On Oct. 17, while national attention was focused on whether the state of Texas would execute an innocent man, the state of Alabama put Derrick Dearman to death, with much less fanfare.

There was no real doubt about whether he killed five people with an ax and gun eight years ago. As NBC News reports, after he initially entered a not guilty plea, Dearman “fired his two court-appointed attorneys and pleaded guilty.”

A gruesome crime, a cruel penalty. Some might think justice was done, case closed.

But there was an important and troubling wrinkle to Dearman’s journey to the death chamber that is worthy of attention: He “volunteered” for his own execution.

The Death Penalty Information Center defines volunteers as “individuals who waived at least part of their ordinary appeals or who terminated proceedings that would have entitled them to additional process prior to their execution.”

Dearman is not the only person in this country’s recent history to fit that description. The center reports that “Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 through to the date below, at least 165 defendants have been volunteers — approximately ten percent of all executions.”

Over the last two decades, 2004 was the high-water mark for volunteers. In that single year, 10 people out of the 59 put to death........

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