Death by default
Missouri's execution chamber in Bonne Terre. Gabriel B. Tait/Post-Dispatch
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon soon must decide whether to spare the life of a man on death row — or give the execution the green light. It’s the second time in less than a month he’s faced that decision.
Reginald Clemons has an execution date of June 17. A federal appeals court granted a stay on Friday as part of a case that broadly challenges Missouri’s system of lethal injections. But the stay could be lifted on short notice, and the execution could proceed.
Clemons was convicted as an accomplice to the murders of Julie and Robin Kerry, two sisters who were pushed to their deaths from the Chain of Rocks Bridge into the Mississippi River in 1991. Clemons was 19 at the time. He is not alleged to have planned or to have committed the murders.
One of the common laments about the criminal justice system is that criminals sometimes walk because of legal technicalities. The precise opposite is true in the Clemons case.
The crimes were horrific. But compelling reasons support granting clemency and commuting the death sentence to life without the possibility of parole: Reginald Clemons scheduled execution is based on a technicality.
Seven years ago, U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry vacated Clemons’ death sentence. She found a clear violation of constitutional law in how his jury had been selected. Six prospective jurors had wrongly been excluded from serving because they showed some ambivalence about applying the death penalty.
The court, in other words, concluded that the deck had been stacked against Clemons. This didn’t affect his conviction. He still would have been required to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. The court simply held that the state can’t execute a man when he’s denied an impartial jury.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit didn’t dispute Judge Perry’s analysis. The trial record suggested that Clemons had, indeed, been denied an impartial jury. Under ordinary circumstances, such an error is sufficiently egregious to warrant reversal of the death penalty.
The problem, according to the Missouri Supreme Court and two of the three members of the federal appeals court panel, was that Clemons’ lawyer failed to push enough paper to adequately “preserve” the constitutional violation for judicial review.
Never mind that the trial court erred, and that Clemons was denied an impartial jury on the issue of death. At this point, the technicality prevails and lethal injection may proceed.
A colleague, Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan, calls this ruling “legal gobbledygook.” It’s much worse. It is grotesque, a shameful example of the state’s most somber function being relegated to a bureaucratic shuffle.
Josh Levine, a former federal prosecutor who took Clemons’ case pro bono, put it this way: “Anybody who is concerned about the rule of law and maintaining faith in our system should be deeply troubled by the prospect of Reggie being executed.”
We categorically oppose the death penalty, believing that it should be abolished as inherently capricious, inhumane and degrading to society.
The governor has been an aggressive proponent of the death penalty — vigorously defending its imposition even in cases involving offenders who were teenagers or who are alleged to be mentally retarded.
He argues that the jury system is our best means of discerning justice — even hard justice. But the jury pool in the Clemens case was infected. And the rule of law was perverted.
The hard justice in the Clemens case is that his life should be spared.
The guy in the photo looks like he’s quite proud of the execution chamber.
> We categorically oppose the death penalty, believing that it
> should be abolished as inherently capricious, inhumane and
> degrading to society.
It would be nice if you were so concerned about the actions of murderous thugs, who have made vast areas of the city virtually uninhabitable, and destroyed the lives of thousands of families. It is their deeds, and not our responses to them, which are inhumane and degrading to society.
> The hard justice in the Clemens case is that his life should be spared.
He should have thought of that before assisting in the brutal rape and murder of two innocent girls.
“disqualified after saying they would oppose the death penalty under certain circumstances”
— Bill McClellan
“because they showed some ambivalence about applying the death penalty”
— P-D Editor
To “oppose” & to have “some ambivalence” are not quite the same, are they?
How about some knee-jerk support for the victims for a change.
I look forward to the time when you also categorically oppose the death penalty for unborn babies.
“We categorically oppose the death penalty, believing that it should be abolished as inherently capricious, inhumane and degrading to society.”
Raping young girls and then throwing them off a bridge to their deaths is equally capricious, inhumane, and degrading to society. For that, Clemons should take his medicine.
We should adopt Singapore’s method of dealing with violent crimes, such as murder and rape They don’t execute anybody for doing anything. It works for them, and it would work for us.
“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit didn’t dispute Judge Perry’s analysis. The trial record suggested that Clemons had, indeed, been denied an impartial jury. Under ordinary circumstances, such an error is sufficiently egregious to warrant reversal of the death penalty.”
Fercrysakes, what’s the matter with you editorial writers? A juror who refuses to abide by the letter of the law as interpreted by the trial judge should be sent on their merry way. Must all jurors be accepted, even if they have a deeply held conviction that incarceration of a perpetrator for any length of time is a grievous and overwhelming inconvenience?
“…the deck had been stacked against Clemons.”
What an absurd notion. Clemons has legal counsel. The Kerry sisters had none. Clemons was granted a trial. The sisters were not. Clemons was condemned by a lawful jury. The sisters were condemned by lawless thugs. Clemons has had years to publicly plead for mercy. The sisters’ pleas were heard only by their tormenters and killers.
It’s too bad no one can ask Julie and Robin about a “stacked deck.” Of course the PD would not consider cherry picking jurors who don’t support capital punishment stacking the deck, would you?
Due to the unreasonable delays and roadblocks, capital punishment is no longer a deterrent to others. But it does guarantee the executed convict will never again participate in deliberately destroying innocent families.
Nixon won’t grant clemency to anybody soon.
He’s too weak, politically in “Missouruh”.
Regardless, he’s lost my vote.
How can we justify the white cousin confessing to the murders and then having the charges dropped? On top of that, the other white defendant got out of jail last year! If that doesn’t raise questions, then what does. Furthermore, there was no physical evidence. As Reggie himself stated, how can you take something that you can’t give back? Where’s the justic in that?