I am moved by Warren ‘Dite’ Little’s letter in the Missoulian, March 12, 2012. As a parent who has had her own son die before his time, I share some of the devastation he lives with. I also appreciate the long years he has been involved with this issue in various ways. But I do take issue.
In 2008, a scientific poll of 500 randomly-selected police chiefs were asked to name one area as “most important for reducing violent crime,” with only 1% listing the death penalty as the best way to reduce violence. They ranked the death penalty as the least efficient use of taxpayers’ money. And 57% agreed that the death penalty does little to prevent violent crimes because perpetrators rarely consider the consequences when engaged in violence.
In Montana 44 prisoners are currently serving sentences of life imprisonment without parole. We currently have a hot case that will be decided very soon. It will establish a great deal of precedent when it is. Currently 83% of all death penalty cases in Montana were overturned. A sentence of life without parole guarantees that the perpetrator will never get out of prison. An overturned death sentence does not. In Montana these prisoners are not in a “nice warm cell, watching TV, reading books and lifting weights.” Their lives are severely restricted; key word: cell.
Contrary to Mr. Little’s statement that in 24 years he “never had an innocent person convicted,” I need to submit the following from the Death Penalty Information Center. Since 1973, at least 130 people have walked off our nation’s death rows after evidence revealed that they were sentenced for crimes they did not commit. These occurred primarily because of DNA testing.
And finally the evidence of racial bias is overwhelming. African Americans make up only 13% of the nation’s population but represent 42% of those on death row. More than 20% of those defendants were convicted by all-white juries. People in poverty are also more likely to receive a death sentence: 95% of defendants charged with capital crimes cannot afford their own attorney to represent them. Surely these examples beg the democratic ideal of justice for all.
There will be a gathering to discuss abolition of the death penalty in Hamilton on March 27, at 7 pm. Please call me for location, or for more information about this archaic practice in our State please call the Montana Abolition Coalition, 461-8176.
Star Jameson
Hamilton