JEFFERSON CITY — A week before Missouri’s first planned execution in over three years, the House this morning rejected a plea for a death penalty moratorium.
The 95-64 vote followed an emotional debate in which legislators took turns arguing for crime victims and for those wrongly convicted of crimes.
Rep. Bill Deeken, R-Jefferson City, asked that executions be delayed for two years while a commission studies whether the death penalty is administered fairly and properly. Deeken said the state needs to “make sure we aren’t putting someone to death who is not guilty.”
His concerns were echoed by Majority Leader Steve Tilley, R-Perryville, who expressed reservations about the death penalty.
Tilley urged Gov. Jay Nixon to commute the sentence of Dennis Skillicorn to life in prison. Skillicorn is scheduled to be put to death on May 20.
Tilley said there was “reasonable doubt” about Skillicorn’s role in the murder of Richard Drummond of Excelsior Springs. Tilley also called Skillicorn a “model prisoner.”
Rep. Kenny Jones, R-California, opposed the moratorium. His wife was murdered in 1991 during a rampage in Moniteau County that also killed three law enforcement officers. Kenny Jones was the sheriff at the time.
Jones’ nephew, Rep. Tim Jones, R-Eureka, related the story to a hushed chamber. Tim Jones urged colleagues to put themselves in “the shoes of the victims and those who are no longer here with us.”
Kenny Jones said supporting a moratorium would be casting a vote that was “soft on crime.”
Tilley did not vote on the proposed moratorium.
I could post this stuff all day long, just as you probably can.
As most of you know, the newest big push is to end the death penalty because of cost.
Push back. Sincerely, Dudley Sharp
Cost Savings: The Death Penalty
Dudley Sharp, Justice Matters, contact info below
There is no need to abandon justice.
Reasonable and responsible protocols, currently in use, will produce a death penalty which costs no more, or will cost less, than LWOP.
Death penalty states could better implement justice, as given by jurors, and save taxpayers money, currently wasted by many irresponsible state systems.
1) Obvious solution: Improve the system. Virginia executes in 5-7 years. 65% of those sentenced to death have been executed. Only 15% of their death penalty cases are overturned. The national averages are 11 years, 14% and 36%, respectively.
With the high costs of long term imprisonment, a true life sentence will be more expensive than such a death penalty protocol.
Current cost study problems
2) Geriatric care: Most cost studies exclude geriatric care, recently found to be $60,000-$90,000/inmate/yr., a significant omission from life sentence costs. Prisoners are often found to be geriatric at relatively young ages, 50-55, because of lifestyle.
3) Plea Bargain to life: ONLY the presence of the death penalty allows for a plea bargain to a maximum life sentence. Such plea cost benefit, estimated at $500,000 to $1 million/case, accrues as a cost benefit/credit to the death penalty.
NOTE: Depending upon jurisdiction, the inclusion of only (2) and (3) will result in a minimal cost differential between the two sanctions or an actual net cost benefit to the death penalty. Adding (1) would, very likely, mean that all death penalty jurisdictions would see a cost savings with the death penalty as compared to a true life sentence.
4) FCC economist Dr. Paul Zimmerman finds that executions result in a huge cost benefit to society. “Specifically, it is estimated that each state execution deters somewhere between 3 and 25 murders per year (14 being the average). Assuming that the value of human life is approximately $5 million {i.e. the average of the range estimates provided by Viscussi (1993)}, our estimates imply that society avoids losing approximately $70 million per year on average at the current rate of execution all else equal.” The study used state level data from 1978 to 1997 for all 50 states (excluding Washington D.C.). (1)
That is a cost benefit of $70 million per execution. 15 additional recent studies, inclusive of their defenses, support the deterrent effect.
No cost study has included such calculations.
Although we find it inappropriate to put a dollar value on life, evidently this is not uncommon for economists, insurers, etc.
We know that living murderers are infinitely more likely to harm and murder, again, than are executed murderers. There is no doubt that executions do save innocent lives. What value do you put on the lives saved? Certainly not less than $5 million.
5) The Disinformation problem: The pure deception in some cost “studies” is overt.
a) Some studies compare the cost of a death penalty case, including pre trial, trial, appeals and incarceration, to only the cost of incarceration for 40 years, excluding all trial costs and appeals, and geriatric care for a life sentence. The much cited, highly misleading Texas “study” does this.
b) It has been claimed that it costs $3.2 million/execution in Florida. That “study” decided to add the cost of the entire death penalty system in Florida ($57 million), which included all of the death penalty cases and dividing that number by only the number of executions (18). It is the same as stating that the cost of LWOP is $15 million/case, based upon all costs of 2000 LWOP cases being placed into the 40 lifers to have died (given an average cost of $300, 000/LWOP case, so far, for those 2000 cases.)
Justice
6) The main reason sentences are given is because jurors find that it is the most just punishment available. No state, concerned with justice, will base a decision on cost alone. If they did, all cases would be plea bargained and every crime would have a probation option.
———————————-
1). “State Executions, Deterrence and the Incidence of Murder”, Paul R. Zimmerman (zimmy@att.net), March 3. 2003, Social Science Research Network, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID354680_code021216500.pdf?abstractid=354680
copyright 2003-2009 Dudley Sharp
Permission for distribution of this document, in whole or in part, is approved with proper attribution.
