In my second blog article on capital punishment, I talked about what the Bible says on the issue. My conclusion was that Scripture is more for the retention, and not abolition, of the death penalty. Now, I've turned to the ethical reasons for not having capital punishment. For the most part, I've researched why there should not be capital punishment because the reasons for it are mostly based on a Judeo-Christian basis. The Old and New Testament are clear that if someone takes a life, the state has the permission from God to take the life of the perpetrator in return. Other arguments for the use of the death penalty include it is a deterrent, and it ensures the offender will never harm anyone again. There is also a third argument that I will address in the next blog article.
Abolitionists look at these arguments and shake their heads for the most part. To them the arguments for the use of capital punishment are more in theory and not reality. Does killing people because they killed people, really deter people from going on to kill more people? Well, in the southern states the answer is a no because they carry out 80% of executions in the country and they are the ones with the highest murder rate. The 12 states that no longer practice capital punishment have the lowest crime rates. If capital punishment was really a deterrent, one would think that it would be the 12 abolitionist states and not the southern states.
In the mind of 88% of the criminologists, the death penalty is not a deterrence to people committing homicide.
In the public view, only 2% of the people said that insufficient use of the death penalty was an interference to effective law enforcement, while the top two causes of interference were alcohol and substance abuse, and lack of law enforcement resources. 61% of people opted for alternatives sentences for the death penalty. According to the public, life without parole and restitution is the best punishment for capital crime. Obviously, as Largo64 said in his video on the electric chair, "Capital punishment has never been a deterrent to capital crime." Is there a real deterrent to people committing any crime? A question for another blog article.
Does the death penalty ensure that the offender will never harm anyone ever again? The obvious answer is yes. Corpses cannot commit capital or any other type of crime unless they are brought back to life, and no one has and no one will try to bring an executed criminal back to life. Unfortunately the death penalty also removes the hope that an innocent person wrongfully convicted will ever be free.
Corrupt court officials, lousy defense attorneys, questionable investigation by the police, and/or poor evidence can result in an innocent person being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DIPC) 138 people have been released from death row since 1973 because their innocence was proven. It also quotes, "There is no way to tell how many of the over 1,000 people executed since 1976 may also have been innocent. Courts do not generally entertain claims of innocence when the defendant is dead. Defense attorneys move on to other cases where clients' lives can still be saved." Innocent people can be let out of jail, but they cannot be brought back from the dead. One example of a potentially innocent woman being executed is Francis Newton:
Video 1: R.I.P Frances Newton - Innocent Woman Executed by Texas
Video 2: Frances Newton - day of Execution - interview Mrs. Preston
Video 3: Frances Newton - day of Execution - interview Gloria Rubac
Video 4: Frances Newton - day of Execution - interview Kofi Taharka
Other Miscarriages of justice
Another problem with capital punishment that was presented in the videos were the prejudices of the criminal justice system in the USA. First, there are no rich people on death row. The people who committed the worst crime imaginable and be convicted of non-capital murder or lesser charges are the ones with the best defense lawyers in the country. Second, the person has a better chance if their skin is white. According to the DIPC, 42% of death row inmates are black, which is 2% less than white inmates. 35% of executed prisoners were black and 76% of the victims in all cases where the prisoner was executed were white, while only 15% of black victim cases resulted in the execution of the perpetrator. Finally, if you are a woman your luck is a lot better as only 12 women have been executed since 1976 and since April, 2010 they only take up 1.9% of the death row inmates. It's unfortunate that Francis Newton's gender did not save her from being executed.
It seems that justice in the 38 states that have capital punishment has a racial and gender preference, does it not? The fact of the matter is that it is human beings who are sentencing criminals. The human beings doing the sentencing will never be 100% objective. Often the the prejudices, emotions, and the thirst for vengeance of the jury will be what seals a defendants doom.
The above determining factors also affect what methods of execution are used. Currently lethal injection is used in all 38 retention states, along with electrocution, hanging, gas chamber and/or firing squad. All of these methods have been in and still are in heated debates over whether they are considered cruel and unusual punishments. Another method of execution is in debate too but it is not over whether it is too cruel and/or unusual. Not only does it flush out perhaps the real motivations behind the people for the use of capital punishment, but it also questions whether or not capital punishment is justice served or revenge extracted. Here in these two YouTube videos, those questions are answered:
Video 5: Last part of a BBC Documentary Titled How to Kill a Human Being
Video 6: Largo64's Video about a Humane Method of execution that may never be used
As you can see from these videos, executing prisoners maybe more about extracting revenge and not justice being served. What is the criminal justice system really saying to people when it executes a prisoner? Is it saying that killing people is wrong, or that revenge is OK? Is it saying don't commit capital crime because it is morally and legally wrong; or don't commit capital crime if you're male, poor, and/or black because the state will kill you? Does capital punishment correct society's problems or bring them to the surface?
Good questions and they require another blog post for me to answer them.
Reference List
DPIC. (2011, July 22). Fact Sheet. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/FactSheet.pdf
Largo64. (2009, August 6). Death Penalty Methods Electric Chair. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mZecq-hdzY
Largo64. (2009, December 4). There IS a Humane Method of Execution: And it may never be used. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQPA5Rniodk&feature=related
Moody, N. (Producer), & Portillo, M. (Director). (2009). How to Kill a Human Being Part 5 [Motion Picture].
Preston, M. (2005, September 14). Frances Newton - day of Execution - interview Mrs. Preston. (omradiocom, Interviewer)
Rubac, G. (2005, September 14). Frances Newton - day of Execution - interview Gloria Rubac. (omradiocom, Interviewer)
Stop Executions. (2009, May 1). R.I.P Frances Newton - Innocent Woman Executed by Texas. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opXktwKAN14&feature=related
Taharka, K. (2005, September 14). Frances Newton - day of Execution - interview Kofi Taharka. (omradiocom, Interviewer)
I'm putting a reference list in because I used a variety of sources and it is time for me to start getting
back into school mode and when you are at school you source your material!
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