Execution ignites debate in Maine

PORTLAND – Timothy McVeigh’s execution is igniting a heated debate over the death penalty in Maine.

To some, the last-minute discovery that the FBI failed to turn over thousands of documents in the case is exactly why Maine is correct in not having a death penalty.

But for advocates of capital punishment, McVeigh is the poster boy for why the death penalty should be an option.

“I believe in it for heinous crimes, crimes … against humanity, like the Timothy McVeigh case,” said Rep. Lois Snowe-Mello, R-Poland. “Only a monster could do something like that. I don’t believe a person like that should be on Earth.”

Maine has not had a death penalty since 1887, despite repeated attempts to resurrect it.

Sally Sutton, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, cited the missing documents in the McVeigh case as proof positive that the death penalty should remain off limits.

“You have someone who is now being executed who was not necessarily given a fair trial,” she said. “As distressing as that is, that is not an uncommon practice in terms of how the death penalty is administered across the country.”

Sutton said she hopes McVeigh’s case will push death penalty opponents to lobby for the repeal of capital punishment in other states.

Sen. Michael McAlevey, co-chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee, is a former police officer who has repeatedly pushed to increase the minimum penalties for convicted murders.

But nobody should have the authority to use the death penalty, said McAlevey, R-Waterboro.

“I do like to think [Maine has] a death penalty,” he said. “When they’re sentenced to life in prison, they’re doing death on the installment plan, a day at a time.”

Maine is one of 12 states that does not allow for executions.

Americans support the death penalty almost 2-1, according to recent polls, though attitudes toward the death penalty have shifted over the years. During the 1960s, for example, the public was split on the issue.

Maine was home to the first federal execution in 1790. For the next 86 years, death sentences were permitted in the state – even required for a brief period as the punishment for treason, murder and arson.

The state abolished the practice in 1876, then restored it in 1883 after a series of murders. It was outlawed for good in 1887, after a botched hanging during a public execution left a man twitching and jerking for nearly 15 minutes before he died.