Death penalty not too popular

Death penalty not too popular
New survey shows two-thirds of state's citizens prefer alternative punishment

By BURTON SPEAKMAN, The Daily News, bspeakman@bgdailynews.com

Saturday, January 6, 2007 11:29 PM CST

A state debate on the death penalty is getting renewed attention after a University of Kentucky survey showed two-thirds of Kentuckians would prefer another form of punishment.

It's not definite there will be hearings on the issue during the current legislative session, but the legislature is the place for the public to have a debate about the issue, according to Rep. Rob Wilkey, D-Scottsville. It's a marketplace of ideas, he said.

It would be beneficial for the public to discuss the issue, he said.

The survey released in December shows that 67.6 percent of Kentucky adults prefer some form of a long prison sentence rather than the death penalty.

Interviews were done with 836 Kentuckians over the age of 18. It asked, “If a person is convicted in Kentucky of aggravated murder, which of the following punishments do you personally think is most appropriate?”

It then gave the options of life without parole, life without parole for 20 years, life without parole for 25 years, 20 to 25 years in prison and the death penalty.

Of those possibilities, life without parole was selected by 36.2 percent of the those surveyed, while the death penalty was selected by 30.5 percent, the second-highest percentage.

The results show a higher level of opposition to the death penalty than in 1999, when a University of Louisville poll showed 53 percent of Kentuckians favored nonlethal punishments, according to a release from the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

“The UK survey confirms what we've known for a long time, that a growing number of Kentuckians oppose the death penalty,” said the Rev. Patrick Delahanty, director of the coalition. “Now it's time that Frankfort lawmakers and the governor hear what most of their constituents have to say about putting people to death in our name.”

It was surprising that the number had shifted that much, Delahanty said. But the trends have been moving toward fewer people supporting the death penalty for some time.

In previous studies, a larger percentage were undecided; in this one that number was down to 1.9 percent, he said.

“Those people didn't move toward the death penalty; they moved toward other forms of punishment,” Delahanty said.

Even if the poll doesn't indicate people are against the death penalty, it does at least show they have significant doubts about it, Wilkey said.

Not everyone agrees with that analysis.

The study is flawed because it doesn't ask specifically if people support the death penalty, said Chris Cohron, commonwealth's attorney for Warren County. In most cases, the death penalty is not the appropriate punishment, he said, and the follow-up question to the survey should have asked if the person believes the death penalty should be used in the worst cases.

“My experience in Warren County is I do believe in the most aggravated cases people do want that option,” he said.

Cohron will test that opinion with his filing to seek the death penalty in the Oct. 9 trial of Lawrence Robert Stinnett, 56, who is accused of murder and kidnapping in the death of 29-year-old Christina Renshaw at her apartment at 1712A Highland Way on Feb. 3. Stinnett lived with Renshaw in the apartment and she had been beaten to death.

Cohron chose not to seek the death penalty against the co-defendant, Alanda Latonia Lewis, 28, of Oklahoma City, who was also charged with murder and kidnapping.

Tim Coleman, commonwealth's attorney for Butler and Edmonson counties, agreed the study was flawed because it looked at a generic case.

“They need to look at a specific set of circumstances to let people decide what would be the most appropriate punishment,” said Coleman, who has filed to run for the state's attorney general.

Coleman said he has never sought the death penalty in any of his cases but there are a couple coming up where he is debating it.

Prosecutors and other people holding onto the death penalty are being unreasonable and are part of the reason why the public doesn't trust the justice system, Delahanty said.

Delahanty cites New Jersey as a state Kentucky should emulate. The state legislature there formed a commission about the death penalty and the results were that because of the problems the state should end capital punishment, he said.

Two states, Florida and California, that use lethal injection like Kentucky have suspended the practice. Florida suspended injections after it took 34 minutes and two tries to execute a man. In California, a federal judge stopped the process, ruling it unconstitutional, because it may inflict an unacceptable amount of pain.

Due to groups such as the Innocence Project that have been able to exonerate some people on death row, the public has been more uncomfortable with the concept, Wilkey said.

In Kentucky, prosecutors rarely seek the death penalty, he said.

“But people probably feel more comfortable sending someone to life in prison than they do taking someone's life,” Wilkey said. “I know I certainly feel that way.”

The court system is operated by people and no matter how hard they work, people can make mistakes, he said.

Taking someone's life and learning later it was a mistake is something very hard to deal with, Wilkey said.

“The common person doesn't understand things don't always work in the court system the way it does on ‘CSI,' ” he said. “The loss of an innocent life is something society would be responsible for.”

Kentucky has a lot of the same types of problems as other states, including innocent people such as Larry Osborne being convicted, or the cost of trying a death penalty case means most counties can't afford to try one, Delahanty said. Osborne spent three years on death row in Kentucky after being convicted of murdering a couple. Following a Kentucky Supreme Court decision he was acquitted during a retrial.

The cost of executing someone is another reason to do away with the death penalty. He said it costs two and a half times as much to kill someone as opposed to keeping them in prison for life, he said. The cost is affiliated with all the automatic hearings and appeals in a death penalty case.

“Life without parole serves the same goal of keeping that person off the street and saves the state money,” Delahanty said. “That's money that could be spent for services or to improve law enforcement.”

Cohron said he would like to see statistics that show it costs more to execute someone compared to keep them in prison.

“That's a statement frequently made by people against the death penalty, and I'm not sure it's accurate in Kentucky,” he said. “Even if it is more expensive, I don't think justice should be dictated by finances.”

In addition, Cohron said he has never heard of a prosecutor not pursuing the death penalty because of cost constraints. Cohron serves on the state prosecutor's board.

Opposition to the death penalty in Kentucky is ahead of national trends against the practice, said Gennaro Vito, a University of Louisville professor who analyzed the data.

“That comparison runs counter to the impression - the false impression, in fact - that the people of a state such as Kentucky could overwhelmingly oppose the death penalty, despite evidence that classifies them as conservative,” he said.

Two juries in Warren County have chosen the death penalty in the last year as the appropriate punishment, Cohron said. Both cases were Adair County cases that were moved to Warren County.

The current system allows jurors who represent the public to decide what the most appropriate sentence is based upon the facts of an individual case, both Cohron and Coleman agreed.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, filed legislation Friday seeking to abolish the death penalty in Kentucky.

“The hope is that (Burch's) bill will get a committee hearing during this session,” Delahanty said. “The fight to stop the death penalty will have to continue.”

- The Associated Press contributed to this story.