ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 21, 1997 TAG: 9702210008
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HENRY TUCKER CARMICHAEL III
YOUR LEAD front-page headline on the Feb. 4 Associated Press news article read "ABA: Halt death penalty." The article reported the American Bar Association's vote for a nationwide moratorium on the death penalty until the penalty can be fairly imposed, which cannot happen until all vestiges of racial discrimination are excised from criminal prosecutions. This position is essentially unassailable.
Standards advocated by the ABA in capital cases include competent counsel for defendants facing the death penalty, review by federal courts of state convictions resulting in death sentences and, as already mentioned, the elimination of racial discrimination in capital prosecutions.
ABA President Lee Cooper, who opposed the moratorium, said, ``What you really have here is an up-or-down vote on the death penalty. Folks [ABA delegates voting on the moratorium], bring it in the front door. Don't come in the back door.''
While his assessment that the ABA delegates wanted to send an anti-death-penalty message is probably correct, the irony of their policy-making shouldn't be lost on the rest of us who worry about a malfunctioning criminal-justice system.
Here were the country's most prominent lawyers venting their frustration over the failure to enforce fair death-penalty standards - standards that, by virtue of their profession, power, experience and knowledge, they are best-positioned to enforce. Where does the responsibility lie if not with them? Who better to assure competent counsel for defendants in capital cases than lawyers and legislators who are lawyers, many of whom are active in state and local bar associations, not to mention the ABA?
As for review of death-penalty cases by federal courts (not exactly the road less traveled in the past) and greater efforts to identify and eliminate racial bias, the answers are no less obvious. They are the same lawyers, judges and legislators who have the power and, it is to be hoped, the vision to restore public confidence in the system.
Since they are the powers that be, one wonders why they sit around in a seemingly somnolent state, voting on moratoriums rather than actually stepping into the arena to take on the daunting task of trying to bring fairness to a notoriously flawed system.
In that same edition, in an editorial titled "Unfair death penalty," you do exactly what the ABA president attempted to dissuade the delegates from doing. You come through the back door to vote against - or in your case, editorialize against - the death penalty. In response to your editorial, I urge you to do some investigative reporting and put some facts where your editorial position is.
Henry Tucker Carmichael III of Lexington is former legal counsel in the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals, Washington, D.C., and an active member of the Kentucky Bar Association.
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