Fletcher speaks out against death penalty
The former chief justice who lives in Rome wants the U.S. to abolish executions.
When the state executes a criminal, it is doing the same thing the accused did in the first place and takes the life of someone “created in the image of God.”
Those were the words of former Georgia Chief Justice Norman Fletcher as he explained to the Rome Rotary Club on Thursday why the death penalty should be abolished nationwide.
The death penalty is “morally and spiritually indefensible,” Fletcher told the club, and he has been working for more than a decade to stop it.
The death penalty has no longterm deterrent effect, makes no business sense and is not fairly and consistently applied, Fletcher argued.
In Georgia, death penalty cases take up 10 percent of all court resources but represent less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all court filings.
A sentence of life without parole costs much less, he said.
Two cases in Georgia heard by the U.S. Supreme Court played large roles in the handling of death penalty cases nationwide.
In 1972 case, Furman v. Georgia, a decision by the federal court requiring some consistency in applying the death penalty, led to a four-year hiatus in executions.
Guidelines established in Gregg v. Georgia in 1976 restarted the execution process again.
Fletcher said when he served on the bench he was shocked to see the legal representation many people received in death penalty cases, particular the poor.
Fletcher said at one time he supported the death penalty in extreme cases, but his mind was changed after “much thought and prayer.”
Part of his reasoning came about because of the inequality of the defense available to the poorest Americans.
“Lawyers fell asleep, some were prejudiced against their clients, and sometimes civil attorneys who never tried a case were appointed,” Fletcher said.
In the U.S., 18 states and the District of Columbia have no death penalty, Fletcher said. Three states never had it. Connecticut’s high court struck down the death penalty there last week.
“I, too, believe it is time we quit tinkering with the machinery of death and totally abolish this barbaric system,” Fletcher said.
He was partially drawing on a quote from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, who in 1994 wrote: “From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.” Blackmun was the lone dissenter when the high court refused to hear the appeal of a man on death row in Texas.
Fletcher gave a similar speech when he received the Gideon’s Promise
Award earlier this year in Atlanta.
When asked by a club member if he thinks the death penalty will be abolished in his lifetime, Fletcher initially joked: “I think so. I plan to live a long time.”
While he said he would prefer to see the death penalty erased legislatively, he predicted the U.S. Supreme Court would strike it down sooner than later.
Justice Anthony Kennedy has already said the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment and will like likely be the swing vote should the high court issue a ruling.
Ultimately, Fletcher said, it is better to use the money being funneled into death penalty cases to improve people’s lives, better our educational system and support programs to keep people away from drug abuse and alcoholism.