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Law professor makes a case for death penalty moratorium
Derek Simons
Issue date: 3/10/08 Section: News
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"Missouri ranks 50 of 50 states in per-capita spending for indigent defense," O'Brien said.
He told the audience of future lawyers that where they stand on the death penalty is not a hypothetical issue.
"Most of you are going to run as fast as possible in the opposite direction when a judge calls you and says, 'Will you take this death penalty case?'" O'Brien said. "And that would be the rational response. … What has been happening in America since the Supreme Court gave a green light to executions in 1976 is that the bulk of these cases are being tried by cash-hungry drunks."
O'Brien gave various economic reasons for this characterization. He said the system in Houston, Texas, gives a $500 advance to those who accept capital cases. In Alabama, there is a $2,000 fee cap for lawyers, yet to adequately and effectively defend a client requires at least 2,500 hours of work. In other states, a lawyer might get $30-40 per hour, according to O'Brien.
In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright that if a person is too poor to afford a lawyer, the court has to appoint one.
"The problem is that the states have viewed Gideon as an unfunded mandate," O'Brien said. "In 1981, the Missouri Supreme Court said that doesn't create a Constitutional right to have the lawyer paid. … If you take a case … then you are committing, if you are a solo practitioner, to living in a cardboard box by the time the case is done."
He said people on both sides of the capital punishment are unhappy with the current situation. Those in favor of the death penalty think it takes too long to execute somebody and the deterrent effect is lost. Those against think the system is structured in a way that risks unjust executions, not just of the innocent, but also of those with mental retardations, according to O'Brien.
"The moratorium movement is based upon a simple concept," he said. "It is not anti-capital punishment per se. It is simply based on the notion that a system that would dispense death must first dispense justice."
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dudleysharp
Dudley Sharp
posted 4/05/08 @ 9:52 AM CST
Moratorium should fail
Rep. Bill Deeken (R-Jefferson City) and others have filed or co sponsored HB 1870, which would establish a moratorium on the death penalty until 2011, along with a death penalty study commission. (Continued…)
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