Death penalty may grind to halt in Georgia

Another state faces a budget crisis -- and it could lead, unwittingly, to a moratorium on the death penalty. This time it's a state that is overly enthusiatic about capital punishment, namely Georgia.

From the AP:

The funding roller coaster continued for Georgia's public defenders Tuesday as a key Senate committee slashed their budget to just a fraction of what they had sought to stay afloat.

The midyear budget that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee contained just $513,000 for public defenders to get them through the June 30 end of the fiscal year. Gov. Sonny Perdue had recommended $3.6 million.

"We still believe they have sufficient resources to meet their needs," Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, told reporters.

The move continues a tug-of-war over dollars between the legislative and judicial branches that's been exacerbated by the high-profile case of Brian Nichols, which has ground to standstill because of a dispute about funding for his defense.

Though none of the additional state cash would go to the trial of accused Atlanta courthouse gunman, the case has become a lightening rod and emboldened some who believe the state's indigent defense lawyers - funded by court fees - are driving up costs unnecessarily.

Sen. Preston Smith, who oversees judicial branch spending, has suggested that death penalty opponents are trying to put an end to capital punishment in Georgia by placing the price tag out of reach.

But officials with the Public Defender Standards Council have said they are wrestling with a jump in capital cases. They warned that without additional state funds they could be forced to furlough their lawyers and support staff for the month of June, bringing the court system to standstill.

Revenge, whilst being one of the seven deadly sins, doesn't seem to count as such when it comes to murder and high treason. But an increasing trend among states is the cost-benefit analysis; that it cost more to execute a person than it does to just lock him or her up for 25 to 40 years; that it can take an average of 12 years before someone is executed (and some have waited 24 years, equal to a life sentence); and in the final scheme of things, death is not a deterrent but only encourages more killing and not less.

The fact remains that the Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to counsel. Over the years, the US Supreme Court has made it clear that this also means effective counsel. Public defenders are hardly an ideal solution, but in many cases that's all that is available to an indigent defendant. Short of attorneys to the rich suddenly getting a whiff of conscience and offering to defend capital cases on a pro bono basis, the accused whether guilty or not deserve a bit better treatment than what they have been used to -- or could be subjected to under such draconian cuts. The argument would be that if a defendant didn't get a chance to present a counter-argument, his or her due process rights were violated and thus the death penalty should be excluded. Do that across the board, no death chamber, period.

If this helps to end the death penalty in the States, so much the better. While New Jersey (by law) and New York (by order of court) have abolished the ultimate punishment in the States, my sense is that the movement to end it will not gain any traction until at least one state in the South or the Plains gets the courage to do so.

For murder one, as I've written before, the punishment should be life without parole.

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