Justice is Never Advanced in the Taking of Human Life¹

The Department of Corrections has proposed changes to 501 KAR 16:310² which regards the use of the death penalty in Kentucky.  The Louisville Urban League is deeply concerned about the pending decision to resume executions in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Throughout the entire process, from arrest to charging to trial to conviction to sentencing to the actual process of extinguishing life, there is far too much inequity, inconsistency, and confusion to justify the state’s return to the practice. For the following reasons and more, LUL is opposed to the return of executions to Kentucky.

Capital Punishment is Not a Deterrent

Crime deterrence is a major fallacy used to promote the use of capital punishment. 

The data show that the death-penalty states had an overall Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) murder rate that was 1.39 times higher than the non-death penalty states and accounted for 12 of the 16 states with the highest murder rates. Police officers were murdered in death-penalty states at a rate that was 1.37 times higher than in non-death-penalty states, and accounted for 22 of the 25 states with the highest Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted (LEOKA) rates of officers feloniously killed. Killings of police were lowest, however, in the transitional states that most recently abolished the death penalty.³

Stephen Oliphant’s recent study on the death penalty’s effect on homicide rates published in Criminology & Public Policy found “no evidence of a deterrent effect attributable to death penalty statutes.” Oliphant first discusses deterrence theory, which “posits that punishment, or the threat of punishment, discourages individuals from committing a crime,” and its role in capital punishment discourse, where proponents of the death penalty have argued that the threat of the death penalty discourages homicide and that abolition (or a halt to the use of the death penalty) would lead to increased murder rates.⁴

Inadequate Safeguards for Mental and Intellectual Disabilities

The Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (KCADP) found that “currently, the regulation states that a licensed professional shall perform a ‘psychiatric interview and evaluation,’ but it does not specify whether or not the professional will be informed of the legal definition of insanity at the time of execution. It also does not provide any definition of insanity or guarantee the provider will assess under that definition. In addition, the current regulation is exclusively reliant on prison medical records to determine whether or not a condemned person will be determined to be legally insane. Furthermore, despite the proposed changes, the Department of Corrections does not have adequate safeguards to prevent intellectually disabled persons from being executed.”⁵

Lethal Injection Can Be Cruel and Inhumane

If Kentucky chooses to resume executions, it will turn to lethal injection.  A National Public Radio (NPR) analysis of more than 200 autopsies of death-row prisoners executed by lethal injection has found that 84% of those executed showed evidence of pulmonary edema, a condition in which a person’s lungs fill with fluid that creates the feeling of suffocation or drowning that experts have likened to waterboarding.⁶ At this time, the Department of Corrections instructs its medical personnel to assess the medication of a condemned individual to identify potential reactions to the substances. However, they are not obligated to take any action if such information comes to light.⁷ A return to this potentially violent and inhumane practice is unacceptable.

Economics

Often, capital punishment is believed to be a cheaper way to imprison those found guilty of capital offenses. However, this is FALSE. The cost of putting someone to death, in reality, is costly and wasteful. The cost of pre-trials, jury selection, trials, special housing, and court appeals balloon the cost of death penalty cases. This cost will trickle down to taxpayers. 

State examples:

• A single death sentence in Maryland costs almost $2 million more than a comparable non-death penalty case. Before ending the death penalty, Maryland spent $186 million extra to carry out just five executions.
• North Carolina looked at cases in 2005 and 2006 and concluded that repealing the death penalty could have saved the state nearly $22 million in just those two years.
• A 2003 legislative audit in Kansas found that the estimated cost of a death penalty case was 70% more than the cost of a comparable non-death penalty case. Death penalty case costs were counted through to execution (median cost $1.26 million). Non-death penalty case costs were counted through to the end of incarceration (median cost $740,000).
• In Tennessee, death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment.
• In California the current system costs $137 million per year; it would cost $11.5 million for a system without the death penalty.

Racial Inequality

The Death Penalty Information Center’s latest article on Race and the Death Penalty provides historical context on race and its continued prevalence in death penalty cases today. The article not only expands on the history of capital punishment against Black people but also highlights the use of capital punishment as a resource to punish crimes committed against white victims.

Like Kentucky, many southern states used capital punishment for men found guilty of rape. However, in almost every case when capital punishment was used, the victim was always white. Throughout U.S. history, no white man has ever been executed for the rape of a Black woman or girl in which the victim was not killed. 

In 1980, 45.6% of nationwide death row prisoners were people of color, and this percentage has increased every decade. As of 2019, the percentage has risen to 57.8% death row prisoners were people of color. 75% of murder victims in cases resulting in an execution have been white even though only half of murder victims are white.⁸

In cases with victims of a single race, 299 African-American defendants have been executed for the murder of white victims, while only 21 white defendants have been executed for the murder of African-American victims.⁹

Since 1976, Kentucky has carried out only three executions. At least three other attempts were overturned on appeal. Given the cost, concerns, and lack of material benefit, the Commonwealth should permanently end capital punishment. Though the Kentucky Department of Corrections has not made a public comment on this regulation change well-known or accessible–hosting only one meeting, in person, on a day and at a time that is not readily accessible for the majority of working Kentuckians–we believe there is more than enough historical evidence to end any further consideration of state-sanctioned killings. Let us instead invest our time and resources in community-centered efforts to prevent crime and reduce recidivism like public education support, affordable housing, second-chance employment opportunities in more. Let us focus on things that work.   

¹ Coretta Scott King. (Jan. 3rd, 2006) https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/coretta-scott-king-death-penalty-abolitionist/

² Kentucky Administrative Regulations Title 501 | Chapter 016 | Regulation 310 https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/kar/titles/501/016/310

³ Death Penalty Information Center. (Sep. 12, 2017). https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/new-podcast-dpic-study-finds-no-evidence-that-death-penalty-deters-murder-or-protects-police

⁴ Stephen Oliphant. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12601

⁵ KCADP. (2023). https://tinyurl.com/yckwupe8

⁶ NPR. (2020). https://www.npr.org/2020/09/21/793177589/gasping-for-air-autopsies-reveal-troubling-effects-of-lethal-injection

⁷ KCADP. (2023). https://tinyurl.com/yckwupe8

⁸ The Death Penalty Information Center. (2020). https://dpic-cdn.org/production/documents/reports/Enduring-Injustice-Race-and-the-Death-Penalty-2020.pdf

⁹  The Death Penalty Information Center. (2023). https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/executions-overview/executions-by-race-and-race-of-victim

About the Louisville Urban League
The Louisville Urban League assists African Americans and those at the margins in attaining social and economic equality and stability through direct services and advocacy. For more information, go to lul.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter  (@louisvilleUL), or Instagram (@louisville_ul).