VADP

Sandy Hausman - Monday, January 30, 2012 07:18 AM

Back in the early to mid-1990s, courts were imposing well over 300 death sentences every year. But for the past 15 years, that number has been going down; last year, there were only 78 cases that ended with a call for capital punishment.  David Bruck directs the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse at Washington and Lee University.  He says capital cases are far more complex, take much longer and cost at least ten times as much to prosecute.

“To pick a jury that is capable of hearing a death penalty case, there has to be a very elaborate winnowing process where people’s attitudes about the death penalty get explored.  All of that is time consuming, and as a result a capital trial can be 3, 4, 5, 6 times longer than the very same case if it was tried without the death penalty.”

Add to that the fact that DNA evidence has shown people are often wrongly convicted.

“The small number of cases in which there is DNA has revealed a much greater error rate than we ever thought possible.”

In the last four years, he adds, four more states have decided not to impose the death penalty, and the U.S. Supreme Court has chipped away at the number of cases where capital punishment can be imposed.

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This past September, the Georgia case of Troy Davis captured the nation's attention and galvanized a growing nationwide movement against the death penalty. Georgia executed Davis, an African-American convicted of murder in the 1989 shooting of a white security guard, notwithstanding serious doubts about his guilt, including statements disavowing their original testimony by most of the witnesses who had identified Davis as the shooter at his trial.

Davis' case has prompted renewed calls for abolition of capital punishment as a flawed and fundamentally unjust practice that risks killing the innocent, is visited disproportionately on people of color and other minority groups, is too expensive and is not necessary for public safety. According to the most recent polling data, public support for the death penalty is at its lowest level in decades. Four states have ended capital punishment since 2007 and strong abolition efforts are under way in a number of other states.

Where is Virginia in this current national debate?

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Every Sunday as I enter my church, I am greeted by a rendering of the crucified Christ upon the cross — a common image in many churches, in all its disturbing glory.

The cross upon which Christ was crucified is the dominant image of, for and about Christianity.

The cross and the crucifixion have several levels of meaning for Christians. On the most basic level, the image of the crucified Christ is an abject symbol of man's inhumanity to man, as well as the horrific outcome of capital punishment. A man sentenced to death and nailed to a cross for a slow, painful, public death.

According to Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, capital punishment is on the decline across the country....

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On January 23, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the state of Ohio challenging the unconditional writ of habeas corpus and bar to the re-prosecution of Joe D'Ambrosio (pictured), thus ending the capital case. He has now been freed from death row with all charges dismissed.  A federal District Court had first overturned D'Ambrosio's conviction in 2006 because the state had withheld key evidence from the defense.

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