A startlin
g new county-by-county review of capital murder charges in Alabama provides rock solid evidence of the arbitrariness of the death penalty. The location of the crime, these numbers show, is far more important than the crime itself in determining whether the perpetrator is eligible for a death sentence.
The report, from the Mobile Press-Register, finds that one county charges 95% of murders as capital cases (making the defendant eligible for a death sentence if convicted) while six counties bring capital charges in less than 10% of murders. Factors involved in the crime — such as sexual assault or child victims — can make it eligible for a capital charge, but there’s a great deal of prosecutorial discretion in determining exactly what charges should apply.
The arbitrary application of the death penalty is perhaps the most compelling cause for its repeal. There is simply no way to ensure fairness across race, socioeconomic status and — as these numbers show — geography.
The vast difference between punishment in these counties can be traced to one factor: the prosecutor.
Baldwin County brings capital charges in one of three murder cases, and a former prosecutor told the Press-Register that he felt he must follow the legislature’s wishes. If an aggravating factor was involved in the crime, he has to seek the death penalty. Otherwise, it would be a “nullification of legislative intent,” he said.
Other prosecutors and critics, however, say prosecutors have more discretion than that, and credit the disparity in part to a difference in opinion about using the threat of death as a bargaining chip. The counties with high numbers, they said, are using the specter of lethal injection to get a plea bargain for a life sentence, avoiding a trial. And while most prosecutors won’t admit to doing this, it’s an argument often raised by supporters of the death penalty as a reason for keeping the ultimate punishment alive.
Prosecutors in Mobile County make only 7.8% of murder charges death-eligible.
“There are some offices around the state where there’s a mechanical application of the capital murder statutes,” Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. told the Press-Register. “We don’t do that. We don’t think that’s what our job is. In Mobile County, if we charge capital murder, we really mean capital murder.”
…”I’m not going to be bluffing someone with his life.”