New Wave of Executions

The state of Louisiana executed its fourth person in 10 days earlier this week, after which the warden at the state prison in Angola declared, “I need to rest a while.”

In fact, no rest is in sight for executioners in any state. All broad legal challenges having been exhausted, executions will continue apace.

Jimmy Wingo, 35, a former policeman convicted of murdering a married couple during a burglary in 1982, was the most recent person to die. He was the 79th person executed in the United States since 1976, when the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment. This is just the start. About 1,900 people are currently on Death Rows, including 196 in California--one of whom may be led into San Quentin’s gas chamber this year.

No rational argument seems able to dissuade those who believe that state-sponsored murder is the way to avenge heinous crimes and to prevent other people from committing them. The death penalty is unfairly and irrationally applied--falling disproportionately on the poor, the ignorant, the uneducated and the powerless. It is more likely to be imposed when the victim was white than when the victim was black. Despite these inequities, the courts do not step in.

It remains immoral for the state to kill someone, no matter how grievous his crime. Murder is no more defensible when done antiseptically by the state than when done by a thug with a pistol or a knife in the course of a holdup. The desire for revenge is strong, but it should give way to an absolute respect for life that society should embrace.

Progress is slow, but it does occur. Attitudes do change. The death penalty will be applied with regularity for the foreseeable future, but the range of crimes for which it can be applied has been narrowed over the years. For example, the crimes for which Caryl Chessman was put to death in 1960 in one of California’s most celebrated death-penalty cases are no longer capital crimes. Chessman did not kill anyone. He kidnaped and raped--crimes for which he could not be executed today.

There is also some legal hope. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected all of the broad-based challenges to the death penalty, individuals condemned to death may still bring appeals based on improprieties in their particular cases. This will put a strain on the legal system and on the volunteer or legal-aid lawyers who typically represent indigent people convicted of murder. But every time they save the life of a condemned personthey are advancing the highest standards of law, justice and morality.