A4

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2015

READING EAGLE, READING, PA.

Executing Justice

A dying sentence?
[ From A1 >>> ]
Overall public support for
the death penalty has taken
a hit.
While 61 percent of Americans support capital punishment, that number has
dropped significantly since
two decades ago, when 80 percent favored the death penalty,
according to national polls.
A state poll in March by
York College of Pennsylvania
showed 54 percent of respondents in the commonwealth
preferred life in prison to the
death penalty.
The wide support nationally coincided with the peak
in sentences, driven by the
tough-on-crime movement
of the 1990s. The number of
death sentences in Pennsylvania and across the nation has
been declining ever since.
I think the scales have
tipped, said Richard Dieter,
senior program director for
the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.
Founded in 1990, the center
conducts national research
and reports on capital punishment. The organization takes
no official stance on the death
penalty.
Its clear we dont need
the death penalty, Dieter
said. Ninety-nine percent
of murderers dont get the
death penalty.
Pennsylvania hasnt executed anyone in 16 years.
The three men who were given the needle in the modern
era all gave up their appeals
and begged the court to be
executed. With 181 inmates
on death row roughly 75
percent of whom have been
awaiting execution for a decade or more the commonwealth has the lowest number
of condemned prisoners in

Favoring death penalty

A majority of Americans favor the death penalty. However, support nationally
has declined from an all-time high of 80 percent in 1994.
80%

H GH
HIGH
80%
%

70
60

61%

59%
59%

FAVOR
A
50
40

38
38
38%
8%
%

37
3
37%
7%
7
%

30

LOW
OW
3%
13%

OPPOSE

20
10
0

1936 40
Source: Gallup

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

2000

05

10
10

15

READING EAGLE: GARY VISGAITIS

Of course its under attack. Youd have

to be an idiot not to recognize that.
Robert Blecker, a New York Law School professor and
renowned death penalty expert and supporter

Its clear we dont need the death

penalty. Ninety-nine percent of murderers
dont get the death penalty.
Richard Dieter, senior program director for the Death
Penalty Information Center in Washington

legislative sessions.
the National Association of
We dont really have a death Evangelicals in 1972 called
penalty in Pennsylvania.
upon the states and Congress
to enact legislation to re-esSupport shifting away
tablish the death penalty, sayFor decades, the death ing, The gravity of any crime
penalty enjoyed its greatest is measured by the penalty it
support among evangelical incurs.
The groups resolve helped
Christians.
In a rather brief statement, lay the groundwork for the

more than 20 years.

Its important to keep in
mind weve not executed
anyone in Pennsylvania who
has not asked to be executed
in 53 years, said state Sen.
Daylin Leach, a Montgomery
County Democrat who has
introduced bills to repeal the
death penalty the past four

tough-on-crime policies that

followed and have since seen
more than 9,000 inmates nationally sentenced to death.
Bible Belt states Texas,
Oklahoma, Virginia, Florida
and Missouri among them
account for more than 85
percent of the executions carried out in the U.S.
The death penalty succeeded in America not in spite of
Christians but because of us,
said Shane Claiborne, author
of Executing Grace: Why It Is
Time to Put the Death Penalty
to Death and co-founder of
the Simple Way, an inner-city
faith community in Philadelphia.
Claiborne added, What we
have done is create a really
bad theology that has backed
the death penalty.
That might be changing,
though.
In October, the National
Association of Evangelicals
did an about-face and penned
a new resolution changing its
long-held, unwavering support of capital punishment
to one that is more nuanced.
That statement, although acknowledging some members
continue to support capital
punishment to deter future
crimes, also reflected growing concerns among others
over its systematic problems
while calling for criminal justice reform.
A growing number of evangelicals call for government
resources to be shifted away
from the death penalty, said
Leith Anderson, president of
the National Association of
Evangelicals, following the
board of directors Oct. 15
vote.
Formed in 1942 to give
voice to conservative, evangelical Protestants, the asso-

ciation represents more than

45,000 churches from nearly
40 denominations across the
nation.
The polls are starting to
reflect these evolving attitudes.
A Barna Group opinion
poll in 2014 showed younger
Christians do not support the
death penalty as frequently
as older members of their
faith. Fewer than a third of
Christian millennials, those
born between 1980 and 2000,
said the government should
have the option to execute the
worst criminals compared to
42 percent of Christian baby
boomers, born between 1946
and 1964.
Theres a real sense that a
new generation is not just regurgitating the same rhetoric
of the culture wars from the
80s, Claiborne said.
The battle lines appear to
be shifting.
In the clash over the death
penalty, the lines had long
been drawn between conservatives and liberals. But now,
with mounting scal concerns
among conservatives, the lines
are becoming blurred. For the
rst time in four decades, the
two sides in the death penalty
conict are nding common
ground, even if they are arriving at the need for abolition
for different reasons.
We have to look at it pragmatically, said Marc Hyden,
national advocacy coordinator for Conservatives
Concerned About the Death
Penalty, a network originally
formed in Montana in 2010.
Do you trust an error-prone
government to properly and
efficiently execute the program?
Increasingly, the answer
is no.
[ >>> A5 ]

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN AMERICA

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have abolished the death penalty (although Nebraska has suspended the ban pending a voter
referendum next year). Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment, there have been more than 1,400 executions,
with Bible Belt states accounting for the bulk of those put to death. Across the country, there are nearly 3,000 inmates on death row today.
Pennsylvania's 181 condemned inmates make the commonwealth's death row population the fth largest in the nation.

5 9

1887
MAINE

WASH.

3 2

35
2

N.D.

IDAHO

WIS.

3 10
NEB.

7 9

12

1965
2015

ILL.

COLO.

20
14

IOWA

86

13

UTAH

MICH.

2011

31

OHIO

N.J.

W. VA.

KY.

124

112

12

OKLA.

N.M.

37

2009

ARIZ.

531

6
72

27

195

48
21

56

1957

HAWAII
U.S. GOVERNMENT
Note: data as of Dec. 9.

2013
D.C.

KEY

60

NUMBER OF
EXECUTIONS
SINCE 1976

FLA.

62
3

84

400

LA.

265

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

44

MISS.

28
1957

43

ARK.

83

ALASKA

GA.

MD.

17

43

S.C.
ALA.

16

1981

N.C.

TENN.

36
50

TEXAS

MO.

DEL.

156

VA.

KAN.

13

111
8

1965

34

12 2012

2007

53

IND.

PA.

1984

MASS.
CONN. R.I.

N.Y.

1846

146

12
NEV.

181

1853

S.D.

WYO.

78

746

2007

MINN.

3 3
11

CALIF.

N.H.

1911

3 11

ORE.

1964 1
VT.

1973

MONT.

91

#
NUMBER OF
PRISONERS ON
DEATH ROW

YEAR

THE STATE
ABOLISHED THE
DEATH PENALTY
READING EAGLE:
GARY VISGAITIS (GRAPHIC)
NICOLE C. BRAMBILA (REPORTING)