Death Penalty Repeal - Voices from Police, Prosecutors, and Correctional Officials

by: Andrew Kujan

Tue Mar 13, 2007 at 03:55 PM EDT

Their opposition is very powerful, and it directly contradicts many of the pro-death penalty arguments made in recent weeks about prison security and police security in general, as it relates to executions.

The letter and press release really are a knockout punch in this argument. You can find them here at the top of the page. Lets take a deeper look.

Read more...

First, the argument that the death penalty protects prison workers is decimated (emphasis mine):

"I've been in this system for over 40 years. I've been held hostage and been through multiple prison riots," Calvin Lightfoot, the former Maryland Secretary Public Safety and Correctional Services, said in a statement today. "If someone told me that the death penalty would protect me as a corrections officer, I would be offended. Safety inside prisons depends on proper staffing, programming, and effective reintegration of inmates back into society. The death penalty does not safeguard anybody."

While I doubt anyone took the prison safety argument seriously, it is important to roundly criticize it.  Every possible "easy out" for Senator Mooney must be removed, and this was a big one.

The officers who wrote the letter are not activists, but in some cases, former death penalty supporters. They were indoctrinated in the efficacy of executions, and even they have rejected the punishment.

James Abbott, police chief of West Orange, NJ, and a member of the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission, which recently recommended that state repeal its death penalty statute, described his change of opinion about the death penalty after going through the Commission's lengthy hearings and deliberations.
  "I didn't go into my work on the Commission thinking I would vote to end the death penalty.  But I learned in practice that a fair and effective death penalty system doesn't exist," Abbott said.  "It doesn't make sense to keep reaching for the impossible when the alternative of life in prison without parole can provide swift and harsh punishment without putting victims' families through so much anguish."

"In practice," is the key.  Legislators need to continue to be reminded that they are legislating based on practice not general moral principle.  In practice, the death penalty is horribly, irreversibly flawed.

Now, the full text of the letter and the full list of signatories (sorry, its LONG):

Maryland Law Enforcement Officials for Repeal of the Death Penalty

The undersigned have years of experience as current and former prosecutors and other members of the law enforcement and justice communities.  After much deliberation, we have concluded that Maryland's death penalty does not work, wastes precious resources, and should be repealed. 

We have served as officers of the law because we wanted to prevent crime, protect citizens, and ensure justice.  We represent a variety of political perspectives and likely disagree about many issues.  Indeed, some of us support and others of us oppose the death penalty for philosophical and moral reasons.  Some of us have sought it as prosecutors, and some of us have not.  Our experiences have led us to believe that Maryland should replace the death penalty with the swift and severe sentence of life without parole.  That punishment did not exist when Maryland enacted its death penalty law, but today it does.  Life without parole means that dangerous criminals will never be released.

Our state's use of the death penalty over the last two and half decades has proven cumbersome and ineffective. 

It is enormously expensive and expends precious resources that could be put to more effective crime-fighting uses such as putting more police on the streets, so that dangerous criminals are stopped before they prey on others. 

In the last three decades, Maryland has sentenced nearly 60 people to death; five have been executed and six people remain on death row.  The system rightly requires extra levels of judicial scrutiny of any capital conviction because of the irreversibility of an execution.  The result of this important caution, however, is that nearly 100% of death sentences in our state are reversed at some point.  The inevitable years of appeals, retrials, and resentencings in capital cases prolongs the process, clogging the courts and placing an enormous emotional burden on murder victims' families. 

Most importantly, any system administered by human beings is fallible and makes mistakes, even when those of us who labor within that system act with good faith and extreme care.  Death is a punishment that is irrevocable, and the risk of executing the wrong person is too great.

We bow to no one in our support for tough law enforcement policies.  We believe, however, that tough law enforcement policies must also be smart and effective.  After much study and deliberation, we have come to believe that Maryland's death penalty is neither smart nor effective.  Nor, because it is necessarily imposed in an inconsistent manner, is it tough. 

