The death penalty is an unethical and discriminatory
punishment. It endorses
killing and takes the lives of innocent at a very high cost to
society.
Generally, Americans know very little about who is executed and
for what
purpose. They remain delightfully ignorant of the fact that the
national
error rate for the death penalty is 68% (Ross, Michael). They
choose to
remain naive as many innocent individuals are put to death by
lethal
injections or the electric chair, and remain, for the most part,
silent as h
uman life is diminished and threatened. The debate is not whether
brutal
criminals deserve punishment, which I think most everyone would
agree with,
but rather that the death penalty is an unethical and unfit punishment,
one
which abandons the sacredness of a human life.
Through the use of the death penalty, the government
is sanctioning the
killing of men, women, murderers, the mentally handicapped, etc.,
and should
therefore not be surprised when others kill. By putting criminals
to death,
the capital punishment is assenting individuals to kill (Kolak,
D., Martin,
R.). If the government does not value life, than why should society?
Rather
than trying to destroy life due to corruption, the focus should
centralize
around preserving and improving the quality of life. The more
respect one has
for life, the safer our communities will become. When human life,
under any
circumstance, is not held as sacred in a society, all human life
is
diminished and threatened. Therefore, due to the sacred nature
of human life,
the taking of even one persons life, be it for any reason, is
a serious
violation (O'Malley, Sean).
The death penalty does not serve as a deterrent.
The conventional argument
states that we need capital punishment to deter future murderers,
acting as a
justification for the death penalty. However, a survey authored
by Richard C.
Dieter, conducted in 1995 involving interviews with 386 randomly
selected
police chiefs and sheriffs, resulted in only one percent of the
respondents
choosing the death penalty as a primary way to reduce violent
crime. The
death penalty ranked last among six options. The most effective
way to reduce
crime was poled as reducing drug abuse followed by a better economy
and more
jobs (O'Malley, Sean). Of those interviewed, 67% declared inaccurate
the
statement, "The death penalty significantly reduces the number
of homicides"
(O'Malley, Sean).
The ultimate punishment does not fit the ultimate
crime. For the death
penalty to act equally in response to a crime, such as a murder,
the death
would have to be sudden and swift. Rather, individuals sentenced
to death
often wait for extended periods of time, often twenty plus years,
before
finally being killed. This is twenty years of awaiting and expecting
death,
knowing when and how your life is going to end. The punishment
is therefore
an unjustified representation of the crime. The delays and costs
involved in
appeals and other necessary procedural safeguards make it impossible
to
execute criminals swiftly. Therefore, due to the extended nature
of the
punishment,the death penalty serves more as a "reign of terror"
than a
deterrent (O'Malley, Sean).
The death penalty subjects innocent individuals
to an undeserved death. The
most conclusive and blatant evidence that innocent persons have
been
condemned to death comes from examining large numbers of people
who were
wrongly sentenced and later proven to be innocent, gaining their
release from
death row.
Walter McMillian- released from Alabama's death row after having spent
six
years there due to perjured testimony and withheld evidence that
indicated
his innocence. He was convicted of shooting to death a storekeeper.
On the
day of the murder he was at a fish fry with his friends and relatives,
many
of whom testified at his trial. No physical evidence linked him
to the crime,
but three people who testified at his trial connected him with
the murder.
However, after listening to a tape recording of a key witnesses
testimony
against McMillian, a volunteer lawyer flipped the tape to see
if there
was anything on the other side. Only then did he hear the same
witness
complaining that he was being pressured to frame McMillian. All
three
prosecution witnesses recanted their testimony. On March 3, 1993,
the County
District Attorney joined the defense in a motion to dismiss the
charges and
Walter McMillian was finally freed (Ross, Michael).
Clarence Brandley- convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of
a
high school student in 1981. Several years later she was awarded
a new trial
when evidence was uncovered which showed that the prosecutor had
withheld
evidence pointing to Brandley?s innocence and that prosecution
witnesses had
committed perjury. All charges were subsequently dropped and Clarence
Brandley was freed (Ross, Michael).
"No matter how careful
courts are, the possibility of perjured testimony,
mistaken honest testimony and human error remain too real. We
have no way of
judging how many innocent persons have been executed, but we can
be certain
that there were some."
-Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
As long as the death penalty remains part of
our penal system, innocent
individuals will continue to be executed. It is inevitable. There
are many
other alternatives such as life imprisonment, which pose the same
effect of
removing criminals from the street but restrains from destroying
the value of
life and killing innocent people. Granted, life imprisonment is
not a
flawless answer due to the inevitable nature of innocent being
wrongfully
sentenced, but it allows the possibility of future parole for
these innocent
individuals. The death penalty destroys all hope. Once a person
is executed,
the opportunity for him to prove his innocence dies with him.
The Death Penalty Perspective: A Christian viewpoint: "There is no law but love."
Amnesty International :Human Rights Protection and the abolition of the death penalty
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: National Execution Alerts, Future National Conferences, and Updated news and Information
The Moratorium Campaign: Fight for fairness and Social Justice: "It's time to STOP and rethink the Death Penalty."
Death Penalty Focus: ...less than half of Californians support the death penalty over life without parole
Of persons under sentence of death in 2000:
-- 1,990 were white
-- 1,535 were black
-- 29 were American Indian
-- 27 were Asian
-- 12 were of unknown race.
Of those executed in 2000:
-- 83 were men
-- 2 were women
Although this data illustrates whites as the majority of prisoners sentenced on death row, when related to the population of the country, the number of whites on death row is relatively less than those of ethnicity. It is also seen that the number of woman in comparison to men holding life sentences is extremely minute. Thus, the death penalty is racially and sexually biased.