Capital Punishment 2 Essay
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Capital Punishment The United States is one of the few countries left in the world to
practice the savage and immoral punishment of death. Retentionists argue that the
consequence of death prevents persons from committing the heinous crime of murder. It
is proven that the death penalty does not deter persons from committing murder, nor
does it serve as an example of the consequences of capital crimes to society.
Furthermore, it is impossible to guarantee that the criminal justice system will not
discriminate, or execute the innocent. And above all, the methods of execution are
horrifying and barbaric, as well as the devaluing of a human life. We must realize that the
life of a murderer is worth as much as the life of the victim. Although it is hard for some
to see through the irrationality of the vengeance raging in so many of us, like it is in the
supporters of capital punishment. An indecent justice, one that takes human lives based
on ideals of vengeance and violence, is an immoral system that is unacceptable. The
most widely used argument in support of capital punishment is that the consequence of
execution influences criminal behavior more effectively than imprisonment does
(Amnesty International). Although the argument may sound reasonable, in reality the
death penalty fails as a deterrent. First, punishment can only be a useful deterrent if it is
rational and immediately used. Capital punishment cannot meet those conditions. The
number of first degree murderers who are sentenced to death is small, and of this group
an even smaller number of people are eventually executed. Moreover, the possibility of
increasing the number of convicted murderers sentenced to death and executed by
requiring mandatory death sentences was declared unconstitutional in 1976 (NCADP).
Murder and other crimes of violence are not always premeditated. For example gang
violence, drive by shootings, and kidnapping for ransom are serious crimes that continue
to be committed because the criminal thinks they are too clever to be caught. Most
capital crimes are committed in the heat of the moment during times of great emotional
trauma or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, when logical thinking is in no doubt
absent (NCADP). In such cases, persons will commit a crime of violence regardless of
the consequences. The majority of the evidence shows that the death penalty is in no
way more effective in deterring murder than life imprisonment. Evidence of past use of
the death penalty establishes reasonable doubt that the death penalty does not deter
murder, and there is no evidence to prove otherwise. In a thorough report on the effects
of criminal sanctions on crime rates, the National Academy of Sciences concluded that it
is misleading to justify the use of capital punishment on such fragile and uncertain
results (NCADP). Moreover, there are clinically documented cases that reveal the death
penalty actually provoked the capital crimes it was intended to prevent (NCADP)
Including cases involving the so-called suicide by execution syndrome in which a
person who wants to die but fears taking their own life will commit murder so that the
state will execute them. The use of the death penalty obviously guarantees that the
criminal will never commit another crime, for the murderer is dead, but, there is no
evidence that capital punishment deters another individual from committing murder
(Glover 139). Furthermore, it is a high moral price to pay when studies have proven that
few convicted murderers commit further crimes of violence. An alternative, one that is
far less inhumane, is a policy of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole
(Glover 139). It is commonly reported that Americans approve of the death penalty.
