Death Row Likely to Become More Entrenched : Majority of Americans Found Favoring Continued Use of Capital Punishment

In the chilly midnight stillness, the state of Texas sent a lethal mix of poisons coursing through Michael Wayne Evans’ veins.

Strapped to a specially designed table, Evans finished a brief statement and closed his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said, took several shallow breaths and died.

Evans died for the brutal robbery-murder of a Dallas church pianist, a crime that took place a few months after Gary Gilmore’s Jan. 17, 1977, death by firing squad ended a 10-year national moratorium on executions.

In the 10 years from Gilmore’s noisy death to Evans’ quiet end last month, 66 men and one woman have been put to death. In the years to come, Death Row is likely to become more entrenched, more routine and more efficient in the numbers it sends to the executioner.

Dockets Crowded

Today, the U.S. Death Row population is four times as large as it was in 1977. Constitutional questions about capital punishment have become a body of law crowding federal court dockets. Florida has established a special office to handle death appeals; Texas has built a factory to keep Death Row inmates busy.

Yet debate over the death penalty has quieted. Despite arguments about its fairness and effectiveness, 86% of the people questioned in a new Media General-Associated Press poll favored the death penalty.

Only 33% saw its main objective as deterring crime. Fifty percent did not believe death sentences are handed out fairly.

Even opponents believe that capital punishment will be with us through the next generation.

‘Very Bad Mood’

“We live in a culture that is in a very bad mood,” said Henry Schwarzschild, head of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Capital Punishment Project. “People no longer want the death penalty as an answer to crime and violence. They want it because they think the son of a bitch should die.”

Death Row’s population is booming: When Gary Gilmore died, 460 people were under death sentence; today, 1,838 await execution in 33 states.

Four states, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont and South Dakota, have not convicted anyone under their death penalty statutes. Thirteen states have no death penalties.

The rate of growth, an average of 250 new prisoners a year, shows no signs of slowing.

Florida adds 2 1/2 inmates a month to its Death Row, the nation’s largest with 259 inmates. Ten years ago, the population was 82. Although 16 men have died in the state’s electric chair, the stream of new inmates has strained the system.

Others Displaced

‘It’s a constant cause of concern,” said Richard Dugger, outgoing warden of Florida State Prison in Starke. “We’re constantly displacing other inmates to make room for them.”

Texas, with 242 inmates, has about 70 murder trials under way where the death penalty is sought. It has executed 20 men since 1982. California, with 204 on Death Row, adds three inmates a month. Its last execution was in 1967.

The number of death sentences being handed down is even higher than reflected by prison populations.

From 1977 to 1985, 2,110 persons were sentenced to die while 889 left Death Row after winning new trials or resentencing from state and federal courts.

The number of death penalty reversals reflects an increase in the amount of capital punishment law as dramatic as the growth of Death Row.

Major Constitutional Issue

The Supreme Court has issued about two dozen death penalty edicts in the last 10 years, making it one of the premier constitutional issues of the decade.

Lower courts are swamped with Death Row appeals. Judge John Godbold, chief judge of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals until this fall, estimates each of the 45 to 55 death penalty cases his court reviews each year equals 30 other cases in terms of time and effort.

“The law in this area is very complicated,” he said. “As soon as you lay one issue to rest, something crops up in other areas.”

John Charles Boger, head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s efforts for Death Row inmates, used to tell attorneys they could read all capital case law in a weekend.

“Now I’m not sure if you started in January if you could know it all by June,” he said.

Quickening Steps

But there are signs that the legal steps to execution are quickening.

Ten years ago, six of every 10 Death Row inmates had their sentences overturned or reduced. Today, only four in 10 do.

Some federal circuits have cut filing time for capital cases. Florida requires Death Row inmates to begin their appeals within two years. There had been no limit.

Major constitutional issues used for appeals are becoming scarce as the Supreme Court rules on more and more cases.

“As the body of case law continues to grow, we lose some issues and that cuts off avenues to pursue,” said Tanya Coke, director of research for the NAACP defense fund.