Dudley Sharp, Justice Matters
e-mail sharpjfa@aol.com, 713-622-5491,
Houston, Texas
Mr. Sharp has appeared on ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, FOX, NBC, NPR, PBS , VOA and many other TV and radio networks, on such programs as Nightline, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The O’Reilly Factor, etc., has been quoted in newspapers throughout the world and is a published author.
A former opponent of capital punishment, he has written and granted interviews about, testified on and debated the subject of the death penalty, extensively and internationally.
Pro death penalty sites
homicidesurvivors.com/categories/Dudley%20Sharp%20-%20Justice%20Matters.aspx
http://www.dpinfo.com
http://www.cjlf.org/deathpenalty/DPinformation.htm
http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/links/dplinks.htm
http://www.coastda.com/archives.html
http://www.lexingtonprosecutor.com/death_penalty_debate.htm
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com
yesdeathpenalty.googlepages.com/home2 (Sweden)
http://www.wesleylowe.com/cp.html
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I’m sorry for what your family has gone through Karen but you’re wrong about the cost. It has been proven that keeping them alive is cheaper than killing them. I know there are a lot of terrible folks out there who probably do deserve what they get in this life or the next, but what about the folks who we’ve put to death who weren’t guilty? What about them? ‘Tough luck’ I guess is what we are advocating? Is essentially murdering an innocent person once in a while simply the price of justice?
Lucky for this guy, he finally got freed before they murdered him. http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/12/death.row.exoneration/index.html
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As a member of a so called victim’s family, I’m glad Jones terrible story was shared before the chamber since one can never find out when the public can speak when these stupid bills Deeken introduces come out. The only way is to check the Missouri Goverment website everyday and then there is no time to get there to speak unless you are a priest and against the death penalty.
We have waited for justice for over 14 years – it was a no brainer. And for your information, Missouri death row inmates are housed with the general public.
In the long run, it will become more expensive to house a deathrow inmate for life than to execute them. (health costs)
In the long run, it is safer for inmates of lesser crimes to execute these death row inmates.
In the long run, it is safer for the guards who work there.
There is no chance for escape, which almost took place in our case, but the Post never reported that. I forgot the Post is against the dp.
Don’t play the race card – there are more whites on death row in Missouri than blacks.
Don’t play poor representation unlessd you have personally watched one of these cases in the courtroom and more. It is always the dead victim who is represented by the poor county. Missouri Anti-death squad attorneys make more money than the victim’s attorneys. You can take that one to the bank.
If you ever speak to Deeken personally, he will tell you when the prison gets too full, just start letting them out. How would you like someone who planned your family’s murder to get money to go on vacation living next door to you?
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Skillicorn has been involved in a total 6 murders, only one in which he got the death penalty for. The appeals have been going on forever.
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@Robert
When the crimes were committed, the penalty was death. The criminals understood this, but they choose to do the crime. For the law to change and say, “We really didn’t mean it” would place all sentences on the down-graded slope. Should we give a pass to all speeders, the speed limit signs are mere suggestions, we really did not mean it. Bank robbing now means 100 community service hours?
Next, cost has little merit in the conversation. If you wish to reduce costs, throw out the entire court system. There. Saved a ton of money. Open the doors to the prisons. there. Saved a second ton of money.
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Actually yeah, it probably is worse than dying but that’s not the argument nor is it vengeful. You’re not making any sense. I argued that killing them isn’t justice and also that it is more cost effective (for those who like to think it isn’t) to keep them alive. You then posted a completely unrelated article about some dude in jail for stealing a boat who sawed his way through the bars of a prison on the Cayman Islands.
Which side of the situation are you on? Probably for the death penalty I would imagine, but you probably can’t come up with any good reason other than, “They deserve it cause the Bible says so”.
Which “Christians” enjoy invoking so often yet don’t realize the “Eye for an Eye” thing is in the Old Testament and Jesus never said anything like that. In fact He argued for the opposite. An inconvenient truth I’m afraid.
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@Robert:
From your article, being in prison is “worse than dying.” So I take it you really want convicted criminals to suffer a fate worse than death? Wow, that is pretty vengeful and twisted. I’m confused, whose side are you on?
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For anyone who doesn’t believe me about how it’s cheaper to keep them alive than kill them. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29552692/
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@123456
What does that have to do with the death penalty? The guy escaped from a Cayman Island prison. Not exactly a super-max. Plus he was in jail for boat theft. Are you implying we add boat theft to the list of death penalty crimes? What about mail fraud? Tax evasion maybe?
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@Robert:
http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=%22escaped+prisoner%22
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I thought it was called the Justice System. I didn’t realize it was re-named the Vengeance System. How is putting people to death, justice? Who’s the justice for? The victims? If you kill the perp aren’t we just transferring the title of victim to the perps family and loved ones? Is anyone any safer for the perp being put to death? It’s cheaper to keep them alive than it is to kill them.
For the record, I’m no liberal.
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This is a very confusing news item. We know more about the tragic loss the representative’s wife than we do of the crime and when it was committed. How long has he been on death row. When did it happen? How has the accused acted since his conviction? How long as he been incarcerated? How long has the appeals process been running?
Do the P-D editors look at these stories anymore or is everybody just on automatic pilot??
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“Tilley did not vote on the proposed moratorium.”
Some “Leader” this guy is. Take a side. You weren’t elected to vote present.
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I wonder if Dennis Skillicorn were black would this even be an issue. I hate to play the race card, but the death penalty has been applied unfairly to poor people in general and minorities specifically.
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