Your email address will NOT be posted with your letter.)

Sen. Hank Sanders

the mentally retarded and mentally ill at a rate greater than any other state.
Death Row Justice is broken when race - that of the defendant and the victim - is such a powerful force for imposing the death penalty. For example, six of every ten homicide victims in Alabama are African American, but only two of every ten death penalty convictions arise from black victims. On the other hand, four of every 10 homicide victims are white, but eight of every ten death penalty convictions spring from white victims.
Death Row Justice is broken when we subject our children to death row even though our laws plainly state that they do not possess the maturity to: buy cigarettes, alcohol and certain reading materials; sign binding contracts; vote; serve their county in the armed forces; go into certain places where alcohol is sold; etc. Until the recent Supreme Court decision, Alabama placed a higher percentage of its children on death row than any other state. It is so bad that Alabama had the second highest number of children on death row, only behind Texas and surpassing more populous states like California, New York, Illinois and Florida.
Death Row Justice is broken when it costs more to investigate, try, appeal and put people to death than to keep them in prison for life without parole. We are all poorer for it, for we all pay more than money.
Death Row Justice is broken when high stakes death penalty prosecutions play loose with poverty, race, gender and politics. It is a matter of life and death when the hand is called and death holds most of the cards.
We need a moratorium on executions as we strive to repair the broken justice of death row. I have repeatedly introduced bills to place a three-year moratorium on death penalty executions; to prohibit children from being sentenced to death; to prohibit the mentally retarded/mentally ill from being put to death; to prohibit judges from overriding jury recommendations in death cases; to make DNA testing available to those on death row; and to provide adequate legal resources in death penalty cases. Not a single bill has passed, but I will continue until the shattered pieces of this broken justice are put together. After all, it is a matter of life and death.

Alabama State Sen. Hank Sanders
Special to the Free Press

It was a matter of life and death as representatives of eleven organizations sat around the long rectangle table in the Alabama State House. Each of us would speak briefly to the reporters lining the walls and to each other. Here is what I tried to say.
This is an important moment. I am proud to represent Alabama New South Coalition. I am proud of the outstanding work that produced this profound but disturbing report.
This report establishes beyond a shadow of a doubt that Alabama’s "Death Row Justice" is broken, shattered by hammer blows of innocent people being sent to death row; by our children being placed on death row; by the mentally retarded and mentally ill being executed; by the adverse impact of poverty, race and gender; by inadequate counsel; by prosecutorial misconduct; by judicial override; and by the high cost of implementing this broken Death Row Justice.
Death Row Justice is broken when innocent people are convicted and thrown in its grasping clutches. Some 121 citizens across the U.S. have been found innocent after being convicted and sentenced to death. And some innocent citizens may well have been put to death.
Death Row Justice is broken when the defense of those charged with capital crimes is so inadequate it shatters even the appearance of justice. The lawyers appointed to represent those charged with capital crimes are too often under qualified, underpaid and under prepared.
Death Row Justice is broken when we have 325 examples of prosecutorial misconduct just in Alabama. The death penalty stakes are so high that too many in the prosecutorial arena literally leap over the lines of legality to win.
Death Row Justice is broken when juries recommend life instead of death and the political pressure is so great that elected judges routinely override the jury and impose the death penalty. One of every four persons on death row where put there by judges overriding 12 juror/citizens.
Death Row Justice is broken when the impairments of the mentally retarded and mentally ill become instruments for conviction and impostion of death rather than mitigation. We continue to convict, sentence to death and execute