PUBLIC DEFENDER LIKES ABA DEATH STANCE

JACKSON -- The American Bar Association may have lost one local member because of its recent vote on the death penalty, but it is about to gain a new one.

A few days after the ABA receives Cape Girardeau Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle's letter of resignation, it will get a letter from public defender Kent Hall, who heads the public defender's office in Jackson.

Hall, who has never been a member, wants to join the group for the same reason Swingle wants to leave.

Citing claims of racial inequity, the ABA urged a nationwide moratorium on the death penalty Monday. The ABA's House of Delegates, which makes policy for the nation's largest group of lawyers, voted 280-119 in favor of the moratorium.

Leaders of the 370,000-lawyer organization said that current death-penalty systems are marred by unfairness and racial injustice.

Hall agrees.

"I think they've taken a very enlightened position," Hall said. "They have said they are not for or against it, but until it can be applied fairly we ought not to do it at all."

Hall said that the death penalty isn't applied equitably as the indiscriminate number of blacks and whites clearly shows.

"There are more blacks on death row than whites," Hall said. "The numbers are there; something must be wrong. The system isn't failproof yet that's the ultimate punishment."

He thinks that a death sentence is too barbaric and that a life in prison could be worse than death.

Hall doesn't share Swingle's belief that incorporating capital punishment is a deterrent to would-be murderers, rapists and other violent criminals.

"I don't think a person who is about to commit a horrendous crime thinks, 'Oh I shouldn't do this, I might get the death penalty," he said.

There is also no way to make sure innocent people aren't put to death, Hall said. There are cases of people who were on death row for many years who were later shown to be innocent.

He cites the example of a person who had been on death row for 17 years after being convicted of a rape. Then DNA testing showed the person did not commit rape, Hall said.

"It just goes to show you the system isn't perfect. That's such a punishment that you can't change, you can't bring someone back to life. Unless you have a perfect system, I don't think we, as a society should be executing people."

He thinks it's a spiritual and philosophical choice that everyone has to make.

"If you're religious, you believe that it's up to God to deliver justice, but man should not try to play God by delivering the ultimate punishment."