North Carolina policymakers are currently faced with the choice of supporting a two-year moratorium on executions of those on the N.C. death row. The debate has split largely along ideological lines. Many anti-moratorium advocates use biblical logic ("eye for an eye") and the mistaken notion that being pro-moratorium means you are soft on crime.
But many policymakers and citizens in North Carolina overlook the reason why the moratorium debate has arisen. Evidence is arriving each day supporting the reality that many death row inmates are innocent, improperly prosecuted and defended, and inappropriately tried for murder. Not one, but several cases entering the public record are showing an iniquitous system that dissappointedly sends innocent men to death row and executes mentally retarded defendants. We must all realize that the need for a moratorium is not about whether the death penalty is ideologically right or wrong, but rather about whether the system is fair and works--it blatantly does not.
Most glaring and provocative have been the facts that keep showing that many death row inmates are innocent. Many ideologically pro-death penalty policymakers and civilians support this moratorium now, not because they are swayed by statistics proving that the death penalty doesn't serve as a deterence to future crimes or that the system has a racial bias against blacks, but because they are reading about cases where prosecutors hid evidence and wrongfully convicted and sent to death innocent men, defense attorneys sleeping through trials, and mentally retarded defendants receiving death.
We must have a moratorium in order to give us time to analyze how this system has gone so horribly off course.
The cases of Alan Gell, Charles Muncey, Donald Scanlon, Kenneth Rouse, and Eddie Hartman are evidence of the dire need for reform. The state tried Alan Gell for murdering Allen Ray Jenkins on April 3, 1995, despite no physical evidence and based solely on plea bargain testimony from an admitted participant in the murder. The state's case against Gell was dependent on the murder occurring on April 3, so state prosecutors Debra Graves and David Hoke tailored the evidence for an April 3rd murder. These prosecutors withheld 17 witness statements from the defense and jury that stated that Jenkins was alive after April 3 when Gell could not have committed the crime. Prosecutors also withheld evidence from the medical examiner inducing her to give scientifically inaccurate testimony corroborating their murder date. In light of the new evidence, the medical examiner recanted her testimony and stated that the murder occurred several days after April 3, again exonerating Gell. Even more disturbing, prosecutors withheld a taped telephone conversation in which the state's star witness, an admitted accomplice, alluded to Gell's innocence and discussed how she must "make up" a story for the police.
Attorney General Roy Cooper has only granted a retrial and has not even sent those prosecutors to the state bar for discipline despite acknowledging their "negligence." Gell's retrial date has not been announced and he waits in prison, "frustrated" with a legal system that has failed him. A human system will naturally involve error, but numerous cases bring to light similar violations and injustice. Charles Munsey was on death row for killing a woman in 1993. No physical evidence tied him to the scene of the crime. The prosecutor's only witness was Timothy Hall, an inmate who said Munsey confessed to him at Raleigh's Central Prison. Evidence has since been revealed that Hall never served time in Central Prison and therefore could never have met Munsey! In fact, Munsey was stunned to see Hall take the stand in his trial because he had never seen him before. Prosecutors seemingly fabricated the confession. Munsey, who had always professed his innocence, died in prison of lung cancer awaiting his appeal.
Donald Scanlon is sentenced to die for murdering a woman in 1996. Again, no physical evidence tied the defendant to the scene of the crime and there was even no evidence that there was a struggle. In fact, a great deal of evidence points to the victim's suicide, including the victim's 20-year battle with anxiety and depression, failing health due to a heart condition, and cocaine addiction. But the prosecution concealed such evidence and court-appointed defense attorneys were horribly incompetent, rarely pursuing leads or checking facts. Scanlon remains on death row.
Kenneth Rouse is on death row for a 1991 robbery, attempted rape, and murder. This case shows how racial prejudice inhibits the system from equitable justice. Rouse is an African-American man. The district attorney dismissed all jurors of color before the trial, so he faced an all-white jury. After the trial, one of the jurors declared that he convicted Rouse because of racial bias. He frequently referred to Rouse as a "n-----" and stated that, "black men rape white women so they can brag to their friends." Sadly, Rouse also consistently tests as mildly mentally retarded, but appellate courts refuse to interfere and overturn the death sentence despite state and federal law prohibiting the execution of the mentally retarded.
Eddie Hartman faces execution for the 1993 shooting death of his roommate and friend while he was heavily inebriated. The murder trial was not a traditional death row case, because the crime was neither heinous nor premeditated. There are thousands of murder cases ending in life sentences similar to this one, yet Eddie Hartman was singled out because he was gay. The prosecutor illegitimately and disturbingly used Hartman's homosexuality during the sentencing phase to tap into jurors' homophobia. Most disturbing, the prosecutor used Hartman's homosexuality to downplay the sexual abuse he suffered as a child from his uncle and stepbrother when he was 8 and 11. And evidence gathered after the trial shows that jurors believed the prosecutor's claim that the sexual abuse was dismissable because Hartman was gay. Moreover, Hartman was also represented by an incompetent attorney that has since been suspended by the North Carolina Bar. If Hartman does not receive clemency from Governor Easely soon, the state will probably execute him this fall. A man shouldn't be singled out because of his sexual orientation.
Many more cases involve similar violations of human rights and justice, including those of Travis Walters, Henry Hunt, Kenneth Neal, and Levon Jones. If you're going to have the death penalty, you better do it right. Write Governor Easely and your legislators asking for a moratorium on executions so we can properly address fixing this broken system.
Amir Mokari is a Trinity junior. His column appears every third week.
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