Opinion Forum

The Death Penalty

November 7th, 2008

There are a number of contentious issues that have been part of our political discussion for years, regardless of which party is in power. There are reasons these issues don’t go away. First, opinions on all sides are deeply felt and enduring, and second, definitive solutions are beyond the strength and will of politicians. The death penalty is one of the most enduring of these issues.

Our legal system may be among the best the world has ever seen, but it isn’t infallible. We all know that, regardless of how we feel about the death penalty. One glaring fallacy in the system is the fact that justice, plainly put, is for sale. Not usually because of corruption, but because those who can buy the best lawyers have a better chance of winning. That means the ultimate outcome of the system, death, falls most often on those who have the least money.

Even if our system could be improved to eliminate the effect of class and money, it still wouldn’t be perfect. Mistakes will be made because human beings are involved. That means that innocent people will be killed by the state. Once that killing has taken place, correcting errors is meaningless.

Finally, there’s the morality of it. From my first days in basic training in the Army, I was taught that soldiers don’t kill prisoners who do not present a threat. If that’s morally correct, and it is, then how can we permit the state to kill its prisoners? The question is not whether captured enemy soldiers should have a right to live, while convicted murderers should not. The question is whether the state, acting through its soldiers or its courts, should have the authority to kill people in its custody.

Personal feelings and public policy are too often confused in debates over issues like this. I personally feel little sympathy for enemy soldiers on the battlefield or for people who commit murder and other capital crimes. And yes, I would not hesitate to blow away anyone who was in the act of committing one of these crimes. Nor would I lose any sleep over it. But those are gut feelings, animal reactions. Public policy is another matter. It must be made on a rational basis, separate from the cold fury of emotion and the bitter demand for righteous vengeance.

I’m against the death penalty, at least until it doesn’t matter how much money an accused person has and the legal system doesn’t make mistakes. And even in the unlikely event these problems are solved, I doubt I’ll ever be able to accept that our social contract should include empowering the state to kill us.

Written by Tom
Tags: death penalty, law
Posted in Politics | Comments (3) | Home

3 Responses to “The Death Penalty”

doris | December 2nd, 2008 at 10:50 pm

I am against the death penalty for me and all my loved ones, however, if someone kills or rapes a child or one of mine, I think I am for it. But, if I reach them first, no need to bother, but collect the remains. This is all our dilemmas, as we all want justice, but a different one for ourselves. I think everyone knows that only poor people get the death penalty, anyway. Just another example of how our justice system really works. I, too, worry that innocent poor slobs are put to death, by inept lawyers. What’s the solution, to support all examples of evil at great expense until they die happily in their sleep, or put even one innocent person to death, I don’t know??

Dudley Sharp | July 5th, 2009 at 12:53 am

The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents

Of all the government programs in the world, that put innocents at risk, is there one with a safer record and with greater protections than the US death penalty?

Unlikely.

Enhanced Due Process - No knowledgeable and honest party questions that the death penalty has the most extensive due process protections in US criminal law. Therefore, actual innocents are more likely to be sentenced to life imprisonment and more likely to die in prison serving under that sentence, that it is that an actual innocent will be executed. That is. logically, conclusive.

Enhanced Incapacitation - To state the blatantly clear, living murderers, in prison, after release or escape, are much more likely to harm and murder, again, than are executed murderers. Although an obvious truism, it is surprising how often folks overlook the enhanced incapacitation benefits of the death penalty over incarceration.

Enhanced Deterrence - 16 recent studies, inclusive of their defenses, find for death penalty deterrence. A surprise? No. Life is preferred over death. Death is feared more than life. Some believe that all studies with contrary findings negate those 16 studies. They don’t. Studies which don’t find for deterrence don’t say no one is deterred, but that they couldn’t measure those deterred.

What prospect of a negative outcome doesn’t deter some? There isn’t one.

Enhanced Fear - Some death penalty opponents argue against death penalty deterrence, stating that it’s a harsher penalty to be locked up without any possibility of getting out. Reality paints a very different picture. What percentage of capital murderers seek a plea bargain to a death sentence? Zero or close to it. They prefer long term imprisonment. What percentage of convicted capital murderers argue for execution in the penalty phase of their capital trial? Zero or close to it. They prefer long term imprisonment. What percentage of death row inmates waive their appeals and speed up the execution process? Nearly zero. They prefer long term imprisonment.

This is not, even remotely, in dispute.

What of that more rational group, the potential murderers who choose not to murder, is it likely that they, like most of us, fear death more than life?

Life is preferred over death. Death is feared more than life.

The False Promise - Part of the anti death penalty deception is that a life sentence, with no possibility of release, is a superior alternative to the death penalty. It’s a lie. History tells us that lifers have many ways to get out: Pardon, commutation, escape, clerical error, change in the law, etc. There are few absolutes with sentencing. But, here are two: the legislature can lessen the sentences of current inmates, retroactively, and the executive branch can lessen any individual sentence, at any time. This has been, actively, pursued, for a number of years, in many states, because of the high cost of life sentences and/or geriatric care, found to be $60,000-$90,000 per year per inmate.

Innocents released from death row: Some reality - Furthermore, possibly we have sentenced 25 actually innocent people to death since 1973, or 0.3% of those so sentenced. Those have all been released upon post conviction review. The anti death penalty claims, that the numbers are significantly higher, are a fraud, easily discoverable by fact checking. There is no proof of an innocent executed in the US, at least since 1900.

In choosing to end the death penalty, or in choosing not implement it, some have chosen to spare murderers at the cost of sacrificing more innocent lives.

Dudley Sharp | July 5th, 2009 at 1:02 am

Class issues - No one disputes that wealthier defendants can hire better lawyers and, therefore, should have a legal advantage over their poorer counterparts. The US has executed about 0.15% of all murderers since new death penalty statutes were enacted in 1973. Is there evidence that wealthier capital murderers are less likely to be executed than their poorer ilk, based upon the proportion of capital murders committed by different those different economic groups? Not to my knowledge.

Some solid essays for the death penalty

5) John Stuart Mill, speech on the death penalty
http://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/Mill_supports_death_penalty.htm

7) “The Right of Punishing”, Immanuel Kant, http://web.telia.com/~u15509119/ny_sida_9.htm

9) “What Do Murderers Deserve?” by David Gelernter (unabomber victim & Yale U. Computer Professor), Commentary Magazine, April 1998
Reprint, Utne Reader, March/April 1999, http://www.utne.com/1999-03-01/WhatdoMurderersDeserve.aspx
NOTE Gelernter ERROR: Karla Faye Tucker did not, voluntarily, end her appeals

11) “Defending Capital Punishment” by William Gairdner
http://www.williamgairdner.com/defending-capital-punishment/

12) “Why I Support Capital Punishment”, by Andrew Tallman, sections 7-11 biblical review, sections 1-6 secular review
http://andrewtallmanshowarticles.blogspot.com/search?q=Capital+punishment

13) “THE ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT: A DEFENSE”, Ernest van den Haag, Harvard Law Review, 1986
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel/procon/haagarticle.html

The Death Penalty

3 Responses to “The Death Penalty”

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