Judge Boyce Martin, the former Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit, notes in concurrence today in Wiles v. Bagley, No. 05-371, his continued concern about capital punishment as a public policy issue, especially in lean economic times:
Now in my thirtieth year as a judge on this Court, I have had an inside view of our system of capital punishment almost since the death penalty was reintroduced in the wake of Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972). During that time, judges, lawyers, and elected officials have expended great time and resources attempting to ensure the fairness, proportionality, and accuracy that the Constitution demands of our system. But those efforts have utterly failed. Capital punishment in this country remains “arbitrary, biased, and so fundamentally flawed at its very core that it is beyond repair.” Moore v. Parker, 425 F.3d 250, 268 (6th Cir. 2005) (Martin, J., dissenting). At the same time, the system’s necessary emphasis on competent representation, sound trial procedure, and searching post-conviction review has made it exceedingly expensive to maintain.
The system’s deep flaws and high costs raise a simple but important question: is the death penalty worth what it costs us? In my view, this broken system would not justify its costs even if it saved money, but those who do not agree may want to consider just how expensive the death penalty really is. Accordingly, I join Justice Stevens in calling for “a dispassionate, impartial comparison of the enormous costs that death penalty litigation imposes on society with the benefits that it produces.” Baze v. Rees, ___ U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 1520, 1548-49 (2007) (Stevens, J., concurring). Such an evaluation, I believe, is particularly appropriate at a time when public funds are scarce and our state and federal governments are having to re-evaluate their fiscal priorities. Make no mistake: the choice to pay for the death penalty is a choice not to pay for other public goods like roads, schools, parks, public works, emergency services, public transportation, and law enforcement. So we need to ask whether the death penalty is worth what we are sacrificing to maintain it.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monday, December 1, 2008
Report from Clemency Hearing
The case of condemned killer Darold Stenson is under consideration in two courts. Now a third venue is reviewing his case.
Washington State’s Clemency and Pardons Board took testimony Monday on Stenson who is scheduled to die Wednesday night in Walla Walla. But the execution won’t go forward unless two court stays are lifted.
Jeff Ellis is with the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. He told the Clemency Board that Washington is acting like Texas in its push to execute Stenson before all DNA evidence has been tested.
Jeff Ellis: “I was comfortable in the belief that we did things differently here than in Texas. Five days ago that belief was shattered. The state seeks to kill Darold Stenson without testing DNA.”
Prosecutors responded that DNA testing previously showed that blood on Stenson’s pants belonged to one of the two victims he was convicted of murdering in 1993.
The Clemency Board delayed making a recommendation to the Governor pending the outcome of the two court cases
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Clemency Hrg 12/1 at 9 am?
A hrg has been set for 12/1, despite the two stays and an order directing the conduct of DNA tests. Watch for more here tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Two stays of execution
Two judges have issued two separate stays of execution for Darold Ray Stenson, who was scheduled to be executed next week.
A judge in Clallam County granted the stay and ordered additional DNA testing in the case after a prison inmate came forward with new information indicating that Stenson may have been framed for the 1993 shooting deaths of his wife and a business partner.
Clallam County Prosecutor Deborah Kelly said she intends to appeal the judge's ruling, perhaps as early as today.
At the same time, a federal judge in Yakima has indefinitely delayed the execution during a conference call today with lawyers.
Assistant Attorney General Sara Olson, who is one of the attorneys handling the case for the state, said her office is filing an emergency motion asking an appeals court to vacate Suko's decision. Stenson, 55, was set to be executed Dec. 3.
Stenson was sentencing to death for killing his wife Denise and his business partner Frank Hoerner on March 25, 1993. Authorities say that Stenson staged the slaying inside his Sequim-area ranch to look like a murder- suicide so he could collect a $400,000 life insurance policy that he took out for his wife. Prosecutors say he killed Hoerner because he owed him $50,000.
Stenson's three young children — ages 6, 4 and 1 — were asleep in the house when their mother and Hoerner were slain.
