Death Penalty Losing Any Effectiveness

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Like many Arkansans, we experience a mix of emotions when it comes to the death penalty.

It should be an option for prosecutors, judges and juries to consider in prosecution of the state's most heinous crimes. But it has been nine years since Arkansas carried out its last death sentence, a demonstration of how leaders of the state's judicial, executive and legislative branches have failed defend the wishes of Arkansans against anti-death penalty forces vying to stop the penalty's use.

What's The Point?

Arkansans need state leaders who can stop allowing death penalty opponents to rule the day. It should be state residents’ decision on whether capital punishment should end.

Thirty-two men -- including Don W. Davis from Benton County as well as Gregory Decay and Zachariah Marcyniuk of Washington County -- await imposition of death sentences for murders. Davis has been on Death Row since 1992 -- nearly 22 years -- for the 1990 murder of 62-year-old Jane Daniels of Rogers. Decay and Marcyniuk were given their spots on Death Row in 2008.

Davis came within hours of execution back in 2010, but legal wrangling over how executions are carried out kept him alive. Anti-death penalty activists and Death Row inmates work tirelessly to thwart the carrying out of Arkansas' verdicts, and they're winning.

Last year, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel appeared ready to throw in the proverbial towel, detailing the difficulties the state faces in acquiring the necessary chemicals for lethal injection because pharmaceutical companies are spooked by the intense debate. Those difficulties arise in large part from sympathetic court rulings and anti-death penalty advocates who continue to out-maneuver state officials who at times seem ambivalent about carrying out jurors' verdicts.

The death penalty recently came up in the GOP campaign for attorney general, with one candidate urging a return to using the electric chair as long as Death Row inmates continue to successfully block lethal injection. His opponent said she doubted it would be so easy to dust off the prior method of execution. McDaniel has also said doing so would invite new legal challenges that would keep justice at bay. State law says the state will revert to the electric chair if the use of lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional, but state law also says lethal injection is legal, and consider the mess the state is in with that questions.

Making a solution sound so easy is ludicrous. The debate over whether capital punishment is cruel and unusual or whether state officials are taking adequate steps to ensure the death penalty is carried out appropriately cannot be resolved by flip the power switch on Old Sparky. That's great political campaign rhetoric, but hardly a step toward a resolution.

It is truly difficult to believe all the legal brainpower behind state government and advocacy for the death penalty as an option cannot figure out a way to carry out the people's sentences.

Next year, the state Legislature convenes again for a full session of the General Assembly. We hope some smart people are working on new laws that will clarify Arkansas death penalty and create a path toward carrying it out, particularly on these cases that have lingered for decades. The courts have said the Legislature cannot leave too much discretion to the executive branch, so the burden apparently rests with lawmakers.

Until Arkansans say they reject the death penalty, lawmakers and other elected officials owe it to them to ensure Arkansas' jurors continue to have the option to impose the ultimate sanction -- and to expect that it will be carried out in a reasonable period.

Commentary on 04/15/2014