The New York Times

Tuesday, September 28, 1999

1999 Is Busy Year for Executioners

The Associated Press

"With three months remaining, 1999 is already the deadliest year on the United States' death rows in almost half a century. Eighteen states have executed 76 killers, and the total could reach 100 by year's end.

Executions last Friday in Delaware and North Carolina raised the year's total to 76, the most since 1954, when 81 people were put to death in American prisons. If the year's toll reaches 100, it would be the first time since 105 people were executed in 1951.

Between 1930 and 1967, the nation's prisons carried out 3,859 executions, an annual average of more than 100."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Many people knew who Gary Gilmore was in 1977 when he became the first U.S. inmate executed in a decade. Hardly anyone has heard of Willie Sullivan and Harvey Lee Green, the latest of 76 killers put to death so far this year.

Death row is a growth industry. ``It's no longer big news when people are executed,'' says Yale Kamisar, a University of Michigan law professor.

This year's execution total, with three months still remaining, is the largest number since 1954, when 81 killers received what courts call the ultimate punishment. If the year-end toll reaches 100, it would be the first time since 105 people were executed in 1951.

``I don't see any lack of support'' from the public, says John B. Holmes Jr., district attorney in Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston. His office seeks a death sentence in 12 to 20 cases a year and almost always succeeds.

``What sometimes people lose sight of is that prosecutors don't give the death penalty -- it takes a unanimous 12 folks (on a jury) to do it,'' Holmes said. ``We don't seek it callously or inadvisedly. ... These people we're seeking death on generally have awful records.''

There's the man executed in Missouri for beating a woman to death after she refused to pay him $30 to wash her car. A man put to death in Texas used a meat cleaver to kill a man whose stereo he wanted.

Kamisar, who opposes the death penalty, says, ``The average person can always think of one outrageous case where they wouldn't mind executing someone.

``The issue is what happens when we have a system which puts thousands of people on death row,'' he added.

The execution trend continues heading upward.

``It hasn't peaked yet,'' said Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, a group critical of how capital punishment is administered. ``One-hundred, fifty is probably where things may max out over the next three to four years.''

Eighteen of the 38 states with death penalty laws have imposed capital punishment this year, and -- as in many previous years -- Texas is first with 25 executions so far this year. Virginia is second this year with 11, followed by nine in Missouri and six in Arizona.

States have executed 576 convicted killers since the Supreme Court ended a four-year nationwide ban on capital punishment in 1976. Currently, about 3,565 people are on death rows across the nation.

The number of people sentenced to death across the country averaged about 300 a year from 1986 through 1996, then dipped to 256 in 1997. If that is the beginning of a trend toward fewer death sentences, Dieter said, the number of executions eventually could start heading down as well.

Between 1930 and 1967, U.S. prisons carried out 3,859 executions -- an annual average of more than 100.

Gilmore did not try to stop his execution before a Utah firing squad in 1977. But the next inmate executed, John Spenkelink, fought in court until the end, and many other inmates have filed multiple appeals in an effort to avoid the death chamber.

In recent years, Congress and the Supreme Court have sought to speed up the federal court appeal process by limiting the number of appeals inmates can file.

These days, only a few death penalty cases get heavy public attention, such as the 1998 execution of Karla Faye Tucker in Texas and Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan's decision in January to commute the death sentence of triple murderer Darrell Mease after a face-to-face appeal from Pope John Paul II.

Most cases get little notice, like those of Sullivan, executed Friday in Delaware, and Green, put to death the same day in North Carolina.

EDITOR'S NOTE -- Laurie Asseo covers the Supreme Court and legal affairs for The Associated Press.