The United States has the unpleasant honor of being the only liberal democracy in which the death penalty is still carried out. This barbaric form of punishment has been abolished by most nations that America is proud to call her peer. The arguments in favor of abolishing this ancient practice are overwhelming. There are moral, legal, financial, and societal factors to take in to consideration. Capital punishment must be abolished in order to create a criminal justice system that promotes rehabilitation and reduction of recidivism, rather than revenge and blood-lust.
Aside from the moral arguments in favor of abolishing the death penalty, there are many legal and practical considerations to take into account when discussing abolition. To start, the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the use of cruel and unusual punishment. In a world where most liberal democracies have abolished the death penalty, it is certainly an unusual punishment for America to continue to carry out. And I would be interested in an argument that pumping poison into or sending electrical charges through someone’s body with the intent of killing them is not cruel. Another factor to consider is the fallibility of the American judicial system. There have been numerous cases of Americans being sentenced to death and put in prison for crimes which they did not commit, only to later be exonerated, oftentimes based upon DNA evidence. According to the abolition group Witness to Innocence, innocent Americans have spent a combined total of 1151 years on death row. Most cases rely on eye-witness testimony and scientific evidence that is nowhere near as reliable as DNA. According to the Innocence Project, eyewitness testimony is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States. Texas is currently investigating the possibility that it executed an innocent man, Cameron Todd Willingham, in 2004. The fact of the matter is that the number of cases in which guilt can be proven with 100 percent accuracy are incredibly few.
There are practical considerations as well. It costs far more money for taxpayers to put someone to death than to incarcerate them for the rest of their life. According to a recent New Yorker article, “it costs, on average, $2.3 million to execute a prisoner in Texas — about three times the cost of incarcerating someone for forty years.” Less time and money would be wasted upon a long appeals process if people who committed serious crimes were merely sentenced to life in prison rather than put to death.
Additionally, the role of the American justice system is skewed by the death penalty. The role of the criminal justice system in America is not simply to punish people, but to promote their rehabilitation with the hope of one day producing a productive member of society. Yes, there are certain crimes that one could argue forfeit one’s right to be a member of society. But one need only to place those individuals in prisons, not execute them. The practice of execution places a heavier emphasis on punishment rather than rehabilitation. There is little point in a justice system that merely punishes. A justice system that merely punishes does not promote the betterment of society, but only quarantines (or kills) undesirable individuals. Rehabilitation must be a key component of the American justice system.
The death penalty promotes a base human instinct: the desire for blood to paid with blood. There is no clear and present danger when an individual in state custody is convicted of a crime and sentenced to death. There is no reason to kill an individual in state custody other than to make him an example to other potential criminals. But the fact of the matter is that the death penalty has little to no effect on the rate of violent crimes in the United States. According to Amnesty International USA, states without the death penalty have had consistently lower murder rates than those with the death penalty. It is absurd to think that a mentally deranged or impassioned person would stop in the middle of his crime to consider whether or not it would result in his eventual execution.
The death penalty is an ancient practice that must be abolished in favor of the promotion of justice, rehabilitation, and the betterment of society. There are legal and practical reasons, in addition to moral reasons, to abolish state-sponsored execution. The fact of the matter is that if even one innocent man is put to death, the system has failed completely. The system is meant to protect the innocent, not to satisfy base human emotions. It is time for America to throw away the syringes and turn off the electric chairs.
Michael Khavari’s column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at m.khavari@cavalierdaily.com.
Rick Perry is continuing to hide information and cover up whether Texas executed an innocent person. The same information that Perry is now refusing to release has been released before. In 2003, there was an article by Alan Berlow in The Atlantic (“Texas Clemency Memos”) that discussed and contained copies of execution day memos sent to Governor George W Bush from his staff, including many written by his legal counsel Alberto Gonzales.
According to Berlow: “Gonzales never intended his summaries to be made public. Almost all are marked CONFIDENTIAL and state, “The privileges claimed include, but are not limited to, claims of Attorney-Client Privilege, Attorney Work-Product Privilege, and the Internal Memorandum exception to the Texas Public Information Act.” I obtained the summaries and related documents, which have never been published, after the Texas attorney general ruled that they were not exempt from the disclosure requirements of the Public Information Act.”
Call Perry’s office at 512 463 1782 and demand that he release all information.
Send Perry an email through his website here.
