Delays and Warehouse on Death Row
Age trends and time spent on death row before execution, the impact of appeals on the process, volunteers with mental illness, legal and moral questions, and constitutional issues surrounding death penalty cases. Explore the data and facts on death row statistics.
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Deadly Justice, Ch 8 Delays and warehousing on death row Catch-up from last week on aging-in-place Also catch-up from our conversation with Marcus Mitchell See the bottom of the class website for various links and ideas. Focus for today: How long do people stay on death row before their eventual execution? Empirical data and facts and trends Legal questions Moral / ethical questions February 12, 2025 Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 1
From last time: increased age of those executed. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 2
How long were those people on death row? Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 3
Appeals, not trials, are generating these trends. Crime to death sentence Death sentence to execution Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 4
About 10 percent volunteer . Note some do it right away, but others only after 20 years of waiting Volunteer is the wrong word, as so many have severe mental illness. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 5
See the NC Dept of Public Safety website on death row https://www.ncdps.gov/Adult-Corrections/Prisons/Death- Penalty/List-of-persons-executed/Executions-1984-2006 Note Henry Hunt, 9/12/03, Robeson County Note Elias Syriani, 11/18/2005, Mecklenberg County https://www.ncdps.gov/our-organization/adult- correction/prisons/death-penalty/list-removed-death-row Note Randy Joe Payne, sentenced on 1/25/1985 Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 6
Constitutional questions Lackey v. Texas (1995): Can they make me wait 15 years, and then execute me? Court: Yes. Betterman v. Montana (2016): Can they make me sit in jail for 14 months, post-conviction, without telling me my punishment? Court: Yes. Jones v. Chapell (2014): Can the state of California hold people routinely for 25+ years, then select a random handful for execution? Court: Federal judges have no jurisdiction, since the state of California has not completed its review of the case. (Note the irony can the state take 45 years? 65 years? 100 years to review the case?) Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 7
Additional value of death, after 40 years of death row? Judge in Jones v. Chapell (2014): the state has no additional penological interest in execution after such a long delay. Not deterrence. Not retribution. The punishment is already extreme. Judge also noted that no law that mandated this punishment: 45 years in solitary confinement, followed by a random draw to determine which few get executed, would be constitutional. But that s the California system. But this case was never heard on the merits because the state had not completed its review of Mr. Jones case Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 8
A recent case in Idaho: Gerald Pizzuto Sentenced in 1986 Death warrant in 2001, but cancelled because Parole Commission recommended commutation. Governor declined. (Note: At the time, Pizzuto was in hospice care for bladder cancer.) Nov 2022: Death warrant #2. Cancelled for lack of drugs. Feb 2023: Death warrant #3. Still no drugs. Pizzuto does a pro-se petition to federal judge: this is cruel. US District Judge B. Lynn Winmill rules: repeated rescheduling of his execution is like dry firing in a mock execution or a game of Russian roulette. With each new death warrant comes another spin of the revolver s cylinder, restarting the thirty-day countdown until the trigger pulls. Not knowing whether a round is chambered, Pizzuto must re-live his last days in a delirium of uncertainty until the click sounds and the cylinder spins again. alleged practice of keeping Pizzuto in a state of perpetual terror by scheduling and re-scheduling his execution, despite knowing that the lethal injection almost certainly will not be performed, plausibly constitutes cruel and unusual punishment (Pizzuto v. Tewalt 2023). Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 9
Consequence of delays Insurance that we do not execute the innocent On the other hand: Decreasing use, reduced number of executions Increased cost: Not only the high cost of the trials and appeals, but no savings. Reduced penological value Increased torture element / human rights abuse No closure for the family of the victim Increased odds of reversal of the initial sentence; after all, it is zero if the execution takes place Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 10
Delays as a constitutional issue Is it a form of torture? Cruel and unusual? Does the inmate contribute to the delay by making endless appeals ? Does the state contribute to the delay by failing to appoint lawyers, etc.? Do those states such as California, Pennsylvania, (and, increasingly, North Carolina) that rarely execute operate a system with little penological value, but a lot of emotional suffering? Is that constitutionally acceptable? Note: death penalty attorneys consider each day without an execution a success, so they are in no rush to speed things along. For all they know, another Supreme Court decision might come along some time in the future that will help their client. So, they do delay Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 11