Racial Bias Alleged

In a major case now before the court (McCleskey vs. Kemp), attorneys allege a racial bias in capital punishment, contending that the murder of white victims is more likely to result in a death sentence than the killing of blacks.

If the court agrees, it could halt capital punishment in this country. If the justices reject the argument, a major issue of appeal will disappear. Capital punishment opponents fear that would open a floodgate of executions.

Those fighting the death penalty have another problem. The rising number of cases and the high financial and emotional costs have created a shortage of attorneys willing to handle Death Row appeals. Because nearly all clients are indigent, attorneys must take on such appeals for free.

Florida Creates Office

After some Florida inmates facing execution dates could not get representation, the state Legislature last year created an $850,000 state Office of Capital Collateral Representative to handle appeals.

A key supporter was state Atty. Gen. Jim Smith, a death penalty supporter who argued that the office was needed for Florida to continue executions.

Director Larry Spaulding said 10 staff attorneys averaged 80-hour weeks the first year to try to keep up with the death warrants. “The problem is they gave us a 10-year backlog of cases,” Spaulding said.

The hectic legal maneuverings are far removed from those whose lives hang in the balance.

On Death Row 13 Years

James (Doug) McCray has been on Florida’s Death Row nearly 13 years for the rape and beating death of a 67-year-old woman. McCray once won a new trial, only to see the decision overturned.

Through years of legal battles, he has met only one of three attorneys who represented him. He said inmates often learn of their cases from television.

“You become nothing more than a piece of paper which has a story to it. Oftentimes that story is very ugly,” he said.

The long wait pushes some inmates to the boiling point.

“I’ve been screaming for six years that the state hasn’t been doing its job,” said Roger DeGarmo, who has been on the Texas Death Row that long for the kidnap-murder of a Houston woman. “They should do something to alleviate these cases. Instead, they compound the problem by adding more people to Death Row.”

Garment Factory

The problem of what to do with Death Row inmates has become acute in some states. In Texas, a partial solution was offered last summer by the Death Row Garment Factory.

The factory, a $230,000 reinforced Quonset hut built next to Death Row, produces $40,000 worth of bedding, aprons, diapers and caps each month. It is unique among the nation’s Death Rows.

About 100 of the state’s 242 Death Row inmates work in two shifts, five days a week, in exchange for more time out of their cells. Another perk: It is air-conditioned in the summer, a luxury in the stifling East Texas heat.

Plant Manager Chuck Coull said his workers are better than the general prison population. “They work harder and their attitude is better,” he said. “I wish I had more of them.”

1,000-Man Death Row

Coull will probably get his wish. Texas officials talk of a 1,000-man Death Row within the next decade. Big death penalty states, such as Florida and Georgia, expect to match that growth.

But the focus on the death penalty will likely shift from Southern states.

Within a few years, executions are expected to begin in California, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Death penalty supporters are replacing governors opposed to capital punishment in Kansas and New Mexico, where Gov. Toney Anaya commuted sentences of all five Death Row inmates in the last weeks of his term.

But death penalty opponents see the seeds of capital punishment’s demise in the flower of its success.

Wholesale Executions

The ACLU’s Schwarzschild points out that the only way to clear the growing numbers on Death Row is with wholesale executions.

“I’m not sure the country wants the spectacle of two to three executions every working day,” he said.

Others point to the costs.

Richard Moran, a sociologist at Mount Holyoke College, estimates that it costs prosecutors $500,000 to $1.8 million to win a death sentence.

‘Compelling Testimony’

“Not even the most avid supporters want to execute people in a casual manner, but the money spent in easing doubts makes for compelling testimony in their own right,” he said.

Some hope the problems and costs will change the public’s mind. But their efforts for the future offer little solace to Death Row residents, who are resigned to the present.

“I ultimately believe I will die, but waiting doesn’t mean I’m dead yet,” said McCray. “I just try to go about each day doing the best I can.”