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Volunteering for Death

By Jeralyn, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 05:06:02 AM EST
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USA Today reports on the number of death row inmates in the U.S. refusing to appeal their sentence. One of every eight persons on death row is now volunteering to die.

Death row volunteers account for 123 of the 1,041 executions carried out since capital punishment resumed in 1977, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a group in Washington, D.C., that opposes the death penalty. That rate -- about 12% -- has held constant for nearly 30 years.

This year, five of the 37 murderers put to death were volunteers. Two of the remaining 14 prisoners scheduled for execution have asked to die. Some volunteers, such as Elijah Page -- scheduled for execution in South Dakota next week -- give no reason for their choice.

Why do the condemned volunteer for death?

Death-penalty opponent Robert Nave argues that isolation on death row and anxiety caused by years of appeals produce mental instability that causes volunteers to make an "essentially irrational" choice.

I don't think it's an unreasonable choice, even for the mentally stable. What would you do in that situation?

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    Volunteering for Death | 41 comments (41 topical)
    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#1)
    by Sumner on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 12:42:21 AM EST
    "It's a performance of dignity and strength."

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 05:21:30 AM EST
    With the advent of DNA testing, most of the traditional grounds for appeal have been eliminated. "Just do'in time," just doesn't make much sense anymore when the odds are against a successful appeal. I applaud death row inmates (whose convictions have been confirmed though DNA testing) for "volunteering," to die. It is the most respectful and cost-effective thing to do for society.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#4)
    by kdog on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 06:38:02 AM EST
    It is the most respectful and cost-effective thing to do for society.
    That's sick...what about society being humane? That being said...I'd choose death too....a cage for eternity is a worse fate.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#5)
    by HK on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 06:40:48 AM EST
    roxtar, I would take issue with your statement about the inmate's consciousness being 'humanely and mercifully extinguished'. There is much evidence that no execution method hitherto used in the US has been humane. But the rest of what you write makes a lot of sense. urright, I would argue that while a DNA match would confirm that a particular inmate committed a crime, it gives no indication of whether that inmate received a fair trial, if that inmate had more or less culpability than a co-defendant or if the jury had been made properly aware of mitigating circumstances. Science alone does not present the full picture when dealing with human situations. I can fully understand why death row inmates volunteer for the execution chamber. I cannot imagine myself doing so, though. While I have no first hand experience of death row, as an Atheist I feel that even if faced with such dismal circumstances I would rather hold onto the 'something' I had rather than exchange it for the 'nothing' that I believe would follow death. Many of the points made in both the post and the comments that follow show how far the death penalty is from justice.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 07:02:42 AM EST
    kdog/roxstar: When DNA evidence confirms the guilt of an accused "beyond a shadow of a doubt," the fact that the guilty party is entitled to a trial is a courtesy gesture of a civilized society - an expensive one for the taxpayers at that. There is nothing more humane than to remove these individuals permanently from society. The accused who brutally murdered my brother-in-law and his twin son this past July didn't see fit to extend either of them any courtesy before repeatedly shooting one in the head and slitting the throat of his son just to steal a car. How humane shall we get in return?

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#7)
    by HK on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 07:19:44 AM EST
    I am genuinely sorry to hear of your loss, urright. Maybe the most fitting thing we can all do in response to the brutal deaths of your relatives is to consider how to make society a better place rather than contemplating how to match the inhumanity that currently occurs outside the law. You must still feel very raw emotionally. The Journey of Hope website features people who have been where you are now. You will find similarly inspiring stories of dignity and fortitude at the MVFHR website. I have never had the horror of losing someone in such a way. I hope you find peace within yourself, the strength to carry on and, eventually, the positive energy to be the change you want to see in the world.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#8)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 07:31:42 AM EST
    urright, So sorry about your loss. Do you have any local on line articles that I could read about this tragic event?

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#9)
    by kdog on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 07:33:47 AM EST
    My condolences as well urright. Don't let the bastards take your humanity too.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 07:45:10 AM EST
    Your thoughtful comments are appreciated. Che, if you google www.theleafchronicle.com and type "vasquez" in the archives search at the top of the page, you can read the grim reality of it all.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#11)
    by Sumner on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 07:59:08 AM EST
    I am similarly sorry to hear of your loss, urright.
    Maybe the most fitting thing we can all do in response to the brutal deaths of your relatives is to consider how to make society a better place rather than contemplating how to match the inhumanity that currently occurs outside the law.
    In 1985 I wrote a paper extolling the virtue of work opportunities for prisoners in order to provide purpose and so as to assuage hopelessness. Then Chief Justice Warren Burger embraced the idea, made it one of his main themes and he toured widely extolling the concept. What I failed to take into account, was the level of depravity of those actually running that system, the advent of private prison industries, the explosive growth of the Prison Industrial Complex, the political lock-grip prison guard unions would eventually attain over politicians for continually growing the system, and what now amounts to essentially state slavery. To this mix add recent court decisions that allow prison officials to deny all manner of reading material to those in maximum security, which means sitting in a box with virtually no mental stimulation what so ever. A quick look at the recent suicides at Gitmo should shed some clues as to the results of the veritable loss of all hope.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 08:16:16 AM EST
    Having re-read Roxtars article I still find his piece, how shall I describe it, faultless? not quite, as HK opines in her 07.40 post. No doubt there are others that will disagree entirely, but as I write I am at a loss for a more discripive word. I was recently poo-pooed in these pages when I offered, in some part philisophicaly, that the convicted be given the choice of death over a lifetime of incarceration. From the statistics it would appear that there are those that have embraced this "choice" Their reasons are their own, but for some I think it is a testimony that better to die once than a lttle every day for decades. For those proponents that argue that jail is the soft option, a virtual holiday camp even, being caged is the most the most unatural enviroment the human animal can find himself, believe me. Since joining the television culture by recently purchasing a satellite dish, there has been more than a few documenteries on the American penal system. They are far from pleasant places, I shall not go into the conditions chapter and verse, but it comes as little surprise that some inmates make the choice to die. urright my sympathies.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 08:17:32 AM EST
    The mental stimulation of my brother-in-law and his son also ended when they were each placed in their own dark boxes as well, permanently and with no reading material eiither. Prisons are about "depravity," as well as they should be which opens up an entirely different argument as to how effective it is as a deterrant. If the idea of death or permanent depravity makes a single murderer think before they act, then in my mind, it's effective. Ironically, my brother-in-law had devoted his life and fought hard for the civil rights of the Hispanic community in TN and was staunchly against the death penalty!

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 08:20:18 AM EST
    I do not believe in God, or life after death, but I am always amazed by people who say that death is the end. Death "stops the pain" or death "ends the punishment." No one really knows. I am against capital punishment and against killing of humans for whatever the reason. I do not understand how we humans do such depraved and horrible things to each other. It seems that everything in life has an opposite. If we kill them then we become them. There is nothing humane about killing a killer.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 08:28:18 AM EST
    "Volunteering to die" is just indirectly committing suicide. I'd think the death-row suicide rate of 12% would actually be higher.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#16)
    by jimakaPPJ on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 08:34:03 AM EST
    What we have are convicted killers who have been sentenced to death. They are not convicted killers have been sentenced to LWOP or some variation thereoff. Somewhat of an important difference, eh?

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#17)
    by HK on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 08:56:36 AM EST
    Ironically, my brother-in-law had devoted his life and fought hard for the civil rights of the Hispanic community in TN and was staunchly against the death penalty!
    I can understand why his fate must seem particularly cruel to you then. Please read the story of Bud Welsh. His daughter Julie was killed by Timothy McVeigh's bomb in Oklahoma. Bud Welsh faced exactly the situation you are facing now. Ultimately, we all come to our own answers. Of course your brother-in-law would not have wished for himself or his son to die in such a way, but presumably he held his anti-death penalty stance in the knowledge that such killings occured. Clearly the death penalty was no deterrent in this case. Maybe the best way to honour his life is to carry on his good work (or at least remember and respect) the good work he did. I am against the death penalty and hope that my family would bear this in mind if my life was taken by another. I realise, however, that this is easier said than done. Those who are left behind have enormous challenges to face in many different ways.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#18)
    by Edger on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 09:12:29 AM EST
    roxstar:
    Death is nothing more than the permanent termination of consciousness.
    This raises interesting questions. Perhaps the most interesting as it speaks to the most fundamental level of existence, or at least of human existence, and of what it is to be human. Is having a functioning body necessary to being human, or to being conscious? How is is posibble to know whether "death is nothing more than the permanent termination of consciousness" without experiencing it? Can you experience it without your consciousness continuing? Is consciousness necessary to experiencing? I could go on, but I think that's enough of a start to this line...

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 09:26:57 AM EST
    Excellent point, edger. Did you see my comment above. Visit me and we'll talk! It's difficult to find others that are willing to think along these lines.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#20)
    by Dadler on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 09:31:06 AM EST
    urright, my condolences. when a foster brother of mine was stabbed to death when I was in high school, everyone knew who did it, us, the cops, everyone. but there wasn't enough evidence and he was never brought to justice. seeing a 19 year-old in an open coffin changed me forever. and yet, i want nothing to do with the death penalty. it is simply, in my eyes, not an act that a truly civilized society should countenance. nothing will bring the dead back, but honoring their memory in productive rather than destructive ways, in civilized ways, is what really makes a difference in the long run. Or could. Peace.

    Re: Volunteering for Death (none / 0) (#21)
    by Sumner on