Janet Reno's fatal decision

The attorney general must soon decide whether to try to save a possibly innocent man from the electric chair -- or leave the case for an incoming administration unlikely to do so.

By Alan Berlow

Dec 22, 2000 | Does Attorney General Janet Reno really want to allow David Ronald Chandler to become the first person executed under federal law since 1963? That's a question the nation's top law enforcement officer has had several months to ponder. She faced a Dec. 27 deadline to make up her mind, but then filed for an extension. Now, she has until Jan. 20, when she leaves office.

And based on her own professed beliefs about criminal justice reform, this case is likely making for a wrenching decision as her eight-year term comes to a close.

Chandler, a 48 year-old former marijuana grower from Alabama, was convicted in 1991 on murder and drug conspiracy charges. His case is exceptional for several reasons, not the least of which is that he may be innocent. When the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals voted last summer to uphold his conviction and death sentence by a 6-5 vote, the majority acknowledged that "the evidence of guilt [on the murder charge] was not overwhelming," a standard of guilt even some death-penalty supporters should have a hard time swallowing.

Reno, on her own, cannot stop Chandler's execution. What she can do is suggest giving him a new sentencing hearing that would probably result in a reduced sentence of life in prison. Reno, as many are quick to point out, has said that she opposes the death penalty. But Chandler's case likely is causing the attorney general grief for other reasons. Even though she is not being asked to consider the specific question of Chandler's innocence, ultimately, it is hard to ignore.

Reno knows that 90 innocent people have been released from state death rows since 1973. With the federal government preparing to resume executions after a nearly 40-year hiatus, she no doubt wants to avoid any possibility that a federal execution -- particularly the first federal execution -- might proceed where there is even a remote question of innocence. Chandler's case is not reassuring on that score.

Chandler's conviction rests almost entirely on the word of a single witness, Charles Ray Jarrell Sr., who told a jury that Chandler had offered him $500 to murder Marlin Shuler in May 1990. That Jarrell himself was the actual triggerman wasn't in dispute.

But after Chandler's conviction in April 1991, Jarrell changed his story, claiming instead that he alone was responsible for the murder. Jarrell said that he killed Shuler because Shuler raped Jarrell's sister in front of Jarrell's mother, in addition to assaulting the mother on numerous occasions. Today, Jarrell says he lied at Chandler's trial to escape a death sentence, because the feds agreed not to pursue allegations against his son (who, Jarrell says, they threatened with a death sentence in connection with Shuler's death) and because he was pressured by prosecutors to implicate Chandler. Jarrell also admits that he had tried to kill Shuler on a previous occasion, but that his gun misfired.

Jarrell knew that, in changing his story and claiming full responsibility for the murder, he would have subjected himself to a possible death sentence. Still, U.S. District Judge James H. Hancock didn't buy Jarrell's new version. Hancock, who presided over Chandler's original trial, also heard his initial appeal and rejected Jarrell's revised testimony as "unworthy of belief." Hancock concluded that "Jarrell's memory is impaired" both by excessive alcohol and from a rattlesnake bite that nearly killed him, and that Jarrell's demonstrated "disregard for the truth speaks poorly about the credibility of his testimony."

Whether Chandler was involved in the murder of Marlin Shuler may never be known. Although Jarrell has recanted his original testimony, he testified that Chandler did help him dispose of the body. And the state presented evidence suggesting that Chandler may have provided the weapon used in the murder.

But in upholding Chandler's death sentence, Hancock essentially endorsed the credibility of Jarrell's initial testimony fingering Chandler. When Hancock decided that Jarrell could no longer be trusted, Chandler's only chance for a first-person alibi seemed to go with it: Jarrell, the only available eyewitness to the crime, had now been pronounced a liar.

That's why the case has arrived on Reno's desk. Having nowhere to go with his innocence claim, Chandler is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his claim that he was denied effective counsel during his sentencing hearing. Normally, the attorney general would simply follow the lead of her U.S. attorneys, who brought a successful prosecution and won a conviction. Should Reno buy Chandler's argument, she must take the politically dicey course of undermining the work of her own prosecutors.

But several factors argue in favor of Reno's taking this course. Most importantly, by refusing to intervene, she will almost certainly seal Chandler's fate. Without Reno's intervention, the Supreme Court could easily ignore Chandler's appeal, in which case the conviction and death sentence would stand. Reno could ignore the case and leave it for the next attorney general under President George W. Bush. But Reno knows that leaving the condemned man's fate to Bush would be tantamount to flipping the switch. It is far less likely that a Bush administration would question a death sentence and, assuming it did not, Chandler's only recourse would be to appeal to Bush for clemency. That would appear to be a nonstarter. As governor of Texas, Bush presided over a record-breaking 152 executions and granted clemency in only one death case, when the evidence of non-complicity was overwhelming.

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