He was convicted of aggravated murder deaths of his wife and a business partner while his three young children slept nearby in his Clallam County farmhouse.
Stenson would be the first inmate put to death since 2001 if none of his pending appeals is granted.
Seattle Times staff reporter Jennifer Sullivan and The Associated Press contributed to this report
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
A judge in Clallam County granted the stay and ordered additional DNA testing in the case after a prison inmate came forward with new information indicating that Stenson may have been framed for the 1993 shooting deaths of his wife and a business partner.
Clallam County Prosecutor Deborah Kelly said she intends to appeal the judge's ruling, perhaps as early as today.
At the same time, a federal judge in Yakima has indefinitely delayed the execution during a conference call today with lawyers.
Assistant Attorney General Sara Olson, who is one of the attorneys handling the case for the state, said her office is filing an emergency motion asking an appeals court to vacate Suko's decision. Stenson, 55, was set to be executed Dec. 3.
Stenson was sentencing to death for killing his wife Denise and his business partner Frank Hoerner on March 25, 1993. Authorities say that Stenson staged the slaying inside his Sequim-area ranch to look like a murder- suicide so he could collect a $400,000 life insurance policy that he took out for his wife. Prosecutors say he killed Hoerner because he owed him $50,000.
Stenson's three young children — ages 6, 4 and 1 — were asleep in the house when their mother and Hoerner were slain.
He was convicted of aggravated murder deaths of his wife and a business partner while his three young children slept nearby in his Clallam County farmhouse.
Stenson would be the first inmate put to death since 2001 if none of his pending appeals is granted.
Seattle Times staff reporter Jennifer Sullivan and The Associated Press contributed to this report
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Not in Our Names--the People's Request for Clemency
On November 23, 2008, the Coalition filed a formal request to either commute Darold Stenson's death sentence to life in prison or to issue a stay of execution and commission a study of Washington's death penalty system. We filed this request on behalf of all of the citizens of this state who do not want Mr. Stenson executed in our names. We did so, in part, because Mr. Stenson does not intend to seek clemency for himself and because it is our right and duty to speak out.
Here is a brief excerpt:
It is a new day in America and in the State of Washington. It is a day full of promise and hope. However, we are about to begin this new day with a very old ritual. We are about to begin this new day by killing a fellow human being—an act taken by our government in the names of all its citizens. We are about to begin this new day with the contradictory ritual of taking a life to prove that taking a life is wrong.
The signer of this petition, and those who write separately in support, are citizens of this state. Darold Stenson is about to be executed in our names. In the great and enduring spirit of democracy, we object. We do not consent to the execution of Darold Stenson in our names.
If the promise made by government to its citizens is that the death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst, then this execution makes no sense. While Mr. Stenson was convicted of two senseless and tragic killings, these murders are clearly not the most deserving of death, especially when compared to the numerous murders committed over last decade. And, neither is Mr. Stenson.
Mr. Stenson’s imminent execution may prove that death sentences in this state are carried out for those with the worst attorney (Mr. Stenson’s trial lawyer stated he could not stand the “sight” of Mr. Stenson, but was nevertheless permitted to control the defense of Mr. Stenson’s life). However, that distinction is not supposed to exist.
Instead, Mr. Stenson’s imminent execution reveals the arbitrary nature of Washington’s death penalty as it exists in practice. No one could possibly explain to Mr. Stenson why he is deserving of death when Gary Ridgway, Benjamin Ng and Kwan Fai (“Willie”) Mak were not. The only possible explanation is one that condemns the death penalty: that the death penalty is as random as being struck by lightning.
Let us begin this new day by affirming life, not death. We ask you to commute Darold Stenson’s death sentence to life in prison without parole. If you are unsure about what action to take, we urge you to stay Mr. Stenson’s execution and commission a study of Washington’s death penalty law.
We urge you to begin this new day, not with an old relic of our less civilized past, but with a call to a higher sense of justice.
