Vermont is in the middle of a federal murder trial that may lead to our state’s first execution in 51 years. In November 2000, Donald Fell and Robert Lee killed Mr. Fell’s mother and her boyfriend in Rutland, Vermont, then carjacked Teresca King, drove her across the New York state line and killed her. Mr. Lee told police Mr. Fell did the actual killing, then committed suicide in his cell.
Crossing the state line put the crime under the jurisdiction of federal prosecutors, who in 2001 reached an agreement with Mr. Fell’s attorney that Mr. Fell would plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
In January 2002, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft vetoed the plea agreement and ordered prosecutors to take the case to trial, seeking the death penalty. Why would he do that? Two reasons:
1. It enhances federal power. Under federal law, if both states and the federal government have jurisdiction over a crime, such as murder, the federal government is to defer to the states unless there is “substantial federal interest” in the case. An official at the Justice Department, courageously anonymous in the Washington Post, said the federal government has an interest in applying the death penalty in all parts of the nation, even in states like Vermont that do not have death penalties. The official compared the forcing of the death penalty onto these states to federal enforcement of civil rights laws in the south in the 1960s.
Vermont has not executed anyone since Francis Blair and Donald Demag were electrocuted on the same day in 1954. Vermont abolished the death penalty in 1964 (although references to it lingered in the state code until 1987). Only two of six New England states allow the death penalty, New Hampshire, which has not executed anyone since 1939, and Connecticut, which killed Michael Ross in May, its first execution in 45 years.
The ability of the federal government to meddle in such cases was expanded in 1994 when the Democratic-controlled Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Federal Death Penalty Act, which lengthened the list of crimes for which the federal government can seek the death penalty.
Even though Mr. Ashcroft long posed as a champion of states’ rights, as attorney general he aggressively used federal power to press his personal views on states. In over two dozen instances, he reversed recommendations of federal prosecutors and ordered death penalty trials, many of them in the 12 states and Puerto Rico that have no death penalty.
2. Donald Fell is an expedient candidate for execution. In a nation that disproportionately inflicts the death penalty on people of color, Donald Fell is white. His execution will help balance the disparity and blunt criticism of the death penalty as a racist tool. Better, Donald Fell is guilty. Over 100 death row inmates have been proven to be wrongly convicted and released; an unknown number of innocent have gone to their deaths. The evidence against Mr. Fell is overwhelming and he’s confessed his crimes.
A death penalty case has two phases. In the first, guilt or innocence is established. If the defendant is found guilty, the same jury hears the penalty phase, in which it is decided whether the defendant will be killed. By stipulating that Mr. Fell “accepts responsibility” for the murders, his attorneys hope to spend every moment they have before the jury to urge life without parole rather than execution.
The attorneys will point to Mr. Fell’s gruesome childhood in a home full of physical, sexual and substance abuse. He was abandoned by his father when he was 10 and by his mother when he was 13, on Christmas Day. Mr. Fell did not see her again until the month he killed her and spent the intervening seven years in a drugged, alcoholic haze.
Monday, the Supreme Court overturned the Pennsylvania death sentence of Ronald Rompilla, because the jury did not have the opportunity to fully consider Mr. Rompilla’s history as an abused child when deciding his sentence.
Donald Fell’s fate is far from certain. It’s unlikely anyone on the jury has a memory of Vermont’s death penalty. On the other hand, people categorically opposed to the death penalty were excluded from the jury. If Mr. Fell is executed, it will be by lethal injection in a federal prison in Indiana, not Vermont.
Donald Fell committed heinous crimes. He should pay for them. He should not, however, give his life as a pawn in a political power game.
La Danse Macabre
Vermont is in the middle of a federal murder trial that may lead to our state’s first execution in 51 years. In November 2000, Donald Fell and Robert Lee killed Mr. Fell’s mother and her boyfriend in Rutland, Vermont, then carjacked Teresca King, drove her across the New York state line and killed her. Mr. Lee told police Mr. Fell did the actual killing, then committed suicide in his cell.
Crossing the state line put the crime under the jurisdiction of federal prosecutors, who in 2001 reached an agreement with Mr. Fell’s attorney that Mr. Fell would plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
In January 2002, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft vetoed the plea agreement and ordered prosecutors to take the case to trial, seeking the death penalty. Why would he do that? Two reasons:
1. It enhances federal power. Under federal law, if both states and the federal government have jurisdiction over a crime, such as murder, the federal government is to defer to the states unless there is “substantial federal interest” in the case. An official at the Justice Department, courageously anonymous in the Washington Post, said the federal government has an interest in applying the death penalty in all parts of the nation, even in states like Vermont that do not have death penalties. The official compared the forcing of the death penalty onto these states to federal enforcement of civil rights laws in the south in the 1960s.
Vermont has not executed anyone since Francis Blair and Donald Demag were electrocuted on the same day in 1954. Vermont abolished the death penalty in 1964 (although references to it lingered in the state code until 1987). Only two of six New England states allow the death penalty, New Hampshire, which has not executed anyone since 1939, and Connecticut, which killed Michael Ross in May, its first execution in 45 years.
The ability of the federal government to meddle in such cases was expanded in 1994 when the Democratic-controlled Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Federal Death Penalty Act, which lengthened the list of crimes for which the federal government can seek the death penalty.
Even though Mr. Ashcroft long posed as a champion of states’ rights, as attorney general he aggressively used federal power to press his personal views on states. In over two dozen instances, he reversed recommendations of federal prosecutors and ordered death penalty trials, many of them in the 12 states and Puerto Rico that have no death penalty.
2. Donald Fell is an expedient candidate for execution. In a nation that disproportionately inflicts the death penalty on people of color, Donald Fell is white. His execution will help balance the disparity and blunt criticism of the death penalty as a racist tool. Better, Donald Fell is guilty. Over 100 death row inmates have been proven to be wrongly convicted and released; an unknown number of innocent have gone to their deaths. The evidence against Mr. Fell is overwhelming and he’s confessed his crimes.
A death penalty case has two phases. In the first, guilt or innocence is established. If the defendant is found guilty, the same jury hears the penalty phase, in which it is decided whether the defendant will be killed. By stipulating that Mr. Fell “accepts responsibility” for the murders, his attorneys hope to spend every moment they have before the jury to urge life without parole rather than execution.
The attorneys will point to Mr. Fell’s gruesome childhood in a home full of physical, sexual and substance abuse. He was abandoned by his father when he was 10 and by his mother when he was 13, on Christmas Day. Mr. Fell did not see her again until the month he killed her and spent the intervening seven years in a drugged, alcoholic haze.
Monday, the Supreme Court overturned the Pennsylvania death sentence of Ronald Rompilla, because the jury did not have the opportunity to fully consider Mr. Rompilla’s history as an abused child when deciding his sentence.
Donald Fell’s fate is far from certain. It’s unlikely anyone on the jury has a memory of Vermont’s death penalty. On the other hand, people categorically opposed to the death penalty were excluded from the jury. If Mr. Fell is executed, it will be by lethal injection in a federal prison in Indiana, not Vermont.
Donald Fell committed heinous crimes. He should pay for them. He should not, however, give his life as a pawn in a political power game.
© Mark Floegel, 2005