World Day Against the Death Penalty: Reckoning with the Truth

Two weeks ago, Missouri knowingly executed an innocent man, Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams.

Despite the protests of the prosecutor’s office who obtained the conviction and death sentence.

Despite the protests of the jurors who originally sentenced him to death.

Despite the wishes of the family of the victim.

Here in my home state of Missouri, 12 men have been executed under our current Governor Mike Parson and a thirteenth is scheduled before the end of the year. The death penalty is, in theory, reserved for the worst of the worst. But Missouri’s recent track record reveals the death penalty is in fact reserved for the most disadvantaged in our criminal legal system – the Black men, the poor, and those vulnerable due to cognitive limitations, mental illness, or youth – and, shockingly, even the innocent.

Among the near dozen executions under Governor Parson, Missouri has killed a person with an intellectual disability (contrary to U.S. Supreme Court binding law), a man who was a child, just 18 years old, at the time of his crime, a man who was indisputably rehabilitated according to dozens of correctional officers, and several who are likely innocent. These irreversible injustices include:

— Leonard “Raheem” Taylor, who Missouri executed on February 7, 2023, who presented compelling evidence that he was innocent but never had the opportunity to have his evidence heard by a court, despite many attempts. According to multiple credible witnesses, Mr. Taylor was 2,000 miles away at the time of the crime.

— Ernest Johnson, who Missouri executed on October 5, 2021, had an IQ of 77 or under (after a surgery removing 20% of his brain), even though clear U.S. Supreme Court precedent long ago established that it is unconstitutional to execute anyone with an IQ under 80.

— Kevin Johnson, who Missouri executed on November 29, 2022, was 18 when he killed a police officer. The case record made clear he was acting emotionally and impulsively, after watching his brother die earlier the same day, and believing this officer had prevented his brother from getting life-saving help. The U.S. bans executions for anyone under 18 and states have been raising the age in recognition that the brain completes critical phases of development at 25, not 18.

— Brian Dorsey, who Missouri executed on April 9, 2024, was wholly rehabilitated, as attested to by more than 70 correctional officers, chaplains, and the former warden of the prison who asked the Governor to commute his death sentence to a life sentence.

In the cases of both Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams and Kevin Johnson, the prosecutor’s office that obtained the conviction and death sentence publicly admitted that the trials and the fatal sentences were racist. In other words, the jury selection that sentenced these Black men to death and the way the trial prosecutor handled the charging, prosecuting, and sentencing were unconstitutionally, pervasively tainted by racism. The admitted racist roots of these state-sponsored executions run deep and cannot be disentangled from Missouri’s history: Missouri was the site of the first recorded lynching in the U.S., and Black men made up half of the 110 people executed by Missouri between 1900-1965, while less than 10% of the state’s population was Black.

Missouri is exceptional in its recent rush to execute, and who it is willing to execute, but it is not alone this year. In the last week of September, our country executed five people in one week – a record not seen in decades.

Despite the recent spike in executions, after decades of decline in its use, all of the rationales for a civilized society promoting state-sponsored executions have been refuted. Studies consistently show that the death penalty is not a deterrent; it does not make us safer. It is also now clear that sentencing an individual to death costs taxpayers far more money than a life sentence. And it should not surprise us that we are executing the most vulnerable among us, not “the worst of the worst.” Death sentences are overwhelmingly the result of poor representation by defense attorneys, so death sentences go to the poorest and least-resourced among us. Nor can we feign surprise anymore that innocent people have been executed and continue to be at risk of execution. Since 1973, at least 200 people have been exonerated from death row (including 4 in Missouri).

There is a misconception that death sentence convictions have the most integrity because the trials were long, and they are entitled to many rounds of judicial review. This is a lie to help us sleep at night. In reality, capital cases are ripe for wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction is most likely when a crime is serious, and there is the greatest pressure – from the public, the media, the command – to quickly close a case. Corners are cut when investigations are rushed, statements are coerced (from suspects and witnesses), and evidence is tainted or manufactured. Access to judicial review does not inoculate a case from wrongful conviction because once a conviction and sentence is handed down, it is protected by layer upon layer of deference and procedural technicalities make meaningful review difficult or even impossible. And capital cases inevitably become political, whereby law-and-order politicians, who were never directly involved in the case, dig in their heels to make an example.

Executing innocent Americans is a bipartisan issue. We all can agree that the government should not be killing innocent people. And people across the political spectrum are increasingly expressing concerns about the many problems that make capital punishment excessive, unfair, wasteful, and unnecessary.

Indeed, in most of the Missouri cases highlighted above, bipartisan support coalitions united to advocate for clemency and commuting of the death sentence to a life sentence. These bipartisan coalitions of activists, religious leaders, attorneys, students, and community members of all types were defeated by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Governor Mike Parson, who pushed these executions forward despite bipartisan opposition.

These political actors trumpet finality in the name of protecting a jury’s verdict. Ignored is the flimsiness of such finality when the jurors themselves call for a reversal, and the victims find no closure but only artificiality in a state-sponsored execution.

We must interrogate what purpose these executions are serving. Who are we doing this for? The harsh truth is today, in Missouri, we are executing innocent and rehabilitated men to serve the political ambitions of a few elected leaders. Human life must transcend politics, especially in our pro-life state; we cannot allow innocent men to continue to be pawns in political games.

On today’s commemoration of World Day Against the Death Penalty, we must reckon with these truths. The death penalty serves no legitimate moral or policy purpose. It does not deter crime. It is inhumane, kills innocent people, and teaches our children and future leaders that political currency is more important than human life. The death penalty must end in Missouri, and across the country.