Noting the SCOTUS “state of capital punishment” without discussing the state of capital punishment
Adam Liptak has this notable new New York Times “Sidebar” piece headlined “In Death Penalty Cases, an Impatient Supreme Court; Recent rulings, including one turning down a death row inmate’s request supported by the prosecution, offer telling glimpses of the state of capital punishment.” Here are excerpts (with a bit of emphasis added):
Two weeks ago, on the same day it heard arguments about the future of abortion rights in Texas, the Supreme Court turned down an appeal from a federal prisoner facing execution. The move was in one sense routine, as the court has grown increasingly hostile to arguments made by death row inmates. This became apparent in the final months of the Trump administration, when, after a hiatus of 17 years, the federal government executed 13 inmates. “Throughout this expedited spree of executions, this court has consistently rejected inmates’ credible claims for relief,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissent at the time.
The court’s impatience was also evident last week at an argument over whether an inmate’s pastor could pray with and touch him in the death chamber. Several conservative justices expressed dismay at what they said was last-minute litigation gamesmanship in death penalty cases.
Still, the case the court turned down two weeks ago was exceptional, providing a telling glimpse of the state of capital punishment in the United States. The court rejected the inmate’s petition even though the prosecution agreed that his case deserved a fresh look. In an 11-page dissent, Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Elena Kagan, said the majority had crossed a new bridge. “To my knowledge, the court has never before denied” such relief “in a capital case where both parties have requested it, let alone where a new development has cast the decision below into such doubt,” Justice Sotomayor wrote.
The case concerned Wesley P. Coonce Jr., who was serving a life sentence for kidnapping and carjacking when he helped murder another prisoner in the mental health ward of a federal prison. A murder committed by an inmate already serving a life sentence is a capital crime, and he was sentenced to death. Lawyers for Mr. Coonce asked the justices to return his case to an appeals court for reconsideration of his argument that he could not be executed because he was intellectually disabled. There had been, the lawyers wrote, an important new development that could alter the appeals court’s analysis….
While the majority did not explain its thinking, a 2014 dissent from Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Clarence Thomas, provided a hint. Justice Alito wrote that the meaning of the Eighth Amendment should not be determined by “positions adopted by private professional organizations.” The majority may also have thought that the Biden administration had its own tools to address Mr. Coonce’s case, notably by granting him clemency.
As the title of this post is meant to highlight, I am struggling a bit to see how the denial of cert by SCOTUS in Coonce serves as a “glimpse of the state of capital punishment in the United States.” For starters, the state of capital punishment in the United States is largely one of modern desuetude. As detailed in this DPIC fact sheet, in 1999 there were 279 death sentences imposed and 98 executions; in 2019 there were 24 death sentences imposed and 22 executions. Moreover, I am pretty sure Coonce still can have his death sentence reviewed via a 2255 motion and perhaps via other means, so maybe the case really is a “glimpse” into the various means capital defendants have to get their claims reviewed.
Moreover, as highlighted by the clemency point, what this case really shows to me is that the Biden Administration would rather push for courts to take people off death row rather than do it on their own. After all, if lawyers in the Justice Department have genuinely concluded that Coonce is intellectually disabled, their constitutional oath would seemingly call for them to ask for Prez Biden to moved him off death row since the Eighth Amendment precludes an execution of someone intellectually disabled. That DOJ is merely urging here a “fresh look” strikes me far more as a “glimpse” into the state of the Biden Administration’s actions on capital punishment.