Attorney general refuses debate on death penalty
Posted by bblalock July 12, 2009 05:33AM
On May 18, I publicly challenged Attorney General Troy King to a public debate regarding Alabama's death penalty system followed by a formal letter to him requesting the same.

A number of organizations have studied capital punishment in Alabama and raised serious, valid questions regarding the manner and process by which it is administered. Many people told me: "Don't expect an answer." But I got one from King's chief of staff, Chris Bence, refusing my offer. Bence further stated that the "death penalty is not applied by the attorney general," and that "it is irrelevant . . . what the attorney general 'feels' about it." Talk about a major copout; this one is extreme.

FILEAlabama Attorney General Troy King
While there are significant data and moral questions that say we do not need a death penalty and that it is morally objectionable, King continues to ignore these questions and fails to give a full accounting to the concerns raised. In fact, he fails to even consider their validity.
The 2007 American Bar Association study on the death penalty found "serious" concerns in the practice and administration of the death penalty in Alabama and concluded it is "deeply flawed." King said he had not studied the report. When obvious racial and income bias has been documented, the AG brushes off such a suggestion. When 25 percent of Death Row inmates were put there by a judge overriding the jury's recommendation of life without the possibility of parole, he stands idly by.

Alabama is one of only three states that allows judicial "override," and the only one that allows it without limitations. King also refuses to push for creating a public defender system for the indigent; Alabama is the only state that does not have a state-funded system. And by our state's refusal to release information on the costs of the death penalty versus life without parole, we know what the data must show.

In fact, we are told "we don't keep track of that" by the state Department of Corrections. Yet, we know administering the death penalty is many millions of dollars more expensive, and the state continues to spend these funds in order to execute an average of 1.2 inmates a year. Nationwide, that is less than 1 of every 100 murders, while the other 99 percent are either not apprehended or not prosecuted or convicted under death penalty statutes.

We deserve to know why, in the face of the ever-mounting evidence against his claim that Alabama needs the death penalty, our attorney general continues to push aggressively for more executions and insists that the punishment is administered justly.

In fact, King does "apply" the penalty and is the man in charge of who gets it. In fact, Alabama now leads the nation in the number of death sentences doled out. And, in fact, if you are not poor, black or Latino, you don't get sent to Death Row.

The bottom line is there are certain inconvenient truths that lay hidden in the bowels of the Alabama justice system. The door to these truths is kept locked by our attorney general and others in a position of power.

The pursuit of justice must equate to the pursuit of truth, not just a voracious quest for another conviction and another killing. Despite the fact King is spending millions of dollars in state money over what it costs to keep an inmate in prison for life without the possibility of parole, I guess that until he has emptied the state's wallet, nobody in our government hierarchy will take heed.

But, in fairness, these folks have to consider the next election and whether they will appear "soft on crime." In this case, however, the softness is in their spines, as they continue to falsely assuage the fears of the public with cries of putting the "scum" to death.

With the support of more than 450 organizations seeking a moratorium on executions until the issues can be addressed, I reiterate my call for the attorney general to come forth with the answers.

We citizens of the state deserve to know. Let us say it is our "just deserts." Furthermore, we have a prima facie case that trumps his own, and it is our moral obligation to see that it stands.

Robert L. Baldwin, M.D., M.A., a Birmingham advocate for death-penalty reform, is author of "Life and Death Matters: Seeking the Truth about Capital Punishment."

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