In this state, we recognize that the moral arc of the universe is long, but that it bends toward justice, as Marlin Luther King taught us.
The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one – no matter where he lives or what he does – can be certain who will suffer next from some senseless act of bloodshed. It is imperative that we remember and honor their lives.
However, we do not honor the victims of violence so by arbitrarily executing someone once every five or ten years. Just as importantly, we do not progress as a society by killing to prove killing is wrong. We do not look upon Darold Stenson as alien, someone unknown to us or who must be removed from the family of men and women. We look upon him as a brother—someone who must be punished, as part of the social compact.
However, we seek a higher justice within that social compact. We seek to honor humanity by seeking solutions, rather than more suffering, bloodshed, and loss. Our lives on this planet are too short and our work too great to let stand the distinctions that serve only to degrade and divide us. We urge you to stop Darold Stenson’s execution.
Either commuting Darold Stenson’s death sentence to life without parole or undertaking a comprehensive review at this late date does not undermine the rule of law. Instead, it honors the genius that underpins the separation of powers and our American system of justice.
Here is a brief excerpt:
It is a new day in America and in the State of Washington. It is a day full of promise and hope. However, we are about to begin this new day with a very old ritual. We are about to begin this new day by killing a fellow human being—an act taken by our government in the names of all its citizens. We are about to begin this new day with the contradictory ritual of taking a life to prove that taking a life is wrong.
The signer of this petition, and those who write separately in support, are citizens of this state. Darold Stenson is about to be executed in our names. In the great and enduring spirit of democracy, we object. We do not consent to the execution of Darold Stenson in our names.
If the promise made by government to its citizens is that the death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst, then this execution makes no sense. While Mr. Stenson was convicted of two senseless and tragic killings, these murders are clearly not the most deserving of death, especially when compared to the numerous murders committed over last decade. And, neither is Mr. Stenson.
Mr. Stenson’s imminent execution may prove that death sentences in this state are carried out for those with the worst attorney (Mr. Stenson’s trial lawyer stated he could not stand the “sight” of Mr. Stenson, but was nevertheless permitted to control the defense of Mr. Stenson’s life). However, that distinction is not supposed to exist.
Instead, Mr. Stenson’s imminent execution reveals the arbitrary nature of Washington’s death penalty as it exists in practice. No one could possibly explain to Mr. Stenson why he is deserving of death when Gary Ridgway, Benjamin Ng and Kwan Fai (“Willie”) Mak were not. The only possible explanation is one that condemns the death penalty: that the death penalty is as random as being struck by lightning.
Let us begin this new day by affirming life, not death. We ask you to commute Darold Stenson’s death sentence to life in prison without parole. If you are unsure about what action to take, we urge you to stay Mr. Stenson’s execution and commission a study of Washington’s death penalty law.
We urge you to begin this new day, not with an old relic of our less civilized past, but with a call to a higher sense of justice.
In this state, we recognize that the moral arc of the universe is long, but that it bends toward justice, as Marlin Luther King taught us.
The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one – no matter where he lives or what he does – can be certain who will suffer next from some senseless act of bloodshed. It is imperative that we remember and honor their lives.
However, we do not honor the victims of violence so by arbitrarily executing someone once every five or ten years. Just as importantly, we do not progress as a society by killing to prove killing is wrong. We do not look upon Darold Stenson as alien, someone unknown to us or who must be removed from the family of men and women. We look upon him as a brother—someone who must be punished, as part of the social compact.
However, we seek a higher justice within that social compact. We seek to honor humanity by seeking solutions, rather than more suffering, bloodshed, and loss. Our lives on this planet are too short and our work too great to let stand the distinctions that serve only to degrade and divide us. We urge you to stop Darold Stenson’s execution.
Either commuting Darold Stenson’s death sentence to life without parole or undertaking a comprehensive review at this late date does not undermine the rule of law. Instead, it honors the genius that underpins the separation of powers and our American system of justice.
