McKel Woodbury
8th Period
Should the Death Penalty be Banned as a Form of Punishment?
In September 2011, the state of Georgia strapped down an innocent human
being and forced lethal poison into his veins until he died. Troy Davis was a black
man accused of killing a white police officer with no physical evidence linking him to
the crime. The conviction was based solely on eyewitness testimonies and these
eyewitnesses have later admitted that there was pressure from police officers to
claim Davis as the killer. Ironically, one of the witnesses, Sylvester Coles, is most
likely the actual killer. In 2010, statements were made by witnesses who claimed
they saw Coles shoot the officer. Another said they heard Coles admit to killing the
officer, but the witness was not allowed to testify. One of the jurors on the original
trial told the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole, “I feel, emphatically, that Mr.
Davis cannot be executed under these circumstances.” Unfortunately this juror’s
statement failed to change the fate of the innocent man. All that was being asked of
the Georgia Board of Pardons was to give him prison time, a chance to live, so an
irreversible mistake wouldn’t take place. So that when he was proven innocent, he
would be alive and free again.
“Our death penalty system is riddled with problems, and it results in too
many mistakes. The execution of even one innocent person is too many” (aclu.org).
I strongly believe that the death penalty should be removed as a form of punishment
in our country as it is against what America stands for in its Constitution. The
Eighth Amendment forbids the use of cruel and unusual punishment, and many
would say the death penalty is just that.
The death penalty has been enforced for hundreds of years; the first written
account being in the Code of Hammurabi, an ancient Babylonian document. Under
the code, written in the 1700s B.C., twenty-five crimes were punishable by death.
These crimes included adultery (cheating on a wife or husband) and helping slaves
escape. Murder was not one of the twenty five crimes” (Guersney, JoAnn). It is
interesting that thousands of years ago so many crimes were punishable by death
but murder was not. Today in the United States, the only offenses that could yield
the death penalty are murder and capital offenses. Earlier in the history of the
United States, many more crimes were punishable by death such as robbery, horse
theft, rape, slave rebellions, counterfeiting, and arson. After the American
Revolution, our nation’s leaders heavily revised what offenses would receive the
death penalty.
The time and money spent on utilizing the death penalty is simply not worth
it. Surprisingly, it costs more money to put someone to death than it does to put
someone in prison for a lifetime. “Cases receiving a death notice are approximately
$517,000 more costly during the trial phase, $147,000 more costly during the
penalty phase, and $201,000 more costly during the appellate phase than a capital
eligible case where no death notice was filed…. On average, a death notice adds
about $1,000,000 in costs over the duration of a case" (Roman, John). There are
currently more than 3,000 inmates in the United States on death row. Imagine how
much money would be saved for all taxpaying Americans if these inmates on death
row were put in jail for life without parole instead. This money could be used for
worthwhile causes beneficial to our communities. “The millions of dollars in savings
could be spent on education, roads, police officers and public safety programs, afterschool programs, drug and alcohol treatment, child abuse prevention programs,
mental health services, and services for crime victims and their families” (Messerli,
Joe). Very extensive work and proceedings are required in order for a death
sentence to be executed. When it is decided that it will be a death penalty case,
everything gets more expensive and time consuming. “All the appeals, motions,
hearings, briefs, etc. monopolize much of the time of judges, employees, and
attorneys as well as use up courtrooms and facilities. This is time and space that
could be used for other unresolved matters. The court system is tremendously
backed up.” (balancedpolitics.org) Going along with this statement, jury members
may be hesitant to convict someone as guilty if they know the person will be put to
death. Most people do not like the idea of having someone’s life in their hands. The
death penalty combines the most expensive and time consuming parts of a case.
There is no actual evidence that proves that the death penalty is a deterrent
for potential criminals and murderers. Just because there is a death penalty
punishment set in place in a particular state doesn’t mean it’s going to make a large
impact on the murder rates. It has been proven that states that have banned the
death penalty have no significant improvement on their crime and murder rates.
When someone decides to kill another person, they aren’t thinking of the
repercussions of their actions. "There is no credible evidence that the death penalty
deters crime more effectively than long terms of imprisonment. States that have
death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states
without such laws. And states that have abolished capital punishment show no
significant changes in either crime or murder rates. The death penalty has no
deterrent effect. Claims that each execution deters a certain number of murders
have been thoroughly discredited by social science research" (aclu.org).
Subsequently, there is no point to have a death penalty set in place at all.
The United States remains as one of the few countries that still utilizes the
death penalty as a form of punishment. “Only 10 percent of countries in the world,
20 out of 198, carried out executions last year” (amnesty.org). Why are we making
ourselves the minority? It is clear from that statistic that America is one of the few
nations that still carry on this barbaric punishment. "Ultimately, the moral question
surrounding capital punishment in America has less to do with whether those
convicted of violent crime deserve to die than with whether state and federal
governments deserve to kill those whom it has imprisoned” (Stevenson, Bryan). To
kill someone who has killed someone else is simply a vengeful act. It might seem
understandable, but it is not rational. This endless cycle of violence will never let
our nation grow and prosper because we will never be building up our nation to be
better citizens.
In addition, life in prison could be viewed as more of a punishment than
death. When you’re in prison, you have the rest of your life to live with regret and
guilt in a cell with other criminals and murderers. You have no freedoms and you
can’t live your life anymore. Life in prison without parole is sometimes referred to
as “death by incarceration” because prisoners will eventually die in prison.
“Offenders sentenced to death by incarceration suffer a “civil death.” Their
freedom—the essential feature of our civil society—has come to a permanent end.
These prisoners are physically alive, of course, but they live only in prison. It might
be better to say they “exist” in prison, as prison life is but a pale shadow of life in the
free world” (Johnson, Robert). Their lives are confined to the pointless, demeaning,
and dangerous world of prison. If a person is given the death penalty, their life is
instantly over and there is no guilt they have to live with anymore.
