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HB 1421 – Death Penalty Moratorium

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Representative Vernon Smith has introduced HB 1421 which would impose a moratorium on the death penalty through July 1, 2012; and establish a 15 member commission to study the death penalty and make recommendations prior to January 1, 2012.

As an initial matter, I do not like the legislation because it has a “findings” section. I don’t like legislation that makes proclamations. I want nuts & bolts language that tells me who gets to do what to whom and under what circumstances.

But, I can get along with its premise well enough. Personally, I have no opposition to the general philosophy of the death penalty. Certain actions are bad enough that they should result in the forfeiture of one’s life. As implemented, however, I do have concerns. It seems like there is a non-trivial risk of convicting the wrong person of a capital crime. That needs to be fixed.

That said, I predict this legislation is going nowhere.

Too fat to die

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Mostly, I just wanted to use the headline. The AP has a story on an Ohio inmate who raped and murdered two young women is on death row, but claims that he’s too fat for a proper execution.

A death row inmate scheduled for execution says he’s too fat to be put to death, claiming executioners would have trouble finding his veins and that his weight could diminish the effectiveness of one of the lethal injection drugs.

Lawyers for Richard Cooey argue in a federal lawsuit that Cooey – 5-feet-7 and 267 pounds – had poor veins when he faced execution five years ago and the problem has been worsened by weight gain.

I suppose execution through starvation would also be objectionable to Mr. Cooey as well.

Personally, my objections to the death penalty have always had to do with properly identifying the perpetrator of the crime. If we have a high level of confidence that the person did what he or she was accused of, the manner of death doesn’t seem especially consequential. It shouldn’t be gratuitous, of course, but I’m not one of those who feels like it has to be perfectly painless either.

Supreme Court: You can’t kill a guy just for raping a kid.

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In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court held that the death penalty is Constitutionally impermissible for raping children.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed executions of people convicted of raping a child. In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in such cases violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. His four liberal colleagues joined him, while the four more conservative justices dissented.

I haven’t read the decision, so my initial response may be wrong, but I think I side with the conservative four on this one. My personal problems with the death penalty have nothing to do with the severity of killing a criminal; but rather with the problems of proof leading up to the imposition of the sentence. Our system is imperfect, and the death penalty is irrevocable. Theoretically, some people deserve to die for their actions. In practice, it’s difficult to identify those people with sufficient accuracy.

As far as the proportionality of the punishment to the crime, I can certainly imagine scenarios where the harm to society of raping a child is worse than the harm of a murder.