May 3, 2004
ROMNEY ACCEPTS FINDINGS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT COUNCIL
Scientific Evidence, Multiple Review Layers Ensure Only the Guilty Get Ultimate Penalty
In a highly awaited report from a panel of scientific and legal experts, the Governor’s Council on Capital Punishment today made recommendations for a death penalty statute that relies on scientific evidence, multiple layers of review and a new “no doubt” standard of proof.
Governor Mitt Romney, who assembled the council last fall without regard to their views on the death penalty, embraced the panel’s findings and said he would follow their recommendations in crafting legislation for consideration by the Legislature.
Romney called the council’s report “the gold standard for the death penalty in the modern scientific age” and “a model not only for Massachusetts, but for the nation.” Massachusetts is only one of 12 states in the nation without a death penalty.
The 11-member council, co-chaired by Joseph Hoffmann, Professor of Law at Indiana University, and Dr. Fred Bieber, Medical Geneticist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Department of Pathology and Associate Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, proposed limiting the death penalty as a sentencing option for only the “worst of the worst” first-degree murders. Terrorists, cop killers and murderers who torture their victims or who have multiple victims would be among the narrow set of killers eligible for the ultimate punishment under the panel’s findings.
Professor Hoffmann said, “We have recommended so many different safeguards and so many overlapping layers of review that, as a practical matter, these recommendations can achieve a completely accurate and fair death penalty system for Massachusetts.”
Dr. Bieber said the panel made no recommendations on whether capital punishment legislation should be considered or enacted in Massachusetts. But, he said, “If our recommendations are implemented and have their intended effect, here or elsewhere, victims of serious capital crimes, and those accused of committing them, can be assured of the highest standards of justice.”
To erase any doubt that an innocent person could be put to death, the council called for an unprecedented use of scientific evidence. Before a death sentence can be issued, the panel recommended that “conclusive scientific evidence” be required to corroborate the defendant’s guilt by connecting him or her to the crime scene, the murder weapon or the victim’s body.
“Just as science can free the innocent, it can also identify the guilty,” Romney said.
In addition, for any capital sentence, the council mandated that an independent panel of scientific experts conduct a thorough review of the physical evidence to ensure it was collected, handled, evaluated, analyzed, interpreted and preserved according to the highest standards of the medical and scientific community.
The panel also called for raising the burden of proof at the sentencing stage of any capital trial from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to “no doubt.”
The report put forth a number of additional safeguards, including:
Insisting on a bifurcated trial process with one trial to determine guilt or innocence and a separate one for sentencing. The defendant could request a different jury for each stage of the process;
Maintaining an automatic review of any death sentence by the state Supreme Judicial Court; and
Creating a Death Penalty Review Commission to review any complaints filed by individuals on death row and to investigate any errors that may have allegedly occurred during the trial.
Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, a criminologist, hailed the thoroughness of the council’s work, noting that they held seven full-day sessions, considered thousands of pages of research and conducted interviews with experts.
“Today, the Governor’s Council on Capital Punishment has fulfilled its charge,” said Healey. “It has set a new standard of judicial effectiveness and reliability if the death penalty is restored in Massachusetts in the future. Their work has helped us take a significant step forward in our ongoing effort to reform and improve the state’s criminal justice system.”
Other members of the council include Retired Superior Court Judge Robert Barton; Ralph F. Boyd, Jr., Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation and former U.S. Attorney General for Civil Rights; Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz; Donald R. Hayes, Jr., Director of the Boston Police Department Crime Lab; Dr. Henry Lee, Chief Emeritus of the Connecticut Department of Public Safety’s Division of Scientific Services and one of the world’s foremost forensic scientists; Henry T.A. Moniz, partner in the law firm of Bingham McCutcheon LLP and former Assistant U.S. Attorney; Kathleen M. O’Toole, former Public Safety Secretary; Dr. Carl M. Selavka, Director of the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab; and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan.
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Governor's Council on Capital Punishment Final Report
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