October 31

Capital Punishment Debate Sees Shifts in U.S. States

By Carey Gillam

LANSING, Kan. - Five canvas straps looped with thick ankle and wrist restraints stretch across the white-sheeted gurney of the new death chamber in Kansas.

Just behind the bed, a narrow wall separates executioner from condemned, and a black telephone hangs ready to transmit any last-minute orders to halt the flow of lethal drugs.

The room is ready. But the prison staff at the Lansing Correctional Facility is not. Over the next few months, they will study the process of how to put someone to death. For when it comes to executions, Kansas is out of practice.

The Midwestern state best known for its vast expanses of wheat fields has not executed anyone since 1965. Then, hanging was the method of choice.

But with four men now on death row and other capital murder cases winding their way through the courts, Kansas, which reinstituted capital punishment in 1994, has done away with the old gallows and is moving into the modern era of executions.

``We want to make sure any execution ... is done with respect and dignity for everyone involved,'' said Kansas Secretary of Corrections Charles Simmons during a press tour of the new execution facilities last week.

Kansas' move to build a new death chamber comes as debate and scrutiny surrounding capital punishment is intensifying throughout the United States.

Battles over the methods and morality of the act are waged in almost every U.S. state. Arguments that innocent people are being wrongly condemned are the focus in some states, while in others the style of execution is at issue. Debates also rage over whether discrimination leads minorities and poor people to be assigned a death sentence at a disproportionate rate.

In one of the most significant recent moves, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled on Oct. 5 that the electric chair amounted to cruel and unusual punishment and struck down that method.

In Nebraska, electrocution remains the sole method of putting prisoners to death. Efforts to do away with the chair have failed, as has a proposed moratorium on executions.

A CRITICAL EYE

Meanwhile, Illinois has suspended all executions. North Carolina has banned executions of those deemed mentally retarded. And in Texas, which leads the nation in executions, laws have been passed that allow for increased DNA testing and improved legal counsel for those facing capital punishment.

The first federal execution since 1963 took place earlier this year when the U.S. used lethal injection to put to death Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (news - web sites).

Amid all the changes, opponents of the death penalty, who call themselves abolitionists, say they are making headway like never before.

``I feel confident about our overall potential for success,'' Abe Bonowitz, director of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, told Reuters. ``I'm more optimistic about it than I've ever been.''

Recent polling data has shown a drop in support for the death penalty, though the majority of Americans still favor executions, which are allowed in 38 states. A recent Gallup Poll, for instance, showed support at about 66 percent, the lowest point in nearly 20 years.

As well, the tally of 85 executions carried out last year was down from 1999, and the count for 2001 -- 55 through Oct. 24 -- appears on track to post another decline, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which collects state and national data on executions. In all, more than 735 people have been executed in the United States since 1976 when a Supreme Court ruling reinstated capital punishment.

In another encouraging sign to abolitionists, the number of clemencies handed down to spare the lives of death row inmates is on the rise, albeit slightly, said Richard Deter, executive director of the information center.

From 1976 through the mid-1990s, clemencies nationwide averaged one a year, Deter said. In 1999, five were granted. There were two last year and three so far this year, he said.

``There are some recent trends which indicate a rethinking of the death penalty,'' Deter said. ``People are increasingly concerned about the death penalty, its accuracy and fairness. That is what is gaining ground -- a skepticism.''

Death penalty advocates acknowledge the shifting views but say that arguments for capital punishment as an effective deterrent, a protective measure against future crime, remain strong.

Advocates argue that information about innocent people on death row has been overstated and exploited, and they say that media bias has swayed the debate.

SEPT. 11 EFFECT

Some of the criticism of the death penalty has been mitigated by the Sept. 11 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites), according to capital punishment advocates. They say people who have previously been untouched by violence and crime are more apt to understand the reasons capital punishment has a place in the United States.

``Americans experienced a fleeting glance of how it feels to be a victim of violent crime,'' said Dianne Clements, spokeswoman for Houston-based Justice for All, which supports the death penalty.

``Most Americans believe that those responsible for these terror attacks should receive a death penalty, if they are ever brought into a court of law. (The attacks) created in America an invisible bond of horrific crime, punishment, and justice. In the future, people will be more apt to understand that murder is murder, and the murder of one is as abominable as the murder of 6,000.''

In Kansas, where four white men occupy death row, officials have designated separate protest zones outside the prison facility to make room for both advocates and opponents of capital punishment and the inevitable clashes that they expect will coincide with any execution.

The controversy also extends inside the towering limestone walls of the prison facility housing the execution chamber. While some prison workers have volunteered quickly to take roles assisting in futures executions, others have steadfastly refused to be involved.

``Some don't even want to tour the death chamber,'' said Lansing Warden David McKune. ``They don't want to see it or know anything about it.''