Sign the petition to Governor Rick Perry and the State of Texas to acknowledge that the fire in the Cameron Todd Willingham case was not arson, therefore no crime was committed and on February 17, 2004, Texas executed an innocent man.
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Michael:
There are two sides to every public policy issue. Learn both, prior to writing an op/ed piece.
The 130 (now 135) death row “innocents” scam
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/03/04/fact-checking-issues-on-innocence-and-the-death-penalty.aspx
“The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents”
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/05/the-death-penalty-more-protection-for-innocents.aspx
“Deterrence and the Death Penalty: A Reply to Radelet and Lacock”
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/02/deterrence-and-the-death-penalty-a-reply-to-radelet-and-lacock.aspx
“Death Penalty, Deterrence & Murder Rates: Let’s be clear”
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/03/death-penalty-deterrence-murder-rates.html
“The Death Penalty: Not a Human Rights Violation”
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2006/03/20/the-death-penalty-not-a-human-rights-violation.aspx
“Cost Savings: The Death Penalty”
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/05/07/cost-savings-the-death-penalty.aspx
“Death Penalty Sentencing: No Systemic Bias”
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/07/death-penalty-sentencing-no-systemic.html
“Death Penalty Polls: Support Remains Very High – 80%”
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/07/death-penalty-polls-support-remains.html
“Killing equals Killing: The Amoral Confusion of Death Penalty Opponents”
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/02/01/murder-and-execution–very-distinct-moral-differences–new-mexico.aspx
“The Death Penalty: Neither Hatred nor Revenge”
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/20/the-death-penalty-neither-hatred-nor-revenge.aspx
“Death Penalty Support: Secular and Religious Scholars”
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/07/death-penalty-support-modern-catholic.html
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“Cameron Todd Willingham: Media Meltdown & the Death Penalty:
“Trial by Fire: Did Texas execute an innocent man?”, by David Grann
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/10/04/cameron-todd-willingham-media-meltdown–the-death-penalty.aspx
As more reality comes to light, the more into disrepute run’s Grann’s article.
My article, above, was written and released prior to the Corsicana Fire Marshall’s report, below
1) EXCLUSIVE: City report on arson probe:
State panel asks for city response in Willingham case
http://www.corsicanadailysun.com/news/local_story_276222736.html
2) No Doubts
http://www.corsicanadailysun.com/thewillinghamfiles/local_story_250180658.html
For a collection of articles, go to:
Corsicana Daily Sun, The Willingham Files
http://www.corsicanadailysun.com/thewillinghamfiles
OTHER REPORTS: There is the potential for, at least, 3 more, official, reports on this case: the Texas Fire Marshall’s office, which will give an official and requested reply, the Corsicana Police Dept. and Navarro County District Attorney’s office, both of which, I speculate, may only contribute to the TFM report, but could issue their own reports.
There is an official “report” which, it appears, few have paid attention to – the trial transcript.
I find that rather important because, at least five persons, who were involved with the trial, the prosecutor, defense attorney, two surviving fire investigators and a juror have all voiced support for the verdict, still, in the light of the criticism of the arson forensics.
One of those original fire investigators is, now, an active certified arson expert.
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Michael, I have no blood lust… But, I do believe it is possible to forfeit your right to life in a society, and thus, I believe in capital punishment. Does that make me a “barbarian”? If so, I am a poor one because I can’t even imagine the cruelty practiced upon others by those convicted to life in prison or death.
Frankly, I don’t belive there is anything cruel or unusual about the death penalty as implemented today (except perhaps for extended stays on death row as a result of endless legal battles attempting to ensure justice); you get a shot, you go to sleep. However, imprisoning someone for their adult life IS cruel. Frankly, I think death a more humane treatment than life in a U.S. prison. (There is a valid article on the state of U.S. prisons waiting to be written.)
Yes, we have imprisoned and even executed innocent men. But there are far, far more unpunished murderers walking our streets than innocents executed wrongly. And don’t be fooled by claims of “innocence”: Those that we executed wrongly may have been innocent of the crime for which they were put to death, but they were certainly not “innocent”. Our justice system, with rare exception, ensures that a “good man” without any legal history will not face the death penalty. Those that have been executed (both rightly or wrongly) typically have had long “rap sheets” full of violent crimes, many of which went unpunished.
Finally, attempts at rehabilitation of violent criminals in U.S. prisons has been largely unsuccessful. Thus, we are left with just two choices in dealing with the criminally violent – Life in prison or death by injection. At what year in the former do you think would you beg for the latter?
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