The 2001 Mississippi legislature will be asked to do away with the death

penalty and make the state's toughest penalty life without parole and

hard labor.

State Rep. John Mayo, D-Clarksdale, said he decided to put his religious

and personal convictions ahead of possible political fallout in making

the suggestion.

"Sometimes we have to take an unpopular action and accept the

consequences for doing so," Mayo said.

There are 62 inmates on death row. The last execution in Mississippi was on June 21, 1989, when convicted murderer Leo Edwards was put to death in the gas chamber.

Lethal injection is now the method of execution in the state.

Mayo said he also had practical reasons for opposing capital punishment, saying it was costly to taxpayers and not really a punishment.

"I'm not soft on crime," he said. "I've been down death row and maximum

security. It is a hell hole. I want the convicts to think about the

anguish they've caused people's family. I don't want them to die. I want

them to be miserable."

Mayo acknowledges that his bill likely won't survive when lawmakers

return to Jackson in January. He said taking the step should help push

the death penalty issue to the forefront of Mississippi politics, as it

has been on the national agenda.

"I hope that when we're in committee, we have a fair chance for a hearing

from all sides," Mayo said. "I hope we become a part of the national

debate on the death penalty." The death penalty has been a feature of

Mississippi history since statehood. For years, executions in Mississippi were held locally, by hanging, or later, with a portable electric chair that was transported from county to county.

(source: Biloxi Sun Herald)

USA:

Both supporters and opponents of the death penalty found one thing to

agree on during a debate on Monday: The American criminal justice

system is bound to occasionally send innocents to death row.

Of course, the 2 sides parted ways when, during a forum sponsored by

The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, they talked about what

the reaction to those mistakes should be.

The institute convened the panel of attorneys as the national

conversation on the fairness of the death penalty continues. It was

rekindled when Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, announced in

January a moratorium on executions after more Illinois death-row

inmates were freed than executed.

Federal appeals court Judge Alex Kozinski, a Republican appointee to the 9th Circuit in California, argued that a justice system heavily weighted against the prosecution helps make wrongful convictions rare.

And he said that errors should not lead to the abolition of capital

punishment.

Society should accept the few wrongful convictions because not having the death penalty is far worse, Kozinski said, using an analogy to make his point: People still fly in planes despite reports of crashes because air

travel offers the best alternative for getting where they want to go.

Kozinski said victims' families are denied closure and the country lowers

its regard for human life when those who kill are not punished more

severely than for other crimes.

"We do our best to separate the guilty from the innocent. But we have to

come to grips with the risk that every once in a while, hopefully every

once in a very great while, someone who is innocent will be punished,"

he said.

"If a state takes a life in error, it has done its best to avoid it. I

see no moral culpability there. ... It is unfortunate, it is sad, but it

is not a moral failing."

David Frum, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute in

New York, said death-penalty opponents are going against a majority of

Americans who support the punishment. Opponents pursue execution-delaying appeals, highlight the arbitrary nature of the punishment's application and undermine confidence in the system.

"It can be improved, anything can be," Frum said. "(But) this penalty is

fair, it is right and on the whole the American justice system does its

job."

New York attorney Jarett Decker agreed that some criminals commit crimes so heinous they deserve to be executed. But flaws in the system make it impossible to apply the sanction fairly and justly, and so it should be abandoned, he said.

Because of political pressure for convictions in high-profile crimes,

"the prosecution has to cut corners to get the job done," said Decker,

who has represented capital defendants in Texas and Pennsylvania.

Those corners frequently include using jailhouse informants, usually

considered less reliable, and relying on false or coerced confessions,

said Boston defense attorney Harvey Silverglate.

"I have no doubt in my mind that innocent people are put to death each

year," Silverglate said.

Still, Silverglate sees hope in several recent polls showing the share of

the public supporting the use of the death penalty, though still a

majority, has been declining.

A poll conducted in August for The Justice Project, which questions the

fairness of capital punishment's application, found 60 percent of

Americans support the death penalty, the lowest level of support in

almost two decades. The survey by Democratic polling firm Peter Hart

Research and Republican firm American Viewpoint contacted 802 voters

and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

(source: Daily Southtown)