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Criminal InJustice^† is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Criminal InJustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm CST.

The Dying Death Penalty: Why Connecticut’s Recent Repeal Paves the Way for the Nation
by Emma Westfield-Adams of Equal Justice USA (EJUSA)

On April 25, 2012, Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy signed legislation ending Connecticut’s death penalty.

Connecticut joins Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey, and New York to become the fifth state in five years to repeal its death penalty.

Seventeen states overall have gotten rid of their death penalties and sixteen other states have considered repeal in the last two years. More than 800,000 Californians have signed to put the issue on the ballot this November. And more states have considered studies or significant reforms to the death penalty system.

The direction of the momentum is clear. America’s attachment to the death penalty is loosening. It’s clear in our chambers of state legislation and in our jury boxes and courtrooms. Death sentences have declined about 75% since 1996. Last year was the first time in the modern era that the country produced fewer than 100 death sentences in a single year.

And the geographical spread of death penalty use begs the question – are we still a death penalty country? Or just a few death penalty counties? A full 90% of US counties did not sentence a single person to death in the second half of the last decade. Even Texas has only a handful of counties that use the punishment.

The shaded areas are the counties that had only 2 or more death sentences between 2004 and 2009. As this map shows, we are really not a death penalty nation, just a handful of death penalty counties.
(This and other death penalty usage maps by Harvard University legal scholar and attorney Rob Smith.)

When Connecticut ended the death penalty this year it represented another nail in the coffin for the death penalty system. But it was an extra sharp one.

We are often told that we need the death penalty for the victims’ families. But all the states that have repealed the death penalty that – in addition to unfairness, risk of executing an innocent person, and tremendous cost – the death penalty fails to meet the real needs of families of murder victims. But what made the Connecticut repeal campaign so pivotal is that was that it led by families of murder victims themselves.

A 200 strong coalition of murder victims’ family members called upon the Connecticut legislature to repeal the death penalty. Dozens wrote and visited lawmakers, spoke to the media, attended the votes in Hartford, and started a blog – www.ctvictimvoices.org.

More than 180 family members signed a letter to the legislature explaining the damaging affects of the death penalty and calling upon the legislature to repeal it:

“The death penalty, rather than preventing violence, only perpetuates it and inflicts further pain on survivors.

The reality of the death penalty is that it drags out the legal process for decades. In Connecticut, the death penalty is a false promise that goes unfulfilled, leaving victims’ families frustrated and angry after years of fighting the legal system. And as the state hangs onto this broken system, it wastes millions of dollars that could go toward much needed victims’ services.”

Mothers United Against Violence in Connecticut – a group of mostly African American women whose kids were killed – spoke out about how while the state was spending $4 million a year on one or two death penalty cases, many of these mothers couldn’t afford to bury their own sons. And even though the state of Connecticut does provide help with funeral expenses, they had no idea. They were never told.

Victoria Coward, whose 18-year-old son Tyler was murdered, said:

“The bigger picture is that the death penalty is given in fewer than 1 percent of cases, yet it sucks up millions and millions of dollars that could be put toward crime prevention or victims’ services. What I wouldn’t give for a tiny slice of those millions to give my grieving daughters some professional help to process the death of their brother.”

Many politicians – including President Obama have held that the death penalty is needed because there are some crimes so “heinous” that the death penalty is the only worthy response.

But, again and again, throughout the Connecticut repeal campaign, we heard from murder victims family members who balked at that idea.

Pamela Joiner, whose son Jumar was murdered in Hartford in 2004 said:

“Losing my son was heinous. But when he was murdered, there was no discussion of the death penalty. In fact, there was little discussion of Jumar at all. I fought tooth and nail just to get people to stand up and pay attention. It is shameful that we spend millions of dollars and countless hours on a few capital cases when there are so many of us with unmet needs.”

In their letter to the legislature, the families explain that the “most heinous” criteria for death sentences is not only unhelpful, it is offensive:

“The implication is that other murders are ordinary and do not merit the death penalty. From experience, we can tell you that every murder is heinous, a tragedy for the lost one’s family. The death penalty has the effect of elevating certain victims’ families above others. Connecticut should be better than that.”

Khalilah Brown-Dean, whose cousin was murdered, says: “We see that there’s bias in terms of class, social glass and gender and for families it’s really a slap in our face.”

And indeed the death penalty bias runs deep. Nearly 80% of those executed in the U.S. were convicted of killing a white person, even though African Americans are the victims in about half of all murders.

Victims’ families of color are more likely to hear that their loved one “had it coming” than they are to find themselves wrapped up in a capital trial.

The jig is up. The courageous families who spoke out for repeal in Connecticut – and many similar families around the country – have finally shattered the myth that support for repeal is relegated to criminal-loving liberals while sympathy for victims means supporting executions. Even Fox news refrained from echoing that outdated assumption this year.

These families made it clear that the death penalty is nothing but a cruel hoax. They endured the worst experiences imaginable and then turned their tragedies into a rallying cry for justice.

Because of them, the tide is turning.

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Emma Weisfeld-Adams works with Equal Justice USA (EJUSA), a national, grassroots organization working to build a criminal justice system that is fair, effective, and responsive to all parties impacted by crime. EJUSA’s current campaigns are to repeal the death penalty and increase services that help families of homicide victims rebuild in the aftermath of murder.

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