We believe that the problems of our own state's system are no different than the problems elsewhere; the experience of other states convinces us that any attempt by Maryland to fix these problems would exhaust more of our state's scarce resources, only to fail.

We conclude that the problems plaguing the administration of Maryland's death penalty are too complex and profound to be fixed.  For all of these reasons, we have joined together to call for repeal of the death penalty in Maryland and to let it be replaced it with a sentence of life without parole.

Full List of Signatories

Gary E. Bair, Greenbelt, MD
Solicitor General, Criminal Division, Office of the Attorney General of Maryland, 2002-2004
Chief, Criminal Division, Office of the Attorney General of Maryland, 1987-2002

Gertrude C. Bartel, Baltimore, MD
Assistant Attorney General for Criminal Appeals and Correctional Litigation, 1983-1984
Assistant State's Attorney, Baltimore City, 1980-1983

Bob Bonsib, Greenbelt, MD
Chief, Felony Trials Division, Prince George's County State's Attorney's Office
Deputy State's Attorney, Prince George's County, 1987-1990
Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1983-1987
Assistant State's Attorney, Prince George's County, 1974-1983

Linwood T. Bradford, Sr., Upper Marlboro, MD
United States Secret Service, Uniform Division (ret.)

Roland Brown, Clinton, MD
Police Officer (ret.), District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department

Edward Burns, Baltimore, MD
Detective (ret.), Baltimore City Police Department
Writer/Producer, HBO's The Wire

Matthew Campbell, Frederick, MD
Deputy State's Attorney, Howard County, 1999-2002
Deputy State's Attorney, Montgomery County, 1984-1998
Assistant State's Attorney, Montgomery County, 1977-1984

Judy Catterton, Rockville, MD
Assistant State's Attorney, Montgomery County, 1973-1982

David Chapman, Mitchellville, MD
Police Officer (ret.), District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department

Walter Chase, Trappe, MD
Chief of Police, Town of Easton, 1995-1998
Police Officer (varying ranks), Town of Easton, 1959-1995
John L. Clark, Gaithersburg, MD
Corrections Trustee for the District of Columbia, 1997-2002
Warden and Assistant Director of Bureau, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 1974-1997

Daniel M Clements, Baltimore, MD
Chief of Special Prosecutions, Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1974-1979
Trial Attorney, United States Department of Justice, 1972-1974

Thomas L. Crowe, Baltimore, MD
Chief, Criminal Division, United States Attorney's Office, 1977-1978
Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1973-1978
Trial Attorney, Criminal Division, United States Department of Justice, 1970-1973

J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Baltimore, MD
Attorney General of Maryland, 1987-2007

Laurie A. Doherty, Boyds, MD
Enforcement Branch Chief, Enforcement Division, United States Securities & Exchange Commission, 1997 -1999
Enforcement Attorney, Enforcement Division, United States Securities & Exchange Commission, 1989-1997

Anthony Floyd, Clinton, MD
Police Officer (ret.), District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department

Daniel F. Goldstein, Baltimore, MD
Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1976-1982

Andrew Jay Graham, Baltimore, MD
Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1971-1974

R. Kelly Graham, Takoma Park, MD
United States Secret Service, Uniform Division (ret.)

Murray A. Hall, La Plata, MD
United States Bureau of Engraving Police

Leonard Hamm, Baltimore, MD
Commissioner, Baltimore City Police Department, 2004-Present
Edward Hampton, Mitchellville, MD
United States Park Police, 1972-1992

Martin S. Himeless, Jr., Baltimore, MD
Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1986-1990

Delegate James W. Hubbard, Bowie, MD
Special Assistant to the Director, Prince George's County Department of Corrections, 2002-Present
Lieutenant Colonel, Prince George's County Sheriff's Office, 1972-2002
Member, Maryland House of Delegates, 1992-Present

Dr. Johnnie A. Jones, III, Largo, MD
Acting City Attorney, New Mexico, 1997-1998
Assistant City Attorney, New Mexico, 1994-1997
Assistant District Attorney, New Mexico, 1986-1992
Professor, Prince George's Community College

