Death Resurrected: The Reimplementation of the Federal Death Penalty

Death Resurrected: The Reimplementation of the Federal Death Penalty ChristopherQ. Cutler* The question of capital punishment has been the subject of endless discussion and will probably never be settled so long as men believe in punishment.... questions of this sort, or perhaps of any sort, are not settled by reason; they are settled by prejudices and sentiments or by emotion. When they are settled they do not stay settled, for the emotions change as new stimuli are applied to the machine. Clarence Darrow' INTRODUCTION Terre Haute, Indiana is a quiet town nestled on the banks of the Wabash River. In the days of canal transportation, and later when two major national highways nearby intersected, Terre Haute became known as the "Crossroads of America." The home to St. Mary-ofthe-Woods Catholic College, the area maintains a Midwestern hometown feel where there might be respite from the hectic work-a-day world. This peace will soon be shaken, when the federal government, in the nearby federal penitentiary, takes the life of Juan Raul Garza. As the media descends upon western Indiana for this spectacle, Terre Haute will once again become the "Crossroads of America." Since 1963, the United States federal government has not carried out the ultimate punishment of a capital sentence.2 That will change * Christopher Q. Cutler graduated cum laude from Utah State University with a bachelor's degree in Sociology with a Law and Society emphasis in 1996 and graduated cum laude from J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University in 1999. Mr. Cutler was admitted to the Utah State Bar in October 1999. He and his wife, Carrie, have one marvelously energetic son, William Royal. Mr. Cutler is currently a law clerk for United States Magistrate Judge Peter E. Ormsby in the Southern District of Texas. The opinions expressed in this article are that of the author and are not endorsed by the court. 1. CLARENCE DARROW, CRIME: ITS CAUSE AND TREATMENT 166 (1922). 2. In 1963 Victor Feguer was hanged at the Iowa State Penitentiary for the kidnapping and murder of a doctor. Craig J. Albert, Challenging Deterrence: New Insights on CapitalPunishment 1189 1190 Seattle University Law Review [Vol. 23:1189 with Garza's execution. Recently, Terre Haute became home to the new federal death chamber and the twenty-one men who sit on the newly-constructed death row.3 Juan Raul Garza, a resident of the new federal death row for drug-related homicides since the early 1990s, has exhausted judicial review of his death sentence4 and likely will be exe- cuted within the next few months. The procedure to be employed in the upcoming federal execution is well-established. After spending the forty-eight to seventy-two hours prior to the execution in a holding cell, the condemned is led to the execution room by corrections officers and strapped to a gurney with arms outstretched.' An I.V. is inserted into the arm, and an anesthetic and potassium chloride enter the blood stream, stopping the heart. And so, the condemned experiences what death-row denizens call "the ultimate high." 7 Derived from Panel Data, 60 U. PITT. L. REV. 321, 323 n.5 (1999). 3. As of January 3, 2000, these men are: (1) David Ronald Chandler (sentenced in 1991 for hiring someone to murder a police informant his sentencing has recently been overturned by the Eleventh Circuit, but will be reheard en banc); (2) Cory Johnson (sentenced in 1993 for several murders); (3) James H. Roane (co-defendant of Johnson); (4) Richard Tipton (co-defendant of Johnson); (5) Juan Raul Garza (sentenced in 1993); (6) John McCullah (sentenced in 1993 for a drug-related homicide); (7) Orlando Hall (sentenced in 1995 for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of a girl); (8) Bruce Webster (same); (9) Louis Jones (sentenced in 1995 for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of a female soldier); (10) Len Davis (sentenced in 1996 for killing a woman who had filed a complaint against him); (11) Paul Hardy (Davis' accomplice); (12) Bountaem Chanthadara (sentenced in 1996 for a murder during a robbery); (13) Anthony Battle (sentenced in 1997 for killing a corrections officer while serving a prison sentence); (14) Timothy McVeigh (sentenced in 1997 for the murder of federal agents in the bombing of a federal building); (15) Darryl Alamount Johnson (sentenced in 1997 for a double murder); (16) Aquilla Barnette (sentenced in 1998 for murdering his former girlfriend and another in a carjacking); (17) Billie Jerome Allen (sentenced in 1998 for a murder during a bank robbery); (18) Norris Holder (sentenced in 1998 for a murder during a bank robbery); (19) David Paul Hammer (sentenced in 1998 for killing a federal prison inmate); (20) Richard Thomas Stitt (sentenced in 1998 for ordering the murder of three people); and (21) Danny Lee (convicted in 1999 for the murder of a gun dealer and his family). See The Penalty Is Death: McVeigh Accepts His Punishment Stoically, FLORIDA TODAY, June 14, 1997, at llA; Federal Inmates, THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN, July 14, 1999, at 4. See also The Death Penalty Information Center <http://www.essential.org/dpic/ fedprisoners.html> (visited on 01/03/2000). The new federal death chamber has a capacity of fifty. See George Kannar, FederalizingDeath, 44 BUFF. L. REV. 325, 329 (1996). 4. Garza has exhausted his direct appeals and the appeal from the denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion. The United States Supreme Court recently denied certiorari. Garza v. United States, 120 S. Ct. 502 (1999). 5. The upcoming execution of Garza is based on the Drug Kingpin Act, which, pursuant to regulation, authorizes execution by lethal injection. 21 U.S.C. § 848 (1994). The other federal death penalty scheme, the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, applies the manner of execution used by the state of conviction. 18 U.S.C. § 3596 (1994). 6. The death chamber itself has been described as "an antiseptic place with ugly green tile, dominated by a modern-looking death gurney." See Ted Bridis, Uncle Sam's New Death Chamber, S.F. EXAMINER, May 7, 1995, at A2. 7. See JAMES A. INCIARDI, CRIMINAL JUSTICE 503 (3d ed. 1990). 20001 FederalDeath Penalty 1191 This procedure, performed hundreds of times in the independent "laboratories of the states, ' 8 will most likely be performed smoothly. However, while the procedure itself may be performed without a hitch, the emotions, concerns, and debates regarding execution will probably be tumultuous. While the nation is accustomed to the routine state executions and their accompanying vehement protests, the nation at large is unaccustomed to a sanctioned killing by the United States government. The imminent use of the death penalty by the federal government is sure to fuel the debate that has raged with increasing furor, escalating with every execution. This Comment analyzes the federal death penalty. Part one discusses the history of the federal death penalty, from its roots in the superstitions and religious dogma of colonial America to t (...truncated)