Death Row Experiencers

General Information

The perspective that came up in my research that really created grounds for my claim was that of death row experiencers. In this case, California death row inmates, step-daughter of death row inmate Cynthia Vaughn, and death row exoneree Sabrina Butler.

When faced with her father’s execution, Cynthia had to deal with the unclear death penalty system in full force, having her father’s execution date changed over and over again, and sometimes not even due to successful stays (see definition at bottom). In the midst of this, she described the lack of help that the government provided her, both before and during the whole ordeal. As well as that, despite a promised sense of closure when everything was all said and done with, Cynthia described the unending grip the penalty has had on her life, all causing for her anti-death views and current position in talk groups supporting others in similar situations.

Similarly affected by the system’s inconsistent and unclear nature, Sabrina Butler was unfairly accused of a crime that she did not commit because of her colour. On death row, she described the great fear that she felt due to the lack of communication amongst her and her government representatives, leaving her scared and in the dark about most of the coming proceedings. She too was met with a complete lack of support, especially after her eventual exoneration, having still been restricted to rights she should have had, and stripped of the opportunity to mourn her dead son (who she was accused of killing).

Finally, some others experiencing the flawed system first hand were those actually on the rows. In an interview conducted with several California death row inmates prior to a state vote on whether or not to retain the death penalty and under which circumstances to do so, the general consensus amongst the prisoners came through recurring points related to the scars that the system had left on them, and how that drove their frustration no matter which way the vote went. Many had just had enough of the lengthy process in itself and described their indifference to the vote, others were scared of the vote taking them back to regular prison due to their great adjustment to the death row environment. In fact, inmate James Thompson was so fed up with the unclear nature of the system that he expressed the rather unique opinion that he didn’t care if they killed him or not, as long as they made up their mind and stuck to a decision - haste-fully and with clarity.

Alignment With My Claim/Stance

Even brief explanations of just these three of many death row experiences show the match-up they have to my claim, in that they show that the key change that must be made is within the system. Inconsistency in sentencing and aftermath, unreliability within elements of proceedings like a support system, and the lack of thought given to positions that the penalty puts victims in, are all portrayed above, and all are not heard enough in the grand scheme of things when the aspects argued for/against in the general battle are what come through. And all of this is what my claim is, in essence, trying to address-the fact that the flaws that these experiencers reference are what make the base structure for the standards of effectiveness, efficiency, and supportiveness within the penalty and yet are still being overlooked. Overlooked, due to the useless re-hashing of broader points that, in my mind, shouldn't even be considered as concerning UNTIL a true working base for the system is established.

Key Quotes/Standpoints

Cynthia:

“Every time I would try to get to a point in my life where I felt like I could move on, where I felt like I could try to lead some type of normal life, the death penalty is right back in my face,”

“The state is making me a victim over and over and over again.” Meanwhile, she had never received the help she needed to process her trauma.”

Sabrina:

“Sabrina never had a chance to mourn the loss of her son. To this day, in fact, she cannot access his grave. After she was exonerated, she became a seasoned public speaker with groups like Witness to Innocence. Yet she struggled to get a job. “Nobody wanted to hire me,” she says. Although Mississippi passed legislation in 2009 to provide compensation for the wrongfully convicted, no sum of money could address the enduring effects of her incarceration. “They didn’t give me any type of mental service, nothing.”

“I was an emotional zombie for many years.” The loss was compounded by the terror she felt over the threat of execution. Her first official “death date” was set soon after her conviction in 1990. While this was a mere formality given her right to appeal her conviction, Sabrina did not understand this, and her defense attorneys never explained it.”

CA Inmates:

"If you are going to execute me, execute me," Thompson said. "But if you are going to let me go, let me go."

“...condemned inmates embraced the repeal of the death penalty even as others favored faster appeals, despite accelerating their own march to execution. And others voiced anxiety and predictions of violence if they were cast out into the general prison population.”

Randy Pelker

Perspective Didn’t Exactly Show What I Wanted, But Quote Represents Struggles System Can Invoke Upon Experiencers:

“But for Randy, watching his younger brother be put to death meant the beginning of a new trauma: being a surviving family member to someone who has been executed by the state. Now 59 years old, Randy says he has recurring dreams about his brother’s fate.”

Stay of execution: "A stay of execution is a court order to temporarily suspend the execution of a court judgment or other court order."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stay_of_execution