State may take up death-penalty bills

Clock ticks on state to fix flawed execution system


Our View

Is this the year that Tennessee takes serious action to address its 
death-penalty system?

If not, it will only fall further behind in a positive trend toward a 
more just, equitable form of punishment for society's worst offenders.

Last week, New Mexico became the second state to ban executions since 
the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. New 
Jersey prohibited capital punishment two years ago, and 13 other 
states do not impose the death penalty.

In Tennessee, executions resumed earlier this year after a hiatus 
following a judge's determination that the lethal-injection method 
constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The state is appealing that 
decision and executed Steve Henley on Feb. 4, using lethal injection.

But Tennessee's system has a range of problems that go beyond the 
method of death, and beyond the philosophical debate whether capital 
punishment should exist. Doubts are growing among supporters too over 
whether all our death-row inmates actually committed the crimes they 
are accused of or, at least, whether their cases were handled fairly.

Earlier this year, a special legislative committee concluded after 16 
months of study that Tennessee's system must be reformed to ensure 
that people facing execution get fair trials.

They recommended laws be changed or added to require that defense 
lawyers in capital cases be highly qualified and that they have 
uniform access to evidence against their clients; that police 
officers record all interrogations related to homicide cases; and 
that the state set realistic timetables for capital cases so that 
families of murder victims and of the defendants are not torn by 
seemingly endless years of appeals.

A legislative package to bring about these changes has been 
introduced by state Sen. Doug Jackson, D-Dickson, and Rep. Kent 
Coleman, D-Murfreesboro. Jackson, a supporter of the death penalty, 
who acknowledges flaws in the system, said last week that he plans to 
advance the reform package, which is currently in Senate and House 
committees. But in a year in which the sharply partisan legislature 
is preoccupied with broadening gun rights and narrowing abortion 
rights, there is reason to doubt whether lawmakers will give death-
penalty reform its due consideration.

The reforms the committee recommends are pragmatic and moderate, 
designed to eliminate the high number of errors that have occurred 
because attorneys did not understand the complexities of capital-case 
law, or because indigent defendants could not obtain better counsel.

And the average citizen might be surprised to find that not all 
homicide interrogations are routinely recorded, if only to ensure 
that no one gets away with murder on a technicality. Yet, it has 
happened time and again.

As thorough as the study committee's work seems, there are other 
problems they could not get to, such as mentally ill defendants 
facing the death penalty or application of DNA evidence in older cases.

But positive change must start somewhere, and the committee has shown 
the way. The centerpiece of their recommendations, the establishment 
of an independent commission to oversee death-row defenses, could 
most quickly bring fairness to the system.

Of late, opponents have also begun to argue that the cost of death-
penalty cases, and of executing death-row inmates, is insupportable 
in a struggling economy. While the evidence supports their claims, 
that should not be the determining factor in changing this system — 
justice and humanity are what matter.

Will the legislature and the governor see it that way? For the sake 
of our state — which has the nation's second-highest rate of violent 
crime — we implore that they pass this legislation.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090324/OPINION01/903240323/1008