Opponents take stock after 1,000th execution

Last week marked a macabre milestone in the nation’s history as the 1,000th execution since 1977 took place. Kenneth Lee Boyd of North Carolina was executed Friday morning, and protesters in Missouri and across the country held vigils to mark this event in hopes of raising awareness about a practice they say is used at a staggering rate.

In the state of Missouri, 66 inmates have been executed since the U.S. Supreme Court deemed the death penalty constitutional in 1976. Jeff Stack of the Mid-Missouri Fellowship for Reconciliation works to ensure that the death penalty is not used on the dozens of inmates on death row.

“We recognize why the victims’ families are angry, we just don’t think it is wise public policy,” said Stack, whose group organized the vigil held outside of the Boone County Courthouse on Friday evening.

“Our government is us, and if killing is wrong in our society, then the state shouldn’t do it either,” said Dustin Arand, a 25-year-old MU law student and member of the American Civil Liberties Union who attended the vigil.

Stack said he is ambivalent about the progress of the anti-death penalty movement.

“It’s hard to be hopeful when you have 1,000 murders by the state,” Stack said. “Society should do what it can to deal with a family’s loss, but the death penalty is a shallow and base way to deal with that.”

Supporters of the death penalty say that although 1,000 executions is a large number, the number of victims these inmates have killed is even larger.

“With a yearly average of 15,000 murders, the fact that we are reaching 1,000 executions in only a little more than 30 years is proof that capital punishment has been reserved for the worst of the worst,” an open letter on prodeathpenalty.com reads.

Stack thinks the United States is moving in the right direction, albeit at a slow pace. He said the number of executions per year has declined over the last seven years.

“Conservative officials are in control of our federal and state government, but that being said, it’s important to look at the encouraging decline of the death penalty in this nation.” Stack said.

Anti-death penalty groups are quick to point out that they don’t hold death row inmates in high esteem. A large majority of them, Stack said, are guilty. His group also works with the families of victims by attending funerals and writing letters of sympathy.

“We offer unconditional support in any way we can,” Stack said. “A lot of times, these people just need to know that we care about them and that we’re thinking about them.”

Three death row inmates in Missouri have been exonerated of their crimes. Stack’s group played an integral role in the exoneration of one of them, Joe Amrine. An MU professor and three student filmmakers drew attention to Amrine’s case by producing a documentary about his claim of innocence.

“He was exonerated not because the system worked, but because of forces outside the system,” Stack said.