New data about mistreatment of blacks: another black eye for death penalty

What a surprise (and an honor!) when an activist organist in England contacted me recently. Reprieve, a human rights group that opposes the death penalty, had heard of my personal experience in witnessing an execution. The resulting interview, with a panel of researchers in another country via Zoom, was most interesting! 

My feelings about the death penalty are well known, and I have posted numerous essays on this website regarding my 2007 experience in witnessing the execution of a friend and client. 

But now about the new research. 

The lengthy, in-depth report by Reprieve, made major news this week in the United States, both in the New York Times and National Public Radio! 

The focus was on botched executions, and there was one statistic in particular that wasn’t anticipated. The research found, among other things, that Black people had 220% higher odds of suffering a botched lethal injection execution than white people! 

That new insight just adds another way Black people do not get fair treatment when it comes to the death penalty. We already know that the proportion of Black people on death rows is far higher than their share of the population as a whole. Besides that, according to the New York Times, a study in Philadelphia found that the people most likely to receive death sentences were Black defendants convicted of killing victims who were not Black. 

Technically, the execution that I witnessed was not botched. It’s just that they couldn’t find a vein when preparing for the lethal injection via IV. As I recall, there was about a 2-hour delay as medics kept poking away in the arm of Charles Anthony Nealy. Better known as Anthony, this young Black man was executed for a crime that I don’t believe he committed. But, that’s another story. Anyway, the Reprieve study showed a ton of instances where medics had difficulty finding veins.    

While it’s true that executions in our country have declined since a 1999 peak, the methods of how lethal injections are administered have come under increased scrutiny. We keep hearing reports about states encountering problems getting reliable drugs from pharmaceutical companies. And just recently we heard reports of executions that had gone awry. 

The NY Times reports that Alabama and Oklahoma have imposed temporary moratoriums on executions after failed lethal injections. The times quoted The Death Penalty Information Center as saying that more than a third of execution attempts were mishandled in 2022, and researchers there described it as “the year of the botched execution.” 

What a proud moment! 

I hate the death penalty! I’m so pleased that we don’t have it here in Michigan, although that’s essentially what “life without parole” is. Once again, that’s another story. 

Please take a moment to read the report in the New York Times. 

I thank God for organizations like Reprieve. There’s a loud and clear message coming from this research, and it’s time we listen.