|
|
Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
 |
|
|
Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
|
(6/17/00 Baltimore AFRO-American Newspaper)
by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
Until the Governor commuted his death sentence last week, Eugene Colvin-el could only wait on Maryland's death row for Governor Parris Glendening's decision, continue to proclaim his innocence and pray that the Governor would commute his sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole.Like most Americans, the Governor is a man of conscience. "It is not appropriate to proceed with an execution when there is any level of uncertainty," he declared. "The death penalty is final and irreversible."
In matters of life or death, certainty is the only just standard.
None of us can know at this point whether Eugene Colvin-el has spent nearly 20 years on death row as an innocent man. What everyone should know, however, is that his Baltimore County trial and sentencing were so flawed as to shock the conscience.
Spurred by serious concerns that our justice system is killing innocent men and women, America is re-awakening to the fundamental principle that supports any belief in justice. Protection of the innocent is the hallmark of justice, not retribution against those whom we believe to be guilty.
Innocence and certainty -- no other standards of justice serve a society that values human life.
Earlier this year, after 13 inmates on Illinois' death row were found to be innocent of the crimes for which they had been sentenced to die, Illinois Governor George Ryan imposed a moratorium on executions in his state.
In Texas, after allowing 131 executions, Governor George W. Bush recently granted his first reprieve in a death penalty case to allow the condemned man time to prove his innocence by DNA testing.
Were all the 131 Americans executed in Texas during Governor Bush's administration guilty? The only truthful answer is -- we do not know.
We do know, however, that the death penalty system in America has not achieved the level of certainty that our search for innocence demands.
Last week, Professor James S. Liebman of Columbia University Law School and his colleagues released a comprehensive study analyzing every capital conviction and appeal between 1973 and 1995. That legal study, A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, revealed that America's appellate courts found serious, prejudicial errors in nearly 70% of the 5,500 death sentences they were called upon to review.
What does all of this mean for America's ability to protect the innocent? Professor Liebman concludes that "American capital sentences are persistently and systematically fraught with serious errors..., leaving serious doubt as to whether we do catch them all."
Sadly, I must agree.
Those who believe in capital punishment may respond that they still are not certain any of the 3,500 Americans who languish on death row are innocent. Their position, however, is little more than a hollow attempt to shift the responsibility for protecting innocence onto the poor, the despised and the powerless.
That is not how American justice is suppose to operate.
It is time for America to stop deluding itself. The widespread belief that innocent men and women have nothing to fear from our system of "justice" is a myth -- unsupported by the facts. To the contrary, it now appears likely that the states are killing innocent men and women in our name.
We must be clear about our own moral peril in these matters of life and death. The condemned have had their trials, such as they were. We are on trial now, our collective conscience no longer protected by ignorance of the truth.
Along with 16 of my colleagues in the Congress, I have joined Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., of Illinois in co-sponsoring The Accuracy in Judicial Administration Act of 2000 (HR 4162) -- proposed federal legislation that would place a moratorium on all executions throughout the United States for at least 7 years.
Our national search for innocence demands that we give the 3,500 men and women now condemned to die the time and means to prove their innocence -- through DNA testing or other credible means.
While doubts remain, a just state does not kill in the name of its people.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.
