'What the hell do you wear to someone's execution?'

Sunday's Washington Post has a grim story about people who volunteer to watch state executions in Virginia. Is it really a matter of 'duty' or just a desire based on self-righteousness and morbid curiosity that would drive such people to make that choice?

"I was like, 'What the hell do you wear to someone's execution?' " said Rosson, 27.
[...]
Rosson has never been a crime victim, but she's learned a lot about criminals as a jailhouse social worker. Most of the inmates are often short on intelligence and long on bad deeds -- a lot, she said, like Hedrick [convicted of the abduction, rape and killing of a young single mother, who begged for her life before Hedrick shot her with a 12-gauge shotgun].

It made her "a little uneasy" when she heard that Hedrick had an IQ of 76, Rosson said. That meant that he was right on the line of being mentally retarded (and ineligible for execution). He might not know what was coming next, she said.

She felt even more unsettled when she first caught sight of the death chamber. The huge oak chair looked as big as a throne and seemed to swallow the whole room.

"It takes a lot of courage to watch people die," she said. "It's not for the weak of heart. It takes a lot of courage to actually go and keep your eyes open the whole time. I think there were some people in that room who closed their eyes."

No, Ms Rossen, what really takes courage is for people like you who support the death penalty to come to your senses by looking at the facts about capital punishment, admitting how horribly wrong you are to condone such practices, and then lobby for change.

As long as the death penalty is maintained, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated.

Since 1973, 123 prisoners have been released in the USA after evidence emerged of their innocence of the crimes for which they were sentenced to death. There were six such cases in 2004, two in 2005 and one so far in 2006. Some prisoners had come close to execution after spending many years under sentence of death. Recurring features in their cases include prosecutorial or police misconduct; the use of unreliable witness testimony, physical evidence, or confessions; and inadequate defence representation. Other US prisoners have gone to their deaths despite serious doubts over their guilt. The state of Florida has the highest number of exonerations: 22.

The then Governor of the US state of Illinois, George Ryan, declared a moratorium on executions in January 2000. His decision followed the exoneration of the 13th death row prisoner found to have been wrongfully convicted in the state since the USA reinstated the death penalty in 1977. During the same period, 12 other Illinois prisoners had been executed. In January 2003 Governor Ryan pardoned four death row prisoners and commuted all 167 other death sentences in Illinois.

The United States has the largest number of prisoners per capita in the world. That is not a badge of honour, especially when some 62% of prisoners are in remand awaiting trial or release. The US so-called justice system is not only broken, it's corrupted by political ambitions, a stark lack of equal justice for all and the horrid practice of executing the mentally ill.

From Amnesty International's 2005 Report:

Prisoners with histories of serious mental illness continued to be sentenced to death and executed.

* Charles Singleton was executed in Arkansas on 6 January. At times on death row, his mental illness had been so acute that he had been forcibly medicated.

* Kelsey Patterson, diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, was executed in Texas on 18 May. The Texas governor rejected a recommendation for clemency from the state Board of Pardons and Paroles in his case.

* On 5 August James Hubbard was executed in Alabama. He was 74 years old – the oldest person to be put to death in the USA since 1977 – and had been on death row for more than a quarter of a century. James Hubbard was reported to suffer from dementia which sometimes led him to forget who he was and why he was on death row.

In May, 2005, the UN Committee Against Torture condemned commonplace treatment of inmates in US prisons that violate international treaties and made recommendations:

* Ensure the separation of children from adults in detention. In addition, it called upon the USA to review its use of life imprisonment in the case of children, given that such sentences can amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In a joint report issued in October 2005, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reported that more than 2,000 child offenders were serving sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, in violation of international law.

* Ensure that women in custody are treated fully in accordance with international standards. The Committee expressed particular concern at the practice of shackling of pregnant women detainees during labour.

* Review the regime in "super-maximum" security prisons, particularly the resort to prolonged isolation of prisoners. This reiterates the Committee’s 2000 recommendation.

* Strictly regulate the use of electro-shock weapons, such as tasers and stun belts, and limit their use to a substitute for lethal force. The Committee stressed that the practice of using electro-shock weapons to restrain those already in custody was a breach of the Convention and should be eliminated. The USA rejected the Committee’s findings in 2000 on electro-shock weapons. It should not reject its recommendations a second time.

The issues of the death penalty and justice reform weren't even on the radar screen during the 2006 elections. The Democrats, who claim to stand for human and civil rights, successfully ignored the cruel state of affairs in their country's prison system and it seems that no one in power in DC even wants to talk about the fact that innocent people rotting on death row and in prisons are too often denied DNA or other testing of evidence that might exonerate them. That task is left to groups of law students like the one guided by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld called The Innocence Project in what is one of the worst examples of governmental irresponsibility and outsourcing.

So, when I see a story like the one in Sunday's Washington Post quoting a young woman who brags about how much 'courage' it takes to watch an execution and then continues on to support the death penalty, I am left wondering exactly what kind of 'courage' that is. It certainly isn't anything I'm familiar with.

Bass [a regional manager with the Virginia Department of Corrections] warned the witnesses that they might hear some shouting from other inmates as they enter the death chamber. The condemned man might drool as about 2,000 volts of electricity arced across his body. There could be a little blood. They might notice an odor of burning flesh.

The inmate's body, he explained, forms a circuit. Small sponges dipped in briny water affixed to the inmate's shaved right leg and head help ensure that the electricity flows. After the condemned man's last words, the warden inserts a key to activate the system.

"It's like turning the ignition key in your car," Bass said.