A RECENT Justice Department study has found that death sentences imposed by juries declined 15 percent in the past year -- the first decrease in the death-sentence rate since 1990.
And in spite of the intense publicity surrounding the high number of executions in Texas, executions this year across the United States dropped by 8 percent to 68.
Texas remained the leader with 20 of those, followed by Virginia with 13 and South Carolina with 7.
The decline comes in the face of public opinion polls that show a majority of Americans favor the death penalty. We hope this decline indicates -- at least in some cases -- more reflection about the implications of state-sanctioned killing and the very real possibility of errors that could result in the wrong person being executed.
Just two days before Maryland's Nov. 16 execution of Tyrone X. Gilliam, 28 former death-row inmates gathered in Chicago as living witnesses to a mortal flaw of capital punishment: Juries sometimes sentence the wrong people to death.
The 28 were among 75 people since 1972 who were arrested on murder charges, had their cases go to trial, were convicted by a jury and sentenced to die. All awaited an execution date; some came perilously close to death.
They were ultimately freed, however, because of evidence that had not emerged before to prove their innocence. Without this evidence, after exhaustive and expensive appeals, they would have become victims of society's worst nightmare -- innocent people killed by the state.
Capital punishment makes this grim scenario possible.
The appeals process is cumbersome and painful for families, but it gives the criminal justice system a chance to correct mistakes that do, indeed, happen. Appeals have saved the lives of these 75, and we can only hope that innocent people have not been executed because life-saving evidence never emerged. But there is no guarantee against error.
Gilliam's case proceeded along the same track as those of the 75 innocent people. He was one of three men responsible for the cold-blooded killing of Christine Doerfler nine years ago. But his cohorts fingered him as the one who pulled the trigger, and thus he is eligible under state law for the death penalty.
Gilliam is not a man to be celebrated; he figured in a young woman's death and lost his right to be a member of a civilized society. But who actually fired the fatal shot remains fuzzy. The picture is still clouded by a haze of statements, counter-statements -- all induced by PCP.
Gilliam was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of pulling the trigger. He even confessed to it after his arrest. Still, doubts that are not unreasonable persisted.
The 75 mistakes are conclusive evidence that juries can be wrong. When we as a state take a life, we lose our chance to correct the mistake down the road.
Pub Date: 12/26/98