 |
| European Union Parliament, Strasbourg, France |
Despite unflagging support for the death penalty - the majority of Americans favor it, according to a recent poll - executions were down across America by 10 % in 2013, from 43 to 39, according to a year-end report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
In fact, only 80 new death penalty sentences were handed out last year, the 2nd-lowest number since 1973. In 1996, by comparison, 315 people were sentenced to death.
So why the decline? Though exonerations through DNA evidence and drops in violent crime (with some surprisingly encouraging news in Detroit and Chicago last year) play some role, another factor may be a shortage of the deadly drugs used to kill convicts.
Most of the drugs that are used in the constitutionally allowed lethal injection cocktail of American inmates - including sodium thiopental, pancuronium, and potassium chloride - are manufactured in Europe. Under the European Union's "Torture Regulation," exportation of any of those drugs for use in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in non "European Union countries" is barred. When American drug manufacturer Hospira moved its operations from North Carolina to Italy in 2011, it effectively ended many states' ability to use their preferred and legally acceptable fatal cocktail of choice.
In the wake of the decision, Hospira put out a statement on its website indicating the primary intent of the chemicals is medical in nature, not lethal: "Hospira's highest priority remains to provide unencumbered access to our medications for critically ill patients who rely on them every day. We continue to believe that efforts to influence policy on capital punishment are best directed at legislators who have the authority and ability to establish policy."
A Hospira spokesperson declined to comment further when asked about any change in the amount of drugs being shipped to the U.S.
Arkansas, California, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, and Tennessee have moratoriums on executions, all while keeping the death penalty formally on the books. Maryland became the 18th state to outlaw the death penalty last year.
In October, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon was forced to stay the execution of inmate Allen Nicklasson because the state was unable to obtain the anesthetic propofol, a drug manufactured in Germany that is used in both executions and common surgeries, without risking the EU banning its export for medical uses.
Can the EU effectively force what decades of American activism has failed to achieve?
Richard Dieter, executive director of Death Penalty Information Center, doesn't think so.
"There are a lot of ways to kill an individual," he tells TakePart. "I suspect states like Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma will not be stymied for very long if they run into a chemical problem. So long as the death penalty is considered constitutional, they will find some method that will be allowed."
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber placed a moratorium on executions in 2011, the same year EU chemical restrictions started to become problematic for states. But while the timing would certainly suggest European pressure forced the governor's hand, Ron Steiner, chairman of the board of directors for Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, says the 2 are unrelated.
"The chemical issue is not one here. Our governor presided over the last 2 executions in our state and found it extremely distasteful. This moratorium is based on the morality of the issue and futility of the system," Steiner says.
Other states, such as California, were forced to abandon their execution efforts when courts ruled their lethal injection procedures unconstitutional.
Steiner and Dieter agree that the efforts of groups like the Innocence Project have been far more effective in convincing the public and skeptical politicians of the fallibility of our criminal justice system - and the real possibility that the United States has been executing innocent people. Since 1973, 143 people have been freed from death row, mostly because of DNA evidence.
That isn't to say that the EU's chemical blockage won't have some effect on possibly ending the death penalty in America.
"It takes a strong commitment and political will to execute someone these days," says Dieter. "If you get a state that's already on the fence, like Maryland, when the lethal injection issue comes along because of European sanctions, they throw up their hands. The chemicals become one more frustrating problem requiring legislation and court challenges."
Right now 32 states have the death penalty as the law of the land. As that number starts to drop, in part from the lack of available chemicals, the public perception of a broader national consensus against the death penalty will build. Once that happens, it could pave the way for legal challenges to capital punishment.
"When courts have looked at the issue of capital punishment recently," says Dieter, "they say most of the public wants it. A broader consensus against the death penalty could change that."
Source: 4-traders.com, January 7, 2014