WHILE WE students were on Spring Break, many of us found ourselves drawn in on Friday, March 11 to the story of Brian Nichols. Nichols, who was on trial for rape, had escaped from custody allegedly by grabbing a policeman's gun, shooting and killing the judge, court reporter and another guard, then hijacking several cars and fleeing. As the case unfolded, the entire city of Atlanta (where the incident had taken place) seemed to shut down, as Nichols fled with nothing to lose. After all, he assuredly faced the death penalty if caught. Once again, the death penalty had failed to serve the people it was supposed to protect.
The time is long overdue for Americans to reconsider the death penalty, recognize that this punishment fails in all its purposes and begin the movement towards the total abolition of the death penalty in America. While America remains one of the last remaining industrialized countries to still have the death penalty at all, its place here seems very firm. While parts of the death penalty are eroding (we may no longer execute the mentally retarded, and, as of just a month ago, we may no longer execute juveniles), the death penalty itself unfortunately remains just as much a part of the American judicial system today as it was 200 years ago.
The most frequent argument in support of the death penalty, for example, is that it deters criminals from committing crimes. This is simply untrue. In fact, according to the Uniform Crime Reports, the annual reports released that show crime rates across the country, death penalty states in the United States actually have a higher murder rate than states without the death penalty. In fact, when Oklahoma reintroduced the death penalty in 1990, studies reported in Criminology magazine showed that there was a jump of an average of one additional stranger-homicide (a person murdering someone they did not know) per month. The death penalty had failed to serve as a deterrent, and it can even be argued that the death penalty served merely to re-introduce the acceptability of violence in society in Oklahoma.
Another argument in favor of the death penalty is the idea that a murderer should face the worst penalty possible.While this is certainly a reasonable argument to make, the flaw is the idea that the death penalty is the worst penalty possible.Spending the rest of one's natural life in jail, contrary to what many will argue, is no picnic. Inmates have nothing to do with their lives but eat, exercise an hour a day and sit there and think about the mistakes they made. This is far more haunting and unpleasant than having it all come to an end in 10 to 15 years. Many argue that someone still in prison gets family visits, TV and still gets to live some semblance of a life. This kind of argument is not only mostly untrue, but also an argument for prison reform and not relevant to the death penalty.
Finally, beyond the flaws in the logic supporting the death penalty, the death penalty itself has major drawbacks.The biggest one is that it is irreversible. If someone innocent has been wrongly convicted, this person no longer has any avenue of appeal if they are dead. Over the course of the past 30 years, for example, 119 death row inmates have been determined to be innocent and released.
Some argue that these cases show the appeals system works, and we don't actually execute those who have been wrongfully convicted. This also is untrue. A case discussed in the Thomas M. Cooley Law Review of 1997 was the 1990 execution of Jesse Tafero in Florida for murdering a state trooper. Just two years later, it was discovered that the primary prosecution witness had perjured himself in the case, and Tafero's wife (who was convicted with all the same evidence of the same crime) was determined to be not guilty of the murder. Had Tafero been alive in 1992, he also would likely have been found not guilty. Instead, the state of Florida had already murdered Tafero.Murder is always wrong, and it is better to let hundreds of guilty criminals live in jail than to murder one innocent person.
While the death penalty still holds an entrenched place in American society, it is time for the death penalty to be brought to an end. The sanction fails as a deterrent, fails as an effective punishment and risks the murder of innocent people. The death penalty has no place in the 21st century. It is time for America to catch up with the rest of the world and abolish the death penalty.
Sam Leven's column usually appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at sleven@cavalierdaily.com.
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