Nevada death penalty portrayal disputed

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A study by a Columbia University law professor portraying Nevada as a place where a multitude of errors are committed in capital punishment cases and a state with an excessive number of people on death row is "flat wrong," the state attorney general's office says.

Deputy Attorney General Dorothy Nash Holmes, the coordinator of death-penalty cases for the office, Tuesday disputed that Nevada had a 68 percent overall error rate in death-penalty trials and that the state had the largest death row per capita in the United States.

Columbia Professor James Liebman released his study "A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases" in June looking at how the death penalty is imposed and its weaknesses in the United States. Seven out of 10 Nevada cases fully reviewed by state and federal courts are overturned for egregious errors, he said.

His study found the death-penalty rate is about three times higher than the average among 28 states studied.

But Holmes said Tuesday an exhaustive review showed Liebman used statistics supplied only by defense lawyers and those opposed to the death penalty. Liebman didn't count all death-penalty cases and used selective cases to get certain results, Holmes said.

"He (Liebman) used only Nevada Supreme Court or federal appeal cases for some results, but added lower state court cases to increase reversals. Liebman didn't count all Nevada cases," Holmes said.

"Liebman says Nevada seeks death too often and says we have 28.23 death sentences per every 1,000 inmates. But that would be 268 capital inmates, and Nevada has only 88 on death row now, out of 992 convicted murders and over 9,500 total inmates. Nevada juries actually sentence only 9 percent of our convicted killers to death.

"Our office independently researched all reported death penalty cases back to 1973. In only 19 percent of those cases was the defendant granted a new trial or new sentencing. In half of those cases, the defendant received a death sentence again; the other half received life in prison sentences. We are not talking about innocent people here. Nevada's death penalty review system is working properly."

She said the study left the impression that innocent people were being put to death. "There are no documented cases where an innocent person has been executed in Nevada."

The most noted case cited recently by defense lawyers is John Mazzan of Reno, who was on death row for 25 years for murder. The Nevada Supreme Court ordered a new trial on grounds the prosecution did not disclose evidence at the trial that might have aided in Mazzan's case that two other men committed the killing.

Mazzan is awaiting his second trial.

Among the flaws in the Liebman study, Holmes said, were that it left out many Nevada cases; it did not count cases of eight men executed since 1997, seven of whom finally ended their appeals; there were incorrect case outcomes and different time frames were used for the study.

Holmes also disputed Liebman's claim that Nevada has too many death sentences based on its population. Liebman didn't take into account the fast growth and the 45 million visitors each year.

"Our research shows that more than 40 percent of the people now on death row were nonresidents when they committed murder here," Holmes said.

She also disputed claims that Nevada racially discriminates in the death penalty.

"Of the 50 men executed in Nevada since 1905, 42 were white, four were Native American, two were black and two were Asian. That record disproves claims of racial injustice," Holmes said.

Records at the state prison as of May, however, show there are 45 whites on death row, 34 blacks, one Cuban, and six Hispanics. That shows that nearly half of those on death row are minorities, far more than the makeup of the Nevada population.

Holmes also said there wasn't any gender discrimination because there was only one woman, Priscilla Ford, on death row. "There are just fewer female murderers," she said. Nevada has not yet executed a woman.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said she supports the death penalty because it is an appropriate punishment for heinous crimes. "Professor Liebman's study has received a great deal of media coverage. It is important that we correct the record as far as Nevada is concerned."

At the time the study was released, death-penalty opponents suggested Gov. Kenny Guinn impose a moratorium on death penalties because of the frequent errors made during trials. But Guinn refused. The governor, through a spokesman, said there are no known flaws in the system.