A
question of fairness
EDITORIAL
June
11, 2006
THE
ISSUE A death penalty case in Shelby County highlights a larger
question of fairness in Alabama's system of capital punishment.
Shelby County District Attorney Robby Owens is right: There's
something fundamentally unfair in the current predicament of LaSamuel
Gamble.
Gamble
is on Alabama's Death Row for his role in the 1996 robbery-murder of
John Burleson and Janice Littleton at a Shelby County pawn shop. But
the actual triggerman - Gamble's co-defendant, Marcus Pressley - won't
be executed.
Pressley's death sentence won't be carried out because of a U.S.
Supreme Court ruling that said people can't be executed for crimes
they committed before they were 18. As it happens, Pressley was 16 at
the time of the John's 280 Pawn Shop holdup; Gamble 19.
Owens
testified at a hearing Wednesday that he doesn't believe it's fair to
execute Gamble if Pressley can't also be put to death. ''Both deserve
to be on Death Row, but it is simple equity - it is not fair to leave
the person on Death Row who didn't kill anyone and take the person off
Death Row who did,'' Owens said.
Owens'
concern about fairness in death sentences is commendable. It would be
great to see more prosecutors take courageous stands on this issue.
But it's a dangerous road to go down. Once you enter the thicket of
fairness, the death penalty becomes impossible to defend.
It's
too easy to find a defendant sentenced to death for one ghastly crime
- and to find someone who was spared execution despite an equally
ghastly (or even more ghastly) crime. It doesn't take many cases to
conclude the makeup of Death Row isn't always determined by the horror
of a particular crime and the guilt of a particular defendant. All
kinds of factors - such as the race of the victims, the quality of
legal defense, even the location of the crime - can play a role.
That's
not fair.
Certainly, Owens can make a case for why Gamble got the death penalty
in the first place. Security cameras captured the robbery, and they
showed Gamble calmly and coldly taking part in the crime, if not
pulling the trigger.
But
Owens makes an equally compelling case for why it's unfair to execute
Gamble for this crime, while Pressley escapes the ultimate punishment.
Unfortunately, it's a case that can be made for too many of the
defendants now sitting on Death Row.
