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Dying for a Lawyer: Life on Alabama's Death Row

The nation's de facto death penalty moratorium continued last night when the U.S. Supreme Court intervened one hour before Alabama death row inmate James Callahan was scheduled to die. Since the high court decided to review lethal injection—the southern state's primary capital punishment method—in September, every scheduled execution has been stayed.

Along with Callahan, 194 people currently live on Alabama’s death row—more than any other state per capita. But what makes the situation in Alabama most dire isn't the lethal injection protocol being weighed by the Court; it's the lack of adequate legal representation available to the condemned. More than half of Alabama's death row inmates had trial attorneys whose compensation for out-of-court hours was capped at $1000, giving lawyers a financial disincentive to prepare a zealous defense. Even worse, Alabama is one of only two states in the country that don't provide legal representation for capital post-conviction appeals. Death row inmates who are indigent (and most are), don't stand a chance for relief unless they're lucky enough to get pro bono representation from groups like Equal Justice Initiative and the Southern Center for Human Rights. (Full disclosure: I worked at SCHR as an investigator.) So far five innocent people have been freed from Alabama's death row. Who knows how many remain because they lack a lawyer.

—Celia Perry

Comments

this is the reason that the death penalty should be banned forever. just one, one, innocent person being put to death for a crime they did not commit, or for being sentenced to death because of crroked politicians, is one too many.

Posted by: mary on 02/01/08 at 12:10 PM Respond

"SAVAK was the domestic security and intelligence service of IRAN ... ...founded in 1957 with the help of American and Isreali advisers who devised the agency to closely model after the US CIA. The mission of SAVAK was to place opponents of the Shah's regime under surveillance and to repress dissident movements through intimidation, exile, imprisonment, assassination, and torture. Though estimates vary widely. SAVAK WAS LIKELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THOUSANDS OF DEATHS," Wikipedia--SAVAK.

Am I the only one who sees the parallel here...?

Just as not all Americans hold certain lives cheaply..., not all Iranians, Iraqis, ect. are brutal torturers...

Sometimes it seems like we're going back in time...

Like, I really doubt that anyone is going to murder their way to heaven...; like, show me a religious text that says this is true...

Posted by: Michael L. Wagner on 02/01/08 at 12:34 PM Respond

Wagner, you don't know what you are talking about. You were never in the Islamic Republic, you are a village person.

Posted by: Nooshin Coas on 02/01/08 at 12:40 PM Respond

May the depraved lawmakers of Alabama, when they pass away and descend to the depths of Hell, be forced to felch the spew of demonic assaults from the torn orifices of their fellow lawmakers who dared to take the lives of those without recourse to justice.

Posted by: Paul on 02/01/08 at 2:12 PM Respond

'SAVE YOUR DIXIE CUPS, THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN!' It seems we already are the richest 3rd-world country.

Posted by: BloggerRadio on 02/02/08 at 6:22 AM Respond