But, more careful analysis of the attitudes of the public shows that Americans prefer
alternatives (Smart). In fact, they would oppose the death penalty if convicted murderers
were sentenced to life without parole and required to make some form of financial
restitution. In a 1993 nationwide survey 77 percent of the public approved of the death
penalty, but the poll dropped to 41 percent if the alternative is no parole plus restitution
(Smart). Only a minority of the American public would favor the death penalty if offered
alternatives. By law it required that the trial and sentencing of the accused must be
conducted with the utmost fairness, especially when incorporating the irreversible
sanction of the death penalty. 88 percent of all execution since 1930 have been for
murder (Warner). It is evident that courts have sentenced some criminals to prison while
putting others to death, which clearly demonstrates uncertainty, racial prejudices, and
simply unfairness. In his classic American Dilemma (1944) Gunnar Myrdal reported that
South makes the widest application of the death penalty , and sadly Negro criminals
are in for much more than their share of the executions (Warner) Recently a study of
capital punishment showed that the current capital punishment system is an outgrowth of
the racist legacy of slavery (NACDP). Between 1930 and 1996, 4,220 prisoners
were executed and more than half were black.(cite) A disproportionately large number
of African American have always occupied the nations death rows, considering the
percentage of African Americans in the overall population (Dieter 144). During the past
century, blacks were more often executed for what were considered less-than-capital
offenses for whites, such as rape and burglary (Dieter 145). Furthermore, a large
percentage of the blacks who were executed were juveniles, and the number of
executions without having one s conviction reviewed by a higher court was higher for
blacks (NCADP). In recent years, there has been wide belief that racial discrimination is
a thing of the past. However, since the renewal of capital punishment in the mid-1970s
approximately half of the death row population, at any given time, have been black
(Smart). When those under the death sentence are examined more closely, it is apparent
race is a factor after all. A statistical study of racial discrimination in capital cases in
Georgia, showed that those convicted of killing a white person were more likely to
receive the death penalty in all indicted cases. Further evidence proved unfairness in
capital cases as reported by the U.S. General Accounting Office. The GAO results of its
review concluded that of the 28 studies there was a pattern of evidence indicating racial
disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty, and that the
race of victim influence was found at all stages of the criminal justice system process
(Dieter 144). One can conclude then, that in the courts of the nation, even today, the
murder of a white person is treated much more severely than the murder of a black
person. Therefore, it can be noted that our criminal system reserves the death penalty
for those murderers (regardless of their race) who kill white victims (Dieter 145).
Gender and socio-economic class also aid in the discrimination of who will receive a
death sentence to be executed. Only one percent of all those on death row were
women, although women commit about 15 percent of all criminal homicides (NCADP).
Only 33 women, of whom 12 were black, have been executed in the United States
since 1930. Fairness in capital cases, requires most especially, a competent counsel for
the defendant. Yet, about 90 percent of those on death row were not able to afford a
lawyer when tried. The most common characteristics among death row defendants are
poverty, lack of social community, and inadequate legal representation at trial or on
appeal (NCADP). The above flaws in the actual administration of capital punishment are
only one of the clear reasons for abolition. In the judgement of the fair-minded and
unprejudiced capital punishment is a power that cannot be exercised fairly and without
discrimination (Smart). Therefore, we cannot put human lives in the hands of a flawed
system, for society will suffer the consequences, as well as the victims. Unlike all other
criminal punishments, the death penalty is irreversible. Once a criminal is put to death no
once can bring back the human life taken if a mistake is discover after the fact. Although
some supporters of capital punishment argue that its advantages are worth the sacrificing
of innocent people, as well as the ideal that there is little chance that the innocent would
be executed. Nevertheless, there is evidence showing that from the 1980s to the 1990s
innocent people have often been convicted of capital crimes as well as executed
(Amnesty International). Since the 1900s there have been an estimated four cases a year
in which an innocent person was convicted of murder, in addition to the many that were
sentenced to death (Amnesty International). In many cases a reprieve or commutation
arrived just hours, or even minutes before the scheduled execution (Amnesty
International). Those wrongful convictions have occurred in almost every jurisdiction in
the nation. Furthermore, despite the new death penalty statues approved by the
Supreme Court, the numbers of the wrongfully accused have yet to decline.
Unfortunately, the innocent persons convicted of crimes they did not commit are not
always saved from execution or released from their sentences. There are several other
cases in which evidence that would have released the convicted was discovered after
the execution, or evidence was blatantly ignored. These examples explain why the
judicial system cannot guarantee that justice will never make mistakes. To retain the
death penalty and overlook the serious flaws in the system is unacceptable, especially
since there are no strong overriding arguments to favor the death penalty (Glover
145-146). Among the flaws of the justice system, we must remember that the taking of
a human life is immoral. The methods used to perform these violent executions are
barbaric and unnecessary. But, prisoners continue to be executed in the United States
by any one of five methods; in a few jurisdiction the prisoner is allowed to choose which
fate he or she prefers. The methods of capital punishment in use in mid- 1997 include
hanging, firing squad, electrocution, suffocation in the lethal gas chamber, and lethal
injection (NCADP). The traditional execution by hanging is still used in a few...
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