March
2001
Coronation
Of A Killer
By Michael Clyne
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The fervor in Florida has quieted and the coronation
of George W. “Fratboy” Bush is complete. This is a proper
time to consider this man in the context of “Leader of the Free
World” and what his ascendancy portends.
Since the Supreme Court decision issued in 1976 lifting the injunction
against the death penalty, no state has executed more people than George
W. Bush’s adopted homeland of Texas. 2000 was a record year, and
this year should prove even more fruitful for advocates of state-sponsored
killing. Over the last 25 years, one third of all executions in the
U.S. were performed by the state of Texas.
Bush has stated unequivocally that not a single innocent person has
been executed by the Texas death house. The numbers and rates of errors
in all capital trials belie this certainty. According to the Liebman
study completed in 2000, which reviewed all capital cases in all 50
states from 1973 to 1995, the overall error rate nationally was a whopping
68 percent. That is, courts found serious, reversible error in nearly
seven out of every ten capital sentences handed down during state trials.
(The full study can be found at www.thejusticeproject.org.)
The top two reasons for error cited in the study are incompetent defense
and the suppression of evidence by the prosecution. The former is the
result of inadequate funding to fulfill the guarantee of competent,
court-appointed counsel that is the written standard for capital cases.
The latter comes about for several reasons: political expediency, career
advancement on the part of prosecutors, and the certain knowledge on
their part that not a single prosecutor has ever been charged, much
less convicted, of illegally suppressing evidence in a capital case.
Cracks in the System
During Governor Bush’s reign in Texas, several cases emerged
into the public eye that contained elements casting doubt upon the validity
of the rendered verdict. Despite growing evidence nationwide that the
system had been imposing sentences of death upon the innocent, Bush
signed off on each of the death warrants presented to him. That “presentation”
was too often a spoken summary from one of his aides, even though he
told the national press that he “studied the merits of each case
carefully.”
Proponents of the death penalty have been quick to say, and quite smugly,
that the statistics of the Liebman study indicate that the system works,
and that it efficiently determines who is or is not actually guilty
of capital murder. This of course, cannot be true, as successive classes
of journalism students at Northwestern University continue to prove,
by becoming the instrument through which at least one person under sentence
of death, without possibility of further review, was freed, and several
other cases referred to the courts for further review. Utilizing only
the publicly accessible trial records, students were able to free Anthony
Porter, convicted of two murders and sentenced to death, by obtaining
a confession from another person present on the scene of the crimes
for which Porter was wrongfully convicted. Without further appeal avenues
left to him, Porter was 50 hours away from execution when proof of his
innocence was uncovered. This is only one of the more notorious cases,
many more have come to light through the efforts of legal foundations,
newspaper reporters, and interested citizens. If further evidence of
the fallibility of that same argument is required, one need only consider
that in the few cases when DNA testing was allowed, after petition to
state governors, it has often resulted in proven innocence.
A major factor in the rate of wrongful convictions comes from legislation
at the state level. For example, only a certain number of appeals is
allowed, and appeals must be filed within a certain time limit or else
they cannot be filed at all. Coupled with lack of funds for adequate
defense counsel and pre-trial investigation, plus prosecutorial misconduct,
the odds that those convicted of a capital crime are indeed guilty of
that crime become less likely.
In the last 20 years, the numbers of activities that qualify for the
death penalty at the federal level have risen significantly. This is
due, in part, to the failed War on Drugs, and also extends to various
other crimes, among them murder under special circumstances. There
are
also political reasons for the expansion of federal capital crimes
legislation, primarily the ease with which a presidential candidate
can appear to
be “tough on crime,” signing new capital crimes legislation
into law while knowing that no one has been executed by the federal
government since 1963. But that’s about to change.
McVeigh: The First of Many?
Late last year, Timothy McVeigh, convicted on eight counts of murder
for the bombing of the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, informed
the court that he wished to relinquish his right to any further appeals.
This motion was granted, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons set the very
first date available by law, May 16, for his execution. McVeigh will
die by lethal injection at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute,
Indiana where he is currently imprisoned.
One would think, given the extraordinary nature of the crime for which
he was convicted, that the media and those in favor of putting inmates
to death would be overjoyed by the announcement. McVeigh would be made
to pay; and the victims, their families, Oklahoma City, and the nation
would finally see closure in this horrific drama.
Think again. Nationally, media commentators opined that this was some
sort of trick or power play on the defendant’s part. Locally,
here in Oklahoma, there was considerable outrage over his request to
abandon
the appeals process, as though this signified that McVeigh had any
real control over anything beyond that one, legal request. To the nation
at large, it would appear that the bombing drew the community in Oklahoma
closer together. However, the construct of the victims and their families
being of one mind about the case is convenient, but untrue. In fact,
there has been considerable fallout in the aftermath of the bombing.
Many wonder why so much money has been spent to build an enormous monument
on the site of the building, and a museum next door, when some survivors
and their families are drowning in medical bills and other expenses
incurred as a direct result of the bombing. Others have expressed the
opinion that a true life sentence is a more fitting punishment, that
McVeigh be left to his own devices in a cell, unable to escape the
consequences
of the act he has committed. Many also believe that McVeigh and his
co-conspirator Terry Nichols did not act alone, and feel the federal
trial was designed to hold one person accountable, to present the public
with a convenient scapegoat.
Of the 1,100 people invited to view the execution, approximately 250
have replied that they do wish to witness it. Likely, this will be
done
via closed circuit television, somewhere in Oklahoma City, as was the
trial. The current talk is of closure, of getting on with life. “Closure”
is the last argument for death left in this—and any other—case
involving capital punishment, however, anecdotal evidence in the form
of interviews of surviving relatives has shown that nothing changes
once the execution has been performed. Rather, once McVeigh is dead
and buried, many who anticipated the execution as the instrument of
their own emotional healing will discover that they have been misled,
that the processes humans employ to cope with pain and loss are internal.
Believing McVeigh’s death to be their emotional deliverance means
they have, for the most part, been on hold for over five years, counting
on closure to come when one man’s heart stops beating. It is a
cruel myth, but the last one left to justify a nation willing to kill
its own citizens in the name of justice.
Our newly minted President, George W., proud governor of the most murderous
state apparatus in history, will preside over the first in what is
shaping
up to be a productive federal analog to his home state’s version
of justice. There will be at least two executions at the federal level
this year, and likely far more than that over the next several years.
With the system shown to be in utter disarray, where innocent people
really are being executed, Bush is utterly out of step with reality
on this issue. His Presidency, carefully managed and scripted by those
who propped up Reagan and George W.’s father, will be truly and
fully consecrated by McVeigh’s death, which promises to be the
most spectacular execution event in U.S. history.
Michael Clyne is a free-lance writer living in Norman, Oklahoma.
