Archived from Palomar College Communications Department 2019 Submissions
By: H. Elizabeth Williams
“To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, it is not justice”- Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Retribution is morally flawed and problematic in concept and practice. We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing. Crimes other than murder do not recieve a punishment that mimics the crime- for example rapists are not punished by sexual assault, and people guilty of assault are not ceremonially beaten up. That’s not seen as unique but rather inhumane. Many countries do it. Like in Japan, the accused are only informed of their execution moments before it is scheduled. According to BBC “Ethics - Capital Punishment: Arguments against Capital Punishment” 2020, “the result of this is that each day of their life is lived as if it were there last.” Not unique but inhumane. Capital punishment is also hypocritical. We condemn people like Ahmadinejad, Qaddafi, and Kim Jong Un when they murder their own people while we continue to do the same (although our procedures for allowing it are obviously more thorough). The 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prevents the use of "cruel and unusual punishment". That seems like cruel and unusual punishment to me.
The death penalty, a topic in this country labeled controversial which seems quite odd seeing as we’re talking about life and death here. Do you value human life? That answer should be followed by a yes or we have more concerns on our hands. Everyone has an inalienable human right to life, even those who commit murder; sentencing a person to death and executing them violates that right.
“The death penalty remains fraught with arbitrariness, discrimination, caprice, and mistake ... Experience has taught us that the constitutional goal of eliminating arbitrariness and discrimination from the administration of death ... can never be achieved without compromising an equally essential component of fundamental fairness - individualized sentencing.”-Justice Harry Blackmun, United States Supreme Court 1994.
The saying “innocent until proven guilty” seems flawed when you realize that witnesses, prosecutors and jurors can all make mistakes. A guilty person may in fact be innocent. (look at the movie 12 Angry Men). When these mistakes are joined with flaws in the system then it is inevitable that innocent people will be convicted of crimes. The death penalty claims innocent victims. According to Amnesty International “Death Penalty Facts” 2012, “130 people in the US are sentenced to death that have been found innocent since 1973 and released from death row.” The average time on death row before these exonerations was 11 years (“Conditions on Death Row.” Death Penalty Information Center, 16 July 2019). As long as human justice remains fallible, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated.
Capital punishment is not retribution enough. Imprisonment without possibility of parole causes much more suffering to the offender than a painless death after a short period of imprisonment. Why would you give a suicide bomber planner an execution that might make that person a martyr? The death penalty fails to deter people from committing serious violent crimes; life imprisonment does. The likelihood of being caught and punished is what deters them, not an easy way out.
Capital punishment is brutalising society and individuals. Statistics show that the death penalty leads to a brutalisation of society and an increase in murder rate. In the USA, more murders take place in states where capital punishment is allowed. In 2010, the murder rate in states where the death penalty has been abolished was 4.01 per cent per 100,000 people. In states where the death penalty is used, the figure was 5.00 per cent. The gap between death penalty states and non-death penalty states rose considerably from 4 per cent difference in 1990 to 25 per cent in 2010 (Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report, from Death Penalty Information Center). It’s also brutalising the state what with the state’s relationship with all citizens. It’s brutalising the law with producing an unacceptable link between the law and violence and lowers the tone of society with inappropriate input on a modern civilization..
It also affects society with its expense. In the USA, capital punishment costs a great deal. According to World Population Review, 30 states currently allow the death penalty. In New York and New Jersey, the high costs of capital punishment were one factor in those states' decisions to abandon the death penalty. New York spent about $170 million over 9 years and had no executions. New Jersey spent $253 million over a 25-year period and also had no executions (Source: Death Penalty Information Center). For example, the cost of convicting and executing Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City Bombing was over $13 million.
Financial costs to taxpayers of capital punishment is several times that of keeping someone in prison for life. Most people don't realize that carrying out one death sentence costs 2-5 times more than keeping that same criminal in prison for the rest of his life.This has to do with the endless appeals, additional required procedures, and legal wrangling that drag the process out. It's not unusual for a prisoner to be on death row for 15-20 years. Judges, attorneys, court reporters, clerks, and court facilities all require a substantial investment by the taxpayers. Do we really have the resources to waste?
We as a society have to move away from the "eye for an eye" revenge mentality if civilization is to advance. The "eye for an eye" mentality will never solve anything. A revenge philosophy inevitably leads to an endless cycle of violence. Why do you think the Israeli-Palestine conflict has been going on for 60+ years? Why do you think gang violence in this country never seems to end? It is important to send a message to society that striking back at your enemy purely for revenge will always make matters worse.
“The Case Against the Death Penalty.” American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org/other/case-against-death-penalty.
“Conditions on Death Row.” Death Penalty Information Center, 16 July 2019, deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row/conditions-on-death-row.
“Death Penalty Facts.” Amnesty USA, 2012, www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/DeathPenaltyFactsMay2012.pdf.
“Ethics - Capital Punishment: Arguments against Capital Punishment.” BBC, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/against_1.shtml.
Messerli, Joe. “Death Penalty (Pros & Cons, Arguments For and Against, Advantages & Disadvantages).” Death Penalty (Pros & Cons, Arguments For and Against, Advantages & Disadvantages), www.balancedpolitics.org/death_penalty.htm.
“Murder Rate of Death Penalty States Compared to Non-Death Penalty States.” Death Penalty Information Center, deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/murder-rates/murder-rate-of-death-penalty-states-compared-to-non-death-penalty-states.
“Should the Death Penalty Be Allowed? - Death Penalty - ProCon.org.” Death Penalty, deathpenalty.procon.org/questions/should-the-death-penalty-be-allowed/.
Comments