OK, I understand due process, etc and that courts have a lot of cases to hear, but the length of time between sentence and execution seems absurd. Take Tookie Williams. The man was convicted and sentenced in 1981. Now, 24 years later, he is executed. How long do these appeals take? How many stages of appeal are there? Can lawyers just keep appealing to different courts hoping to get the result they want?
24 years! It’s difficult to comprehend how things could take that long. I’m not against the death penalty per se, but isn’t it cruel and unusual punishment to stretch things out like this? (A point somewhat vitiated, I confess, by the fact that it is often the condemned man staving off his execution by endless appeals. But even so, couldn’t they do it a little more quickly?)
The system is designed to give the convicted person every conceivable chance to overturn any part of the decision, the conviction itself or the penalty.
If you can get the text of Governor Schwartzenegger’s clemency denial (warning – PDF file) you’ll see that it includes a rundown of the various chances Williams had: Five state habeas corpus petitions, a federal habeas corpus petition, an appeal to the 9th circuit court, and a number of post-trial evidentiary hearings. There have been a total of at least 8 substantive judicial opinions, and finally, a turndown by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Each of these takes time for the attorneys to prepare their case, to set up a court date, etc.
The *state * is not stretching things out; at any time the convicted killer could have put an end to the appeals.
Oh, it’s got something to do with constitutional rights, blah, blah, blah…
In some cases, even if the condemned wants to die as soon as possible, some anti-death-penalty group will file an appeal on his behalf.
What’s difficult with these long lead-times to execution is that the condemned can repent and actually turn into a fairly decent human being. Then again, we don’t want to execute a truly innocent man.
I’m for the death penalty in principle (an eye for and eye), but the inconsistancies disturb me.
According to a debate thread, you are required to appeal your case. I have no idea on the accuracy of that nor if that is a “every possible appeal” or is simply a minimum.
Generally, you must exhaust your state remedies before beginning appeals to the federal court. This makes sense, because in federal court, you generally are arguing that the state court screwed up, and if there’s a chance that the state court will correct its ruling without federal intervention, the feds want that to happen.
As for the time that it takes, one of the problems is that there are relatively few death-qualified appellate lawyers in the US. In addition, the amount that the state pays for an appellate brief is relatively little (assuming the defendant is indigent), so there’s little incentive for other lawyers to take on this highly specialized work. So although there are time limits within which a brief must be filed, the lawyer can seek extensions of time. And he’ll need the time.
Appealing a death sentence is difficult; you have to review the entire transcript, combing it for any potential error you can point out to the court. If a trial took three weeks, the transcript could easily run 5,000 pages or more. That can take a lot of time to go through, cross-reference with the exhibits, etc. If you leave something out of the appeal, you can’t raise it later. So you need to be very, very thorough in the first instance.
Overall, twenty-four years does seem like a long time, but if the reports are accurate, Mr. Williams had several appeals in there. I don’t know anything about the case, but there may also have been a strategy of delay. As you may know, at one time the death penalty was held unconstitutional. There are people who remain hopeful that the Supreme Court will return to that position one day. I have no idea whether this factored into the time it took to reach this morning’s execution.
Just this past week in Georgia, a man convicted of a rape and has spent the last 24 years (!) in jail was released after DNA evidence proved he didn’t do it.
There was also an independent report done recently on a man executed in Texas who was determined to have not have committed the crime.
It’s not the appeals system, it’s that people are wrongly convicted all the time. Eyewitness testimony is particular is a major problem. Throw in state provided defense lawyers who are overworked, underpaid and don’t give a crap, you’re going to have 5-10% of the population on death row that shouldn’t be there.
The issue is not if 24 years is too long, but is 24 years long enough when someone’s life is on the line. Maybe in 5 years something even more amazing than DNA evidence will be invented.
Not only do you need to review the trial transcript, but all of the files of all of the lawyers who touched the case, all transcripts of evidentiary hearings, all motions that were filed, all previous appellate briefs (if someone else handled previous appeals), and all appellate opinions (if there are any). You have to keep your eyes out for ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, among other things.
It’s interesting to note that the 4th Circuit explicitly states it does not cap what it will pay. I suspect that the practice is, however, that certain hours billed are disallowed as “excessive,” or are paid at a rate lower than $160 an hour.
Whew, I’m beginning to get some idea of the work involved in this process, there must be a mountain of paperwork, growing with each appeal.
It wasn’t always this way though, was it? The path to the electric chair, gas chamber or whatever was much shorter years ago. Did lengthy appeals come in with the re-introduction of capital punishment, or was the process already getting more complex before abolition? Was it as a consequence of some change in state or federal law, a re-interpretation of the Constitution, or did defense lawyers just get more zealous?
