There are lots of reasons to oppose the death penalty.
“Legislators, advocates, and lawyers spend an extraordinary amount of time and money on these cases. Those resources would be far better spent on initiatives that would protect our citizens in their daily lives,” I began my remarks at a press conference announcing that a record number of members in both houses are co-sponsoring the repeal bill this year.
Then I spoke of the Thurgood Marshall statue adjacent to the State House, which honors his work desegregating the University of Maryland Law School and ultimately, Brown vs. the Board, the case that put an end to the legal fiction of separate but equal.
“But Marshall also represented defendants in death penalty cases and knew well the racial biases permeating the death penalty. That is still the case today,” I concluded.
Afterwards, I Googled to make sure my memory had served me correctly. I found this in a law review article.
Marshall was trial counsel for an African American man accused of raping a white woman. The prosecution offered a life sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. Marshall conveyed the offer to his client who exclaimed: “Plead guilty to what? Raping that woman? You gotta be kidding. I won’t do it.” Marshall later recounted: “That’s when I knew I had an innocent man.”
Marshall told that story to his fellow justices, concluding: “The guy was found guilty and sentenced to death. But he never raped that woman.” He paused, flicking his hand, and added: “Oh well, he was just a Negro.” In a tribute to Justice Marshall after his retirement, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor reflected that stories like these “would, by and by, perhaps change the way I see the world.”
February 10
