Nevada should end death penalty

By James Ohrenschall

Thursday, March 30, 2017 | 2 a.m.

It’s not difficult to understand why we as a society have championed the death penalty as a punishment for the gravest of crimes. Emotionally, the response to the deep injustice of murder can be difficult to separate from the realities of state-sanctioned execution.

As a lawmaker entrusted with speaking as an advocate for my constituents and all Nevadans, it is my difficult task to take a close look at charged subjects and separate emotion from reality. In the case of the death penalty in Nevada, the reality is complicated and nuanced, but the truth remains: The death penalty is an intrinsically unfair, costly and ineffective deterrent.

Nevada has executed just a dozen inmates since 1976, despite typically housing 80 inmates on death row. Moreover, 11 of those 12 executions were voluntary — people who preferred to be put to death rather than live out their days in prison.

The fate of Nevada’s 80 death row inmates remains in question. A person sentenced to death in Nevada is more likely to die of natural causes than be executed (16 vs. 12). That number will only increase, as Nevada is now unable to acquire the lethal chemical cocktail required to perform executions in this state. Last September, the state issued 247 requests for proposals to supply drugs required for lethal injection and received no bids from pharmaceutical companies in response.

Beyond the logistics of the state’s lack of access to lethal chemicals, the reality of the astronomical cost for the state must be considered. In 2014, the state conducted an audit that documented the high costs of continuing to offer capital punishment as a penalty in Nevada. According to this audit, the decision to seek the death penalty adds, on average, about $500,000 to the cost of a case. That money is spent every time the death penalty is sought, though fewer than 20 percent of these cases result in a death sentence.

I am aware of the fear many Nevadans and others have in response to removing the death penalty as a potential deterrent to would-be criminals. But in separating emotion from facts, we must consider research that has time and again failed to show any connection between deterrence and the death penalty. In 2012, the National Academy of Sciences, after reviewing 30 years of research, found there was no proof that the death penalty was a deterrent. The U.S. Department of Justice, through its research branch the National Justice Institute, has endorsed this position.

The death penalty’s unfairness is also well documented. The Nevada Supreme Court found misconduct in 47 percent of Clark County death penalty cases reviewed on appeal since 2006. In fact, based on exonerations, innocent African-Americans are roughly seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder than innocent whites.

The facts are unavoidable. Beyond the logistical problem of the state’s inability to acquire the chemicals required to carry out capital punishment, it is an inescapable truth that the death penalty is unfair, ineffective and costly. It’s time to recognize these truths and end Nevada’s death penalty.

James Ohrenschall is a Democratic assemblyman from Las Vegas.