Support for Clemency
From the Seattle Times ~
The state's Roman Catholic bishops are asking Gov. Chris Gregoire to commute the death sentence of Darold Ray Stenson.
The three bishops, representing Catholic dioceses in Seattle, Spokane and Yakima, are asking that Stenson instead receive life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Stenson, 55, is set to be executed Dec. 3. He was convicted of aggravated murder for the 1993 shooting deaths of his wife and a business partner while his three young children slept nearby in his Clallam County farmhouse.
Seattle Archbishop Alex Brunett, Spokane Bishop William Skylstad, and Yakima Bishop Carlos Sevilla made the request in a letter to Gregoire on Friday. Gregoire's spokesman, Pearse Edwards, said Monday the governor was reserving comment until she reviews the letter.
The bishops wrote that while they understand the responsibility of the state to punish Stenson, "there remains no moral justification for imposing a sentence of death."
"Violence begets violence both in our hearts and in our actions," they wrote. "By continuing the tradition of responding to killing with state-sanctioned killing, we rob ourselves of moral consistency and perpetuate that which we seek to sanction."
Stenson would be the first inmate put to death since 2001 if none of his pending appeals is granted.
Stenson has long claimed he didn't commit the murders, and is one of just two inmates in recent years to continue to appeal his death sentence.
When Stenson called authorities in 1993 to report the deaths, he suggested that his business partner, Frank Hoerner, had killed Denise Stenson and then shot himself in another room. Prosecutors have said Stenson, struggling financially and in dire business straits, shot the two in order to collect $400,000 in life insurance.
A federal appeals court lifted a stay last month, and prison officials are preparing for the execution to go forward as scheduled. Several walkthroughs have already been conducted, with another still to come this week.
Because he declined to choose between lethal injection and hanging, Stenson would be killed by lethal injection if the execution goes forward as planned.
Since 1904, 77 men have been executed in Washington, the last being James Elledge in August 2001. No woman has ever been sentenced to death in the state.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
The state's Roman Catholic bishops are asking Gov. Chris Gregoire to commute the death sentence of Darold Ray Stenson.
The three bishops, representing Catholic dioceses in Seattle, Spokane and Yakima, are asking that Stenson instead receive life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Stenson, 55, is set to be executed Dec. 3. He was convicted of aggravated murder for the 1993 shooting deaths of his wife and a business partner while his three young children slept nearby in his Clallam County farmhouse.
Seattle Archbishop Alex Brunett, Spokane Bishop William Skylstad, and Yakima Bishop Carlos Sevilla made the request in a letter to Gregoire on Friday. Gregoire's spokesman, Pearse Edwards, said Monday the governor was reserving comment until she reviews the letter.
The bishops wrote that while they understand the responsibility of the state to punish Stenson, "there remains no moral justification for imposing a sentence of death."
"Violence begets violence both in our hearts and in our actions," they wrote. "By continuing the tradition of responding to killing with state-sanctioned killing, we rob ourselves of moral consistency and perpetuate that which we seek to sanction."
Stenson would be the first inmate put to death since 2001 if none of his pending appeals is granted.
Stenson has long claimed he didn't commit the murders, and is one of just two inmates in recent years to continue to appeal his death sentence.
When Stenson called authorities in 1993 to report the deaths, he suggested that his business partner, Frank Hoerner, had killed Denise Stenson and then shot himself in another room. Prosecutors have said Stenson, struggling financially and in dire business straits, shot the two in order to collect $400,000 in life insurance.
A federal appeals court lifted a stay last month, and prison officials are preparing for the execution to go forward as scheduled. Several walkthroughs have already been conducted, with another still to come this week.
Because he declined to choose between lethal injection and hanging, Stenson would be killed by lethal injection if the execution goes forward as planned.
Since 1904, 77 men have been executed in Washington, the last being James Elledge in August 2001. No woman has ever been sentenced to death in the state.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
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