There is the incredible case in Texas of Melissa Lucio who faces execution by lethal injection on April 27th unless action is taken by the state’s parole board and Governor Greg Abbott. The 53-year-old domestic violence victim and mother of 14 has been on death row since her trial over the 2007 death of her two-year-old daughter. However, her lawyers argue she “falsely” admitted to killing her daughter after hours of intense police questioning, and that her daughter’s death was an accident and not the result of having been beaten. The case of course has drawn a lot of attention on the national scene and among state lawmakers in Texas.
Once again, there is rising opposition against the death penalty in the U.S. For example, the news outlet, The Independent, and the nonprofit Responsible Business Initiative for Justice have launched a joint campaign calling for an end to the death penalty in the U.S. High-profile executives like Ariana Huffington, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson are part of this initiative, as well as a number of American celebrities. At last count, there are twenty-seven states across America that still have the death penalty on the books, including Texas. Amnesty International notes that for every eight people executed in the United States since the 1970s, one person has been wrongfully convicted and later exonerated. That’s the ones we know about who were exonerated before they were killed. According the Amnesty International, for the 12th consecutive year, the U.S remained the only country to carry out executions in the Americas in 2020. After 17 years, the Trump administration had resumed federal executions, eventually putting 10 men to death over five and a half months. Among Western industrialized countries, the U.S. remains the only country with the death penalty.
In Canada, capital punishment was abolished in 1976 by the Canadian government. Instead, Canadian courts can impose life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. However, there is a segment of the population that supports the reinstatement of the death penalty for murder in Canada. According to a poll by Angus Reid in 2012, a majority of Canadians polled supported reinstating capital punishment, particularly as a perceived so-called ‘deterrent’. However, this support “drops considerably” when given the choice of life in prison without parole. Today, the fact is that no federal government would dare support a return to capital punishment as it is not politically a high priority in Canada or an issue with much public support. It’s highly unlikely that any government or political party would suggest bringing back the death penalty.
According to Amnesty International, by the end of 2020, 108 countries (a majority of the world’s states) had abolished the death penalty in law for all crimes and 144 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice. The fact of the matter is that in those conservative American states, often governed by Republicans, there is little possibility that the death penalty might be banned and replaced entirely by life in prison without parole. Nevertheless, some states have introduced moratoriums on executions which may or may not continue depending on the politics of the day.
Once again, the high-profile case of Melissa Lucio, where there are so many unresolved questions surrounding the case and the evidence used to convict her, has raised concerns over the continuing use of capital punishment. Despite such cases, it appears highly unlikely that the affected state legislatures would be willing to once again debate the use of the death penalty. It will be very interesting to see whether Texas Governor Greg Abbott will spare the life of this unfortunate woman and mother who appears to be innocent. The real question is how many innocent people are you okay with being punished so that a guilty person can be executed? I would answer: “One is too many!”
FROLITICKS 