Marcus Jones, Gaithersburg, MD
Police Lieutenant and Deputy Director of Training, Montgomery County Police, 1985-Present

Gordon C. Kamka
Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services, Maryland, 1979-1981
Warden, Baltimore City Jail, 1973-1979

Dale P. Kelberman, Baltimore, MD
Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1987-2003
Assistant Attorney General of Maryland, 1979-1987
Assistant State's Attorney, Baltimore City, 1975-1979

Paul F. Kemp, Rohrersville, MD
Assistant State's Attorney, Montgomery County, 1974-1978

Willie "Sonny" Leggett, Baltimore, MD
Corrections Officer, 1973-1996

Michael R. Levy, Bethesda, MD
Trial Attorney, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Division of Enforcement, 1987-1989

Chuck Lewis, Laurel, MD
Police Officer (ret.), District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department

Calvin A. Lightfoot, Baltimore, MD
Deputy Secretary and Secretary, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, 1983-1987
Executive Deputy Commissioner, NY State Dept of Correction Services, 1981-1983
Warden, Baltimore City Jail, 1979-1981
Corrections Officer, 1963-1979

James Joseph Madigan, Baltimore, MD
Correctional Lieutenant, 1999-Present

Gerard P. Martin, Baltimore, MD
Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1972-1977
Trial Attorney, United States Department of Justice, Criminal Division, 1970-1972

Thomas Campbell Morrow, Towson, MD
Assistant State's Attorney, Dade County. Florida, 1979-1980
Assistant Attorney General, Maryland Criminal Investigations Division, 1978-1979
Assistant State's Attorney, Baltimore County 1975-1978

Patrick V. Murphy, Bethesda, MD
Police Consultant, Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson, 2002-2004
Chair, Montgomery County Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission, 1991-1995
Director, Police Policy Board, United States Conference of Mayors, 1985-1998
President, Police Foundation, 1973-1985
Commissioner, New York City Police Department, 1970-1975
Commissioner, Detroit Police Department, 1969-1970
Deputy Chief, New York City Police Department, 1964-1965
Chief of Police, Syracuse, New York, 1962-1964
Police Officer to Deputy Inspector, New York City Police Department, 1945-1962

Michael R. Pearson, Greenbelt, MD
Assistant State's Attorney, Prince George's County, 1999-2004

Clarence Sanders, St. Mary's County, MD
United States Bureau of Engraving Police

Charles P Scheeler, Baltimore, MD
Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1984-1989
Kurt Schmoke, Baltimore, MD
State's Attorney, Baltimore, 1982-1987
Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1978
Mayor, Baltimore, 1987-1999

Stuart O. Simms, Baltimore, MD
Secretary of Maryland Dept of Public Safety and Correctional Services, 1997-2002
Deputy State's Attorney and State's Attorney, Baltimore City, 1983-1995

Montella E. Smith, Ellicott City, MD
Detective Sergeant, Baltimore County Police Department, 1984-2004

Honorable Andrew Sonner, Rockville, MD
Judge, Court of Special Appeals, 1996-2004
State's Attorney, Montgomery County, 1971-1996
Ronald E. Stalling, Clarksville, MD
United States Secret Service, Uniform Division, 1970-2002
Thomas M. Tamm, Rockville, MD
Assistant State's Attorney, Montgomery County
Trial Attorney, Capital Case Unit, United States Department of Justice
Assistant United States Attorney, Washington D.C.
Vincent Tolson, Laurel, MD
Police Officer (ret.), District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department
Joshua Treem, Baltimore, MD
Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1973-1978
Ben Vaughan, Rockville, MD
Assistant State's Attorney, Montgomery County, 1983-1985
Rodney Wilkinson, Temple Hills, MD
Police Officer, District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department
Benjamin Wright, Baltimore, MD
Patrolman, Pageland, SC Police Department, 1975-1980
Professor, University of Baltimore