GROWING USE OF FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY: AN ANALYSIS

5/07 - The death sentence handed down by a federal jury in a New York courtroom in January was the first Federal death sentence in New York in more than 50 years. Ronell Wilson had already been convicted by the same jury of killing two undercover police detectives. In the same building, less than two weeks later, facing a possible death sentence, Kenneth McGriff was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by yet another federal jury. The increased used of the federal death penalty represents a fairly new trend in the arena of the courts. Although the federal capital punishment statute has been on the books since 1988, it took over a decade before federal prosecutors were able to obtain a death sentence in a state without its own statute. More recently, federal prosecutors have begun actively pursuing cases in states regardless of sentiment in the individual states and imposing a centralized standard on the decision-making process. (The standard is based on that of states that use the death penalty.) Although this has resulted in more capital prosecutions, these have not always resulted in a death sentence. For instance, in Puerto Rico, where the constitution stated that “The death penalty shall not exist,” the federal government has unsuccessfully sought the death penalty for more than four defendants. Today, there are 47 people on Federal death row, a number that has more than doubled in just six years.

In stark contrast to the federal government, many states have reduced the number of cases where the death penalty is sought and have seen a decline in the number of death sentences handed down by local juries. Additionally, many states have, for a number of reasons, suspended their death penalty system. Just last fall, the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission recommended to the State Legislature that the death penalty be abolished and replaced with life without the possibility of parole; New York Assembly members have found the death penalty too flawed to fix; California, Florida, and Maryland have all suspended executions within the past year. What all these states have acknowledged, for one reason or another, is that the death penalty is a flawed system.

So was the case of Mr. Wilson the first of more to come, or will future juries decide in favor of life without parole, as one did in the case of Mr. McGriff? Although we can not avoid federal prosecution, as New Yorkers we can send a strong message to the federal government by abolishing the death penalty once and for all New York!

Ronell Wilson was convicted in the Staten Island murder of 2 policemen, and sentenced to death on January 30, 2007. He becomes one of 51 prisoners on death row at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Omar Green, a key prosecution witness in the Ronell Wilson case, seems to be changing his story. According to prosecutors, Green’s earlier story was that Wilson, accused of murdering two undercover NYPD detectives during a gun sting operation, knew when he fired that they might be police officers. Now, prosecutors report, Green says Wilson told him that he shot them because he believed they were going to rob him and his companions. Green, along with two other defendants, cut plea deals with the Staten Island District Attorney in 2003. In a state prosecution, the maximum sentence Wilson could face would be life without parole. But in 2004, just 5 months after the State Court of Appeals overturned New York’s death penalty statute, the Staten Island DA asked the US Attorney to charge Wilson. Attorney General Gonzalez thereupon ordered the US Attorney to seek the death penalty. (See story by Susan Schindler.)

The Ronell Wilson case highlights serious problems with the Federal death penalty system. The system relies heavily on testimony of former friends and associates of defendants who can gain by cooperating with the prosecution. “Forum shopping” for death venues is also not unique to the Wilson case. At the direction of then Attorney General Ashcroft, who overrode federal prosecutors, Donald Fell was tried and convicted in Federal Court in Vermont, which does not have a state death penalty statute, and sentenced to death this past June. John Malvo, 17 at the time of the “Beltway sniper” shootings, was tried in Virginia rather than Maryland, in part, according to CNN, because Virginia had actually executed people for crimes committed at age 16 or 17.