For all the inherent drama that comes with high-stakes criminal prosecutions, it’s reasonable to hope that the people doing the prosecuting would not let emotion cloud their judgment. One would like to think this is particularly true about death penalty cases, in which people’s lives are literally on the line.
But as a new report makes clear, this is not at all the case. Thanks to the Fair Punishment Project, an organization that advocates for criminal justice reform, we can see just how much feeling America’s most enthusiastically pro-death penalty prosecutors put into their work. While capital punishment has become increasingly rare in the United States, “a tiny handful of prosecutors are responsible for a vastly disproportionate number of death sentences,” the report notes. And boy, do they love playing the part.
Many readers will remember the remarks made last year by Dale Cox, former district attorney of Caddo Parish, Louisiana, about how “we need to kill more people,” and that “revenge brings to us a visceral satisfaction.” Here are a few other similarly jaw-dropping quotes and facts highlighted in Thursday’s report:
1) Joe Freeman Britt, who sentenced 38 people to death during his 14 year tenure as head prosecutor for Robeson County, North Carolina, once told a roomful of D.A.s that, “Within the breast of each of us burns a flame that constantly whispers in our ear, ‘preserve life, preserve life, preserve life at any cost.’ … It is the prosecutor’s job to extinguish that flame.”
2) Bob Macy, who sent 54 people to death row over 21 years as the district attorney in Oklahoma County, was once described in the New York Times as keeping a stack of customized playing cards on his desk that were printed with a picture of him riding a horse on one side and facts about his record on the other. Among them: “Nation’s leading death penalty prosecutor,” and ”Sent 42 murderers to death row.”
3) Donald Myers, who has managed more than one death sentence per year since 1977 in the 11th judicial district of South Carolina, reportedly keeps a paperweight model of an electric chair on his desk.
4) Lynne Abraham, who oversaw 108 death sentences over 19 years as the district attorney in Philadelphia County, once told a reporter after witnessing an execution, “It was a nonevent for me. I don’t feel anything.”* She also said, “When it comes to the death penalty, I am passionate.”
Maybe it’s not fair to be repelled by this stuff. After all, is there really anything wrong with a person who brings his heart and soul to work? On the other hand, it’s hard to stomach the unequivocal excitement for death that’s on display here. Even for prosecutors who strongly believe in capital punishment, it’s wrong to be this stoked about imposing it on people.
*Correction, June 30, 2016: This post originally misspelled Lynne Abraham’s first name.
