We heartily thank you for your recent editorial opposing the death penalty. We write in the hope that Gov. Crist will institute a moratorium on executions and will appoint a commission to investigate our entire death penalty system.
Why? Florida leads the nation in the number of men freed from Death Row when DNA or other evidence proved their innocence. To date, more than 25 men have been freed.
The administration of death sentences in Florida is unfair. According to Dr. Michael Radelet, an expert on the death penalty and the former chairperson of the Sociology Department at the University of Florida, some prosecutors are more likely to seek the death penalty than others. In fact, a defendant is more like to receive the death penalty in five Florida counties than in the rest of the state.
In the history of Florida's administration of capital punishment not a single white person has ever been executed for killing an African-American. This fact alone speaks volumes about the lack of fairness in our death penalty system.
From our personal knowledge of having met scores of inmates on Death Row, it is clear that the overwhelmingly majority come from poor backgrounds and have little education. Why is this the case?
Furthermore, we do not believe that the death penalty deters murder. According to Radelet there is no statistical evidence to support this contention. Why doesn't it deter?
It fails because many murders are committed in the heat of passion and someone loses control. Many murderers are so mentally ill that no law will deter them. A high number are victims of childhood abuse. Others commit murder while drunk or under the influence of illegal drugs.
As disturbing as these facts are, it is even more disturbing to see that nothing, seemingly, is done to prosecutors who withhold evidence or are guilty of other forms of prosecutorial misconduct. For example, in the case of Juan Melendez, the prosecutor had a signed statement from a police informant admitting that he and not Melendez had committed the murder. Yet Melendez spent 17 years on Death Row for a crime he did not commit. To the best of our knowledge this prosecutor has not been punished for his misconduct.
Finally, the death penalty drains resources that could be better used elsewhere. The Florida Supreme Court spends an inordinate amount of time on death penalty cases, even though such cases constitute a small percentage of its case load. Each execution costs taxpayers between $3.5 million to $4 million, and over $50 million is spent annually on this system. It could be much better spent aiding the families of victims, improving our schools, etc.
We do not accept the argument that executions bring closure to the surviving family members. Several members of Gainesville Citizens for Alternatives to the Death Penalty have worked with parents of murdered children and know that this is not the case. Moreover, sometimes there are no survivors. Tony Bryan's family tried to locate survivors of the victim's family, but found none. Neither did the state of Florida. Yet he was executed in 2000.
We believe that executions are not about closure but are about vengeance. They do not bring healing to the survivors. Everything that Gov. Ryan found wrong with the death penalty system in Illinois is also true of our system.Ramona Caponegro is coordinator and Dr. Glenn Dickson is co-coordinator of Gainesville Citizens for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
