Despite pleas from a state prosecutor and the victim’s family, Marcellus Williams, aged 55, faced the death penalty last week in Missouri. For 17 years in death row, he opposed his conviction for murder, alleging that the trial was flawed due to the use of contaminated DNA and testimony from two paid witnesses. Yet the state attorney general was firm in his assertion of Williams’ guilt and convinced the governor to deny his clemency request.
Williams was the 13th inmate on death row to be executed this year in the United States. The average waiting period for these condemned prisoners is 23 years. Presently, most states have either ceased implementing the death penalty or put executions on hold. This shift is partially due to an increasing public apprehension towards the constitutionality of such an “harsh and uncommon” punishment, but it’s mostly due to the fear that a historically flawed, racially discriminatory, and slow judicial system might be sentencing and killing the innocent.
New DNA evidence, not available during the original trials, has been a game changer. Since 1992, this has resulted in the acquittal and eventual release of over 20 death row inmates, as reported by the Death Penalty Information Centre. Just this year, three were pardoned from the death row. However, rather than proving the effectiveness of the system, it only emphasises the terrifying number of those falsely accused who are tangled in its web, majority of whom may never receive justice.
The US still shamefully maintains this barbaric form of punishment, keeping it in dubious global company. Even though capital punishment’s reach has restricted globally, the absolute count of acknowledged executions saw a rise last year. This increase was largely due to a sudden jump in Iran, where the number of executions reportedly exceeded 700. Meanwhile, China is speculated to have executed thousands but the actual figures remain shrouded in state secrecy.
Japan includes the death penalty in its justice system, albeit with some restrictions. Yet, the recent release of 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada, who was exonerated after spending a world record 46 years on death row for crimes he didn’t commit, does little to instil confidence. The saying “Justice delayed is justice denied” has never been more apt.