Above photo: Death Chamber, Oklahoma. Flickr.
U.S. Continues Its Killing Spree.
Today marked the 22nd anniversary of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, amidst a year that saw 19 executions in eight states. It is a day when activists, political leaders and lawyers unite in solidarity from around the world to call for the universal abolition of capital punishment.
World Day Against the Death Penalty was established in 2002, following the first World Congress at the European Parliament in France. The movement has grown to over 170 organizations in more than 60 countries in all regions of the world. However, the U.S. lacks their progress. At a time where 112 countries have fully abolished the death penalty, the United States took a step back this year by introducing lethal gas as an execution method for the first time in 100 years. In 2022, the top five executioners were China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United States
There were high profile executions of Marcellus “Khalifa” Williams, Emmanuel Littlejohn, Ivan Cantu and Kenneth Eugene Smith, which led to the U.S. death penalty becoming a major topic of discussion this year. In the case of Williams, who was executed Sept. 24, more than 20,000 people, including prosecutors and the victim’s family had called for Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to spare his life. Williams, whose innocence was proven by physical evidence, had dedicated his time in prison to bettering himself and writing poetry.
Williams is not an exception. There have been 200 death row exonerations since 1976. For every 8.2 people sentenced to the death penalty, one is innocent. But not everyone lives to see their exoneration. There have been 25 more people who were exonerated posthumously, some after they were executed.
Just days after Williams was executed by lethal injection, Littlejohn was executed for a murder his co-defendant committed. Littlejohn was not the one who pulled the trigger, but he was sentenced to death in Oklahoma anyway. He was also given a lethal injection, despite the state’s parole board recommending that his death sentence be commuted to life without parole. Like Littlejohn, people can be sentenced to death under the “felony murder rule”, which allows for accomplices to be charged the same sentence as their co-defendant, regardless if they committed the murder.
The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty has called capital punishment an “irreversible harm”.
The death penalty also disproportionately harms people of color — 11 of the 19 people who were executed this year were either Black, Latino or Native American. Since 1976, Black people have made up 34% of executions despite being only 13% of the overall U.S. population. It is also more likely that people of color will be sentenced to the death penalty for a wrongful conviction than white people — 108 death row exonerations were Black, compared to 70 white.
Despite its proven harm, executions are set to continue in the United States. Last year, 23 more people were sentenced to death. There are still over 2,000 people still on death rows, where people can languish for decades before they are either executed or pardoned. There are 27 states that still have the death penalty, despite most Americans believing that the death penalty is applied unfairly.
Stakes rise as Robert Roberson, an autistic 47-year old man, faces execution in Texas next week for a crime that never occurred. In 2002, Roberson’s two-year-old daughter fell off her bed. The prosecution came up with a hypothesis that Roberson’s daughter had died of shaken baby syndrome, “a condition that was never scientifically validated and the premises of which have been discredited by actual science,” according to the Innocence Project. Since then, new evidence has emerged pointing to Roberson’s innocence. More than 68,000 people have called for Roberson’s life to be spared. His execution date is set for Oct. 17.
Victoria Valenzuela is a criminal justice reporter based in California. She is currently assistant publisher at ScheerPost. In the past, she has been published in The Guardian, BuzzFeed News, Bolts, Waging Nonviolence and more. In the past, Valenzuela has also worked with The Marshall Project and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a master’s degree in specialized journalism with a focus on social justice and investigations.