Where death is a way of life

There is one newspaper item that is grisly but compulsive reading - the black-bordered notices of executions. Inside the box are the details of where they are carried out: the method (injection, electric chair, gas, firing squad, hanging); the crime; appeals; last meal (often huge); last words.

A recent one was the execution of Odell Barnes (31) in Huntsville, Texas. He was convicted of raping, beating, stabbing and shooting Helen Bass (42) on November 29th 1989. Instead of a last meal, he requested justice, equality and world peace. His last words to his lawyers when strapped to the gurney for the lethal injection were: "I thank you for proving my innocence although it has not been acknowledged in the courts. May you continue in the struggle and may you change all that's been done here today and in the past."

His case had attracted international attention, and French Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, had appealed to Governor George Bush, who was campaigning during the execution, to stop it.

Barnes was the 10th person executed in Texas this year. There were 98 executions in the US last year, the highest since capital punishment was restored in 1976. There are 3,600 condemned on Death Row, many of them there for over a decade as their cases wend their way through the appeals courts.

The death penalty for murder is popular - if that is the right word - in the US. The latest Gallup poll on the issue shows that 71 per cent of the population approve of it. That is down from 81 per cent six years ago. But the poll also shows that support for the death penalty falls when people are asked what their view would be if life imprisonment without any possibility of parole were an alternative.

Relatives of murder victims get impatient with what they see as excessive concern about those on Death Row. Some of them have to walk past the anti-death penalty Benetton posters featuring the photographs of the men convicted of killing their loved ones and are understandably distressed that the victims seem to be ignored.

Few politicians are prepared to say they oppose the death penalty. Hillary Clinton, running for the Senate in New York, says she is "an unenthusiastic supporter". President Clinton also supports it and may soon have to approve the execution of a number of prisoners condemned for federal crimes.

It is normally the judicial system at states level which has responsibility for executions. Of the 50 states, 38 have the death penalty. But at present there are also 21 persons on Death Row for federal crimes, including Timothy McVeigh who was convicted for the 1995 Oklahoma bombing where 169 were killed. In these cases the President has the power to order a reprieve or to allow the execution to proceed.

One politician who has decided to cry "halt" is Governor George Ryan of Illinois who last month declared a moratorium on executions in the state while a review is carried out on the convictions of Death Row inmates in the state. He made this decision because of his concern over an alarming statistic.

Since 1977, 12 persons have been executed in Illinois but 13 others on Death Row have been released because their convictions were found to be flawed. In three cases, law students at Northwestern University working on projects found exonerating evidence. DNA evidence was involved in some of the cases. In others, faulty trial procedures and incompetent defence lawyers were the reasons. One prisoner, Anthony Porter, spent 15 years on Death Row and was once two days from execution. He owes his life to the student investigators who unearthed the guilty person who then confessed.

Governor Ryan is a supporter of the death penalty but the figures for faulty convictions shook him. There would be no more executions "until I can be sure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty. I have grave concerns about our state's shameful record of convicting innocent people and putting them on Death Row."

The European Union last month urged the governors of all states with capital punishment to follow Governor Ryan's example. Mary Robinson as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has also protested against the use of the death penalty, especially for crimes committed when the condemned were juveniles.

Several other states are now considering moratoriums. But Texas, where Governor Bush is often asked about his state's record for executions, is not one of them. Governor Bush always answers that he has no doubt whatever that the 112 persons, including two women, executed under his watch as governor were guilty.

He points out that he is simply allowing the law to take its course after he has reviewed all the circumstances of the death sentences. He cannot overturn the decision of the Pardons Board which he appoints and does not have the power to commute a death sentence, unlike some other governors, but he can order a 30-day delay so that a further appeal can be lodged.

Recently in Texas, a court ordered a prisoner on Death Row to be released because his defence lawyer had slept during some of his trial and the deadline for ordering a new one had expired. Governor Bush said that proved his argument that the system worked. But Texas has no public defender system, and Governor Bush opposed legislation for one. Instead, families of accused persons have to shop around for lawyers they can afford and often end up with incompetent ones who are not familiar with the complex rules for murder trials and sentencing procedures.

The use of DNA testing may have come too late to save some innocent people from execution. An appeals court in Oklahoma this month halted the execution of Loyd LaFevers several hours before he was due to die. His lawyer told the judges that DNA tests showed the blood stains on his trousers did not come from the victim as the prosecution had claimed. But in Florida, where executions have resumed by injection after the electric chair was shown to be defective, Death Row prisoners are finding it extremely difficult to have DNA tests done which might prove their innocence.

Across the US, an estimated 81 persons on Death Row have been released over the past 24 years because of faulty convictions. There is increasing concern that there should have been more.