On Tuesday June 12, 2012, Richard Albert Leavitt will walk into a 14 x 60 foot mobile
home in the compound of the prison in Boise, Idaho and be put to death for the
July 18, 1984 brutal murder of 31-year-old Danette Elg in Blackfoot.
In
Idaho, as in many other states, the sentencing is determined by jury . Today, 15 inmates
await execution in Boise.
Idaho
is one of the small number of states where the Governor can not commute
sentences. That power rests in the hand
a board appointed by the Governor.
Georgia and Connecticut are the only other states that share the same
system.
Idaho
has come twice within days of executing inmates who were later proved to be innocent.
While only one person has received a commutation of a
death sentence since 1973 (Donald Paradis in April 1994); his sentence was
later overturned and he was freed due to innocence.
In
2001, Charles Irvin Fain served
18 years of imprisonment before DNA tests showed that the did not commit the
crime of which he was convicted.
With three more
executions scheduled over the next twelve months, Idaho is on pace to match the
rate of execution in Virginia and Texas.
Unlike other forms of
punishment that are available for society to use in capital murder cases, the
death penalty is irrevocable.
Adrienne Evans,
Executive Director of United Vision for Idaho, sums it up best. " Despite evidence that our system is
entrenched with serious flaws often leading to false convictions, it is clear
that perpetuating the cycle of violence does nothing to detour it. State
sanctioned murder reduces us to a people willing to govern based on
fear, hate, and retaliation regardless of the immeasurable cost, and
weakens the fabric of our society," said Evans.
1
