With the jury still out in the sentencing phase of convicted Boston Marathon Bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, criminal defense attorneys and prosecutors coast to coast are watching carefully. It is a matter of time before the jury returns and Tsarnaev learns his fate.
Few are watching closer than Nick Wooldridge, a prominent Nevada criminal defense attorney. Before relocating to Las Vegas, Wooldridge was co-counsel, with Arkady Bukh, for Azamat Tazhayakov, of Boston Marathon case.
Predictably, Wooldridge is a strong foe of the death penalty.
Without pausing, Woolridge can point out five principal arguments used by death penalty enthusiasts. He renounces them just as easily.
Pro-Death Penalty Argument (PDPA) The crimes of rape, torture, kidnapping, murder and treason turn on a moral code that defies indisputable truth by expert testimony. Communities would fall into anarchy if they could not act on moral assumptions that are not certain.
Wooldridge Response (WR): At the end of the day, the moral question surrounding capital punishment has less to do with whether individuals convicted of violent crime deserve to die than with whether governments has the right to kill those whom it has put in prison. The legacy of racism — including racial apartheid and racial bias — is evident in the administration of capital punishment in America.
WR: Death is a severe punishment unusual both in its pain and in its finality. The basic constitutional problem in the death penalty is that it treats members of the human race as nonhumans — as objects to be loved and then discarded.
PDPA: Common sense tells us that the death penalty will deter murder. People fear nothing greater than death. Nothing will inhibit a criminal more than the fear of death. Life in prison is less feared, and we must execute murderers as long as it is possible that their execution protects citizens from future murders.
NW: There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more than long terms of imprisonment. States that have death penalty laws on the books don’t see lower crime rates or murder rates than states without the death penalty. States which had, but have abolished, the death penalty don’t show any significant changes in either crime or murder rates.
PDPA: No system of justice can produce results that are 100 percent certain, 100 percent of the time. Mistakes will be made in any system that relies upon human testimony for proof. We need to be vigilant to uncover and avoid mistakes. Our system of justice demands a higher standard for death penalty cases.
NW: Since the modern death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 87 people have been freed from death row because they were later proven innocent. That is an error rate of one innocent person for every seven persons executed. When the consequences are life and death, we need to reach the same standard for our justice system as we do for our airlines.
PDPA: Many of death penalty opponents argue that the price tag of the death penalty is costly. Justice for All estimates that life without parole cases cost $1.2 million to $3.6 million more than death penalty cases. Opponents claim that the death penalty costs, over time, 6.5 times more than life without parole.
NW: In the course of my work, I have reviewed every state and federal study of the costs of the death penalty over the past 25 years. Each study concluded that the cost of the death penalty amounts to a net expense to the state. To put it another way, the death penalty is clearly more expensive than a system handling similar cases with a lesser punishment. Everything that is required for an ordinary trial is required for a death penalty case — only more so:
More pre-trial time
More experts
Twice as many attorneys
Two trials instead of one
A long appeal process
Defense Position
Wooldridge agrees with the stance taken by Tsarnaev’s defense team. Get the jury to understand that by condemning Tsarnaev to life in prison, they will give him a punishment greater than death.
Wooldridge also points out that if Tsarnaev receives capital punishment, then he could be made a sacrificial victim whose memory may inspire other potential terrorists.
Life in Prison is No Walk in the Park
Life in prison, without parole, is usually considered to be a worse form of punishment and more effective as a deterrent. Many death penalty opponents agree that death might be too good for the criminal as the suffering is over in an instant. If sentenced to life in prison, the pain felt by the criminal will last for decades. Life in prison means existing in a brutal, lonely, and violent atmosphere.
If Tsarnaev is sentenced to life in prison, he will be alone most of the time at the “Supermax” in Florence, Colorado.
Mark Bezy, a former federal prison warden told jurors at Tsarnaev’s trial that the inmates at the Supermax don’t have cellmates and recreation time is solitary as well.
“Thy sit in the cells, locked in their cells every day,” he said.
Tsarnaev would be allowed up to five visitors a month as well as phone calls and letters.
Wooldridge May Have Company
If a poll by the Boston Globe is a good indicator, Wooldridge may have a lot of company in his assessment.
It appears that voters in Massachusetts have concluded that Tsarnaev does not deserve a quick death. Instead, the poll says, he should spend the rest of his years in a wondowless cell thinking about the acts that put him there.
In Boston, support for capital punishment has fallen even further. Only 25 percent believe it is ever appropriate and only 15 percent think that Tsarnaev should be executed. Over 65 percent of Bostonians and almost 63 percent statewide favor a life sentence.
Polls though have been known to be wrong. Wooldridge points out that the poeple answering the Boston Globe poll have not had to sit through weeks of testimony by the victims.
“I think the real qeustion is, how much is this [the testimony] going to influence the twelve poeple making the decision about Tsarnaev’s future.”
Jerry Nelson is an internationally known photojournalist who turns his camera -- and pen -- on social justice issues. Contact him today at jandrewnelson2@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter.