Is the death penalty enacted the same as it was 40 years ago?

Authors: John H. Blume, Cornell Law School; Lindsay Vann, Justice360

This week we are going to take a different approach to learning some of the relevant research in the field of Criminology. In 2016, Blume and Vann published this work entitled “Forty Years of Death: The Past, Present, and Future of the Death Penalty in South Carolina (Still Arbitrary after All These Years). This blog attempts to discuss, in a more narrative fashion, the ways that the death penalty has been applied in the state of South Carolina, with a focus on Blume and Vann’s research.

In sum, this article discussed how the death penalty has been implemented in a relatively arbitrary and unreasonable fashion since the onset of sentencing individuals to death in the state of South Carolina. Now, the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Furman v. Georgia case was supposed to invalidate all death penalty provisions at the state and national level; however, there has still been efforts on behalf of state legislatures to “fix” the problems with death penalty sentences that were raised by the SCOTUS, rendering updated and revolutionized death penalty statutes that are constitutional in accordance to the Furman decision. However, Blume and Vann conducted some revolutionary research that allows us to see that, although there were some things “fixed” (and I use that term loosely) with the new death penalty statute in the Palmetto state, there are still loads of issues with the practical nature of the current law. If you would like to look into an oral account of their findings, please tune into our second week of SC4CJR’s Death Penalty series with Lindsay Vann; however, to summarize briefly, their research indicated that we have made no strides in fixing the arbitrary nature of the death penalty statute in the state of South Carolina that was deemed unconstitutional by the SCOTUS almost FIFTY YEARS AGO. Perhaps my favorite verbiage that Lindsay used to summarize their findings was when she stated: “It didn’t matter what they did, but WHERE they did it”. In essence, she is describing how the lack of uniformity of prosecutor’s decision making when it comes to pursuing a death sentence across counties throughout the state has led to there being drastic racial undertones and prejudices in its application. As an example, she discussed Lexington and Richland counties here in the midlands. In Lexington, the prosecutor’s office is incredibly likely to pursue a death sentence for heinous crimes; however, if you committed the same crime just across the river in Richland county, prosecutors rarely pursue death sentences. This is just one example of how the practical nature of the current death penalty statute in the state of South Carolina lacks valid practical implications and exposes underprivileged, and mostly minority, individuals to death sentences throughout the state. It is time for the state legislature to take the proper steps in dealing with the death penalty in South Carolina in the correct way: ABOLITION.

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