Death Penalty News

South Carolina 

South Carolina authorized the use of the electric chair and firing squad as the state reached a decade without any execution. The state supreme court upheld the death penalty. Two justices partially dissented.

The relevant state constitutional provision bars "cruel, nor corporal, nor unusual punishment." The Eighth Amendment bars "cruel and unusual" punishment. The state wording suggests three different barriers as compared to the federal wording which has one. 

Two justices flagged the separate "unusual" provision to argue the firing squad is unconstitutional. South Carolina never executed someone by the firing squad. The method was only used by Utah and (some time back) the military. Does sound "unusual."

The majority argued that it is the new law was passed "only because of the State's struggle to obtain the drugs necessary to carry out executions by way of lethal injection." One justice did not care. There is a barrier to "unusual" punishments, full stop. 

The other dissenter also flagged evidence that the firing squad is cruel, raising various risks. A few people who rather not have a death penalty did suggest it might be best of the flawed methods out there. He also found the electric chair a violation of the clause. 

No South Carolina execution is scheduled. 

Arthur Lee Burton 

Burton was sentenced over twenty-five years ago for raping and murdering a Houston jogger. Since sometimes people think opponents of the death penalty want to deny the crime, here is a summary:

On July 29, 1997, in Houston, Texas, Burton confronted a white female while she was jogging through her neighborhood. He then forced her into a nearby wooded area and was attempting to rape her. The victim heard a witness approaching and began to scream. Burton then strangled her to death with her own shoelaces. He fled the scene on foot.

Burton denied murdering her, alleged a confessional statement was coerced, and raised other due process claims. Early on, he won a resentencing but lost later appeals. I can understand why people want him dead.

Keeping him on death row for so long raises concerns about execution after an extended time on death row. As Justice Breyer argues, the length of time alone is cruel, and a result of arbitrary treatment. Also, the valid public purpose involved in executing someone diminishes over time.  

A rape/murder is the type of "worse of the worst" you might expect a death sentence. The defense cited his role as a father to humanize him. 

The final SCOTUS appeal alleged Texas wrongly ignored evidence he was intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution. That was dismissed without comment.

He committed a horrible crime. He was in prison (no note of problems) for over twenty-five years. If you want, keep him there. I do not know what executing him after all this time really adds.  

Texas executed Burton. 

Taberon Dave Honie

The Utah last executed someone in 2010. It was done by a firing squad. This time it was lethal injection. 

Utah refused clemency to Honie, who was found guilty of stabbing to death his girlfriend's mother. 

He argued that his heavy drinking and drug use made him not in his "right mind." He also wanted to continue to live to support his mother and daughter. 

The crime took place in 1998 and the time lag raises the same problems as the first case.

The defense also raised mitigation:

Honie's lawyers say a traumatic and violent childhood coupled with his longtime drug abuse, a previous brain injury and extreme intoxication fueled his behavior when he broke into his girlfriend's mother's house and killed her following what Honie's lawyers called “a domestic dispute.”

The lawyers also flagged other procedural concerns. The response is that it was a brutal premeditated attack. Also, there is evidence he molested a young child. The state also agreed, after a legal challenge, to use a safer lethal injection method. 

Honie was justly prosecuted for committing a horrible crime that appears to have had a personal competent. (Revenge against his girlfriend.) A prison term of twenty-five years sounds like an adequate punishment. 

No final appeals. Utah executed Honie.

9/11 Plea Deal (On/Off) 

The federal government reached a plea deal with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and two co-conspirators involved in the 9/11 attacks. The death penalty is off the table. They can receive life imprisonment and have to assist the prosecutors.

Many of the victims' families (we all might be said to be victims of 9/11) strongly opposed such a plea. Nonetheless, this analysis explains there are strong arguments that it is good for the country. 

And, "many" are not "all." Ted Olson, for instance, supports a plea deal. His wife died on one of the planes. He is a well-known conservative though he also supports same-sex marriage. 

The federal government mishandled the "war on terror" in various respects, including tainting any possible criminal punishments by mistreating detainees, sometimes by methods rightly labeled torture. Trying people via military commissions lingered on for decades. 

This provides an additional reason to be satisfied with a plea deal. Some sense of finality can be reached. We still have a small number of people in GITMO. Nonetheless, a large number have been released.

A person who is a leader of mass murder "deserves" the death penalty in certain ways. There still are problems even here, including concern about making people martyrs. It was the right move.

The Secretary of Defense, however, decided to override it. The news came out late last Friday, the traditional time to announce when you don't want things reported during normal news cycles.

Some liberal-minded sources denounced it as a stupid cynical thing. It is on some level. The whole process comes off as a SNAFU. OTOH, merely sneering at the decision not to accept a plea lacks some empathy. There is a basic human desire here for "justice" that can both be wrong and understandable.  

The whole thing just further delays things with the same problems of likely tainted evidence and legally problematic procedures in place. Sometime down the road, the same result might occur. 

Later This Month 

The governor of Florida also signed a death warrant. There will be another execution later this month.