Appeal for a Moratorium on the Federal Death Penalty

We, the undersigned, hereby petition the members of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary to support the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act (NDPMA) introduced by Senator Russ Feingold. The NDPMA would place a halt on executions by the federal government, and urge state governments to do the same, while a National Commission on the Death Penalty reviews the fairness of the imposition of the death penalty.

Recent events have led many to question the fairness of the death penalty. For instance, thirteen people have been released from death row in Illinois since 1994, due in large part to the efforts of journalists at the Chicago Tribune and Northwestern University.¹ A subsequent report by the Illinois Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment found that "all 13 cases were characterized by relatively little solid evidence connecting the charged defendants to the crimes. In some cases, the evidence was so minimal that there was some question not only as to why the prosecutor sought the death penalty, but why the prosecution was even pursued against the particular defendant."²

We now know that the state of Illinois is not unique. Since 1973, 112 people in 25 states have been released from death row after they were found innocent.³ Innocent people have been sentenced to death for various reasons including police and prosecutorial misconduct and poor legal representation. The American Bar Association, calling the system of capital punishment "fundamentally flawed," has called for a national moratorium: "..grossly unqualified and under compensated lawyers who have nothing like the support necessary to mount an adequate defense are often appointed to represent capital clients. In case after case, decisions about who will die and who will live turn not on the nature of the offense the defendant is charged with committing, but rather on the nature of the legal representation the defendant receives."⁴

Not only is the death penalty not need-blind, but it is also not colorblind. A University of Maryland study found that "even after case factors and jurisidictional differences are taken into account, those who kill whites are still signficantly more likely to have the state's attorney file a notification to seek the death penalty [against them]."⁵ Nationally, white victims account for about 50% of all murder victims, but 81% of all capital cases involve white victims.⁶ Racially-biased capital punishment systems that disproportionately result in the execution of the poor and, in too many cases, the innocent cannot be just.

The federal death penalty is no exception. Since 1988, 75% of federal death penalty prosecutions have been against racial minorities.⁷ Geographical disparities also abound. During the years 1995 to 2000, 183 cases were submitted to the attorney general by various federal districts with the intent of seeking the death penalty. These cases came from 49 districts; 45 of the 94 federal districts never recommended the death penalty. By contrast, the district of Eastern Virginia alone sought the death penalty in 21 cases.⁸ At the moment, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft seeks to remedy this discrepancy by seeking the death penalty in districts which have historically not asked for it. However, this approach has met with strong local opposition, even from prosecutors. Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley publicly stated, "I do not believe the death penalty is a deterrent or appropriate punishment for an inner-city homicide. The death penalty runs counter to the strategies for preventing and prosecuting urban crime - which include sensitivity to the neighborhoods we serve - that have proven successful in Boston over the last decade."⁹ The federal death penalty is also not immune from police misconduct and poor legal representation. In 1968, right here in Boston, Peter Limone was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death despite the FBI's knowledge of his innocence. He was not exonerated until 2001. In a recent federal death penalty case tried in the District of Massachusetts, presiding Judge Mark Wolf found "the potential for serious imperfections in [this] federal capital case."¹⁰ This despite little doubt of the defendant's guilt.

We, the undersigned, regardless of our ultimate opinion on the death penalty, join our voices with many other people of goodwill in calling for a moratorium on the death penalty in the United States. We, along with many others throughout this country, can no longer sit idly by while the lives of our brothers and sisters are subject to the arbitrariness of such a flawed system. We thus ask that you offer the NDPMA your unconditional support.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Community of Sant'Egidio * Boston College Students Against the Death Penalty