The death penalty is not fair to all Americans; it is very biased and is mostly
dealt with by the poor citizens of our nation. These people with low incomes don’t
have enough money to hire good attorneys to support them and prove their
innocence. "Who pays the ultimate penalty for crimes? The poor. Who gets the
death penalty? The poor. After all the rhetoric that goes on in legislative assemblies,
in the end, when the net is cast out, it is the poor who are selected to die in this
country. And why do poor people get the death penalty? It has everything to do with
the kind of defense they get. Money gets you good defense. That's why you'll never
see an O.J. Simpson on death row. As the saying goes: 'Capital punishment means
them without the capital get the punishment'" (Prejean, Helen). You are better off
rich and guilty than poor and innocent.
Mentally ill people proven guilty may be put to death. In the Supreme Court
case Atkins vs. Virginia (2002), “the Supreme Court determined that executing
mentally retarded criminals violates the ban on "cruel and unusual punishments"
because their mental handicap lessens the severity of the crime and therefore
renders the extraordinary penalty of death as disproportionately severe”
(law.cornell.edu). People that aren’t in their right state of mind should not have to
be punished for something they can not control. These people are born with defects
in their brain and no amount of schooling, medicine, or rehabilitation will change
their mental state.
The main argument most people have when defending the death penalty is
that it keeps the criminal or murderer from ever committing that crime again. It
“keeps the criminals off the streets for good.” However, by putting them in prison
for a lifetime, with no possibility of parole, the same outcome is achieved. The
criminal in either case is not interacting with society and given the opportunity to
commit heinous crimes again. How often do you hear of a prisoner actually
escaping from jail? This hardly ever happens. The only way they can get out is if the
parole board releases them. The simple solution is to sentence the person to a
lifetime in prison without the possibility of parole, thereby taking that argument out
of the debate.
Proponents for the death penalty also argue that it gives closure to the
victim’s family that has suffered so much; as if somehow seeing the criminal’s family
suffer because of the death of their loved one would make them feel any better. The
fact is the victim is not going to come back to life. There is no reason to kill yet
another person and make their family feel the same sorrow.
Another argument that proponents of the death penalty might give is that in
this day and age DNA evidence and forensic science can eliminate all doubt as to a
person’s innocence or guilt. This may be true in most cases; however in some
instances police and interrogators will use very aggressive methods to get a
confession so the suspect feels like the only way out is to admit guilt. Once a
confession is made, there is no recanting the statement. Confessions have huge
weight in the justice system, and some prosecutors will claim that a confession
trumps DNA evidence to the contrary. It even could be the case that years after an
execution DNA evidence is brought to light proving the suspect innocent. Someone
having to lose their life over a false confession they felt they had to make should not
be acceptable in our country’s justice system.
Whether by lethal injection, death by firing squad, or electrocution, it makes
no difference; one method is not more humane than the other. It is still taking a life
and that is wrong. It should seem obvious that killing someone who killed someone
else is simply doing to them what they did to someone else. You’re using murder to
punish someone for committing a murder. The same can be said about a mother
who punishes her child for hitting his sister by hitting him. It just makes no sense.
Fortunately, the use of the death penalty as a form of punishment has begun
to decrease over the past few years. It has become more obvious that choosing to
put criminals in jail for life without parole makes much more sense. “The use of the
death penalty—both in number of new death sentences and actual executions—has
been steadily decreasing during the past decade. Two phenomena largely explain
this decrease: (1) the continued discovery of individuals on death row who are
actually innocent of the crimes they allegedly committed, and (2) the increasing use
of life without parole as a sentencing alternative to the death penalty” (Berry,
William). I believe the death penalty should definitely not be used as a form of
punishment.
All in all, it comes down to whether we should keep a system for the sake of
retribution and revenge even though it isn’t effective in reducing violent crime, costs
much more than life in prison, and worst of all, can lead to the nightmare of finding
that we executed someone for a crime he didn’t commit.
Works Cited
Berry, William W. “Ending Death by Dangerousness: A Path to the De Facto
Abolition of the Death Penalty.” Arizona Law Review 52.4 (2010): 889-924.
Legal Collection. 9 October 2012.
“Capital Punishment.” Aclu.org. American Civil Liberties Union. Web. 9 October
2012.
“Death Penalty.” Law.cornell.edu. Cornell University Law School, 19 August 2010.
Web. 9 October 2012.
“Death Penalty 2011: Alarming Levels of Executions in the Few Countries That Kill.”
Amnesty.org. Amnesty International, 27 March 2012. Web. 9 October 2012.
Guernsey, JoAnn B. “History of the Death Penalty.” Deathpenalty.procon.org.
ProCon, 8 May 2012. Web. 9 October 2012.
“The High Cost of the Death Penalty.” Deathpenalty.org. Web. 9 October 2012.
Johnson, Robert. “Life Without Parole, America’s Other Death Penalty.” The Prison
Journal 88.2 (2008): 328-329. Sage Publications. Web. 9 October 2012.
Messerli, Joe. “Should the death penalty be banned as a form of punishment?”
balancedpolitics.org. Web. 9 October 2012.
Prejean, Helen. “Would Jesus Pull the Switch?” deathpenalty.procon.org. ProCon, 8
May 2012. Web. 9 October 2012.
Roman, John. “Should the death penalty be allowed?” deathpenalty.procon.org.
ProCon, 8 May 2012. Web. 9 October 2012.
Stevenson, Bryan. “Close to Death: Reflections on Race and Capital Punishment in
America.” Deathpenalty.procon.org. ProCon, 8 May 2012. Web. 9 October
2012.