Public Inured to Executions as More Die : Declining Press Coverage, Protests Worry Opponents

NEW YORK —  Only eight persons showed up to protest the last execution in Florida, the state that has put more prisoners to death in six years than any other.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 43 persons have been executed in state prisons. When Gary Gilmore became the first in 1977, his story made front pages around the world. James D. Briley, the 42nd, made front pages only in Virginia.

“It’s not the kind of news it used to be,” said Tim Cain, director of the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty. “People are becoming inured to the state killing people.”

Candlelight Vigils Dwindle

In states where executions occur frequently, the candlelight vigils are dwindling. For the most part, the front-page headlines are gone, too. Support for the death penalty is at an all-time high. Have Americans become jaded by executions as they begin to seem routine?

“We are concerned about that phenomenon,” said Martha Kagel, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Louisiana, where seven persons have been executed since December, 1983. “In the 1930s, when three people were executed a week, not very many people questioned the morality of that. We’re concerned about that happening again.”

In eight years, 42 men and one woman have been executed in 12 states. Thirty-eight states have death penalty laws, but four states--Florida, Louisiana, Georgia and Texas--have accounted for all but 11 of the executions.

When John Spenkelink was executed in Florida in May, 1979, about 100 death penalty opponents held a candlelight vigil outside the prison in Starke. Only eight showed up last month to protest the execution of Johnny Paul Witt, the 11th man to follow Spenkelink to the state’s electric chair.

Reporters Lose Interest

Prison officials had to hold a lottery among reporters for seats to witness the Spenkelink execution. Now, they are having trouble finding enough reporters to record the deaths.

“Obviously, when the executions occur two or three or four a month, no managing editor in his or her right mind is going to spend that kind of staff time and space and effort and money on every execution,” said Henry Schwarzschild, director of the Capital Punishment Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

But, in states where executions occur less frequently, the protests and news coverage have not diminished, at least not yet.

In Virginia, 200 death penalty opponents and 250 death penalty advocates demonstrated separately last month at the execution of James D. Briley, the third person executed in that state since 1982.

Two executions are scheduled in Virginia in the next two months, and “my guess is, 60 days from now we’ll be much more clearly able to see whether this trend has taken place in Virginia,” said Jim Payne, director of the Virginia Interface Center on Public Policy.

Although the Briley execution was news in Virginia, it was not a front-page topic elsewhere.

“We had an execution yesterday, and I didn’t even know about it,” said Charles Sullivan, the leader of an anti-death penalty group in Dallas, referring to Briley’s execution the day before. “Even (for) those of us working on the issue, it’s very hard to keep up with what’s going on.”

Death penalty opponents had hoped that the acceleration of executions “would disgust the public and otherwise have an effect,” said William J. Bowers, a Northeastern University sociologist who writes about the death penalty.

‘Hard to Feel Shocked’

But that hasn’t happened. “When executions become commonplace, they don’t seem as horrifying as when they occur infrequently,” said Kagel, who is also co-chairwoman of Louisiana Citizens Against the Death Penalty. “It’s hard for people to feel shocked and horrified by something that doesn’t become news after a while.”

The frequency of executions has also dimmed the candlelight protest vigils. “When they occur once a year, people will take the trouble to drive from Salt Lake City to Provo, Utah, or from Jacksonville to Starke, Fla.,” said Schwarzschild. “If you have one a month, you’re not going to have people coming out.”

Some death penalty opponents contend, however, that the vigils are no longer effective because they spawn counterprotests in favor of the death penalty. Opponents have turned their efforts elsewhere--to protests at state capitols, to marches, to publicized fasts. “We have to put our energy where it is most effective,” Kagel said.

84% Back Executions

A Media General-Associated Press poll taken last November found that 84% of Americans approve of the death penalty. Despite such public opinion against them, death penalty opponents say that they remain optimistic.

“The support for the death penalty is a mile wide, definitely, but it’s only an inch thick,” Sullivan said. “It’s not really that deeply felt by people.”

“Despite what the polls say, there are still a lot of people who want to do away with this,” said Cain.