July 2006
Since 1976, over 700 have been sentenced to die in Alabama. Almost 500 (68%)
have left death row by some means other than execution(7%) or release(0.6%).
Leaving almost 200 still there.
There is a prisoner on death row that beat, stabbed, and shot five people, killing
two. The victims were three generations of a family, including two children. There
were two surviving witnesses, and the killer confessed. Almost thirty years later, he
is still on death row, and appeals are still being filed. He is the rule, not the exception.
There is another prisoner on death row that was convicted and sentenced three
different times for killing three people. He represented himself the third time, and
asked the judge for the death penalty so he could be guaranteed many more years of
appeals. One basis for the appeals was inadequate representation. He has lost every
step of the way, but the process has still taken over twenty years. He still has at
least two more appeals that will take another year or two. Again, these kinds of
stories are commonplace.
For every hundred killers, eight will be sentenced to die, and one
will actually be executed at some time in the distant future. At which
time, likely hundreds of protestors will appear, and the protest will be a
national news event in support of the condemned. This "normal"
seems very strange to me, indeed.