Approximately 90 countries have the death penalty, but nowhere is it debated so often as in the United States where, under the Constitution, each state can formulate its own policy. Thirty-six of the 50 states allow death penalties. In 2000, Gov. George Ryan of Illinois imposed a moratorium on executions in response to the high number of death row inmates found to be innocent of the crime for which they were incarcerated, frequently because new scientific techniques proved their innocence. He ordered a review of the death penalty system, asserting that it was so riddled with error that it came close to taking innocent life. Nine other states followed Illinois’ lead. Before Ryan left office in early 2003, he pardoned four death row inmates and commuted the death sentences of all other inmates to life in prison without parole. In a speech justifying his action he said that the state’s death penalty system was “arbitrary and capricious—and, therefore, immoral.”
Pros
Cons
The principle of capital punishment is that certain crimes deserve nothing less than death as a just, proportionate, and effective response. The problems associated with the death penalty are concerned with its implementation rather than its principle. Murderers forgo their rights as humans the moment they take away the rights of another human. By wielding such a powerful punish- ment as the response to murder, society is affirming the value that is placed on the right to life of the innocent person. Many more innocent people have been killed by released, paroled, or escaped murderers than innocent people executed.
Execution is, in simplest terms, state-sanctioned killing. It devalues the respect we place on human life. How can we say that killing is wrong if we sanction killing criminals? More important is the proven risk of execut- ing innocent people. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that from 1973 to 2008, 130 individu- als sentenced to death were exonerated. They had their conviction overturned and were acquitted at retrial or all charges were dropped; or they were given an absolute pardon by the governor based on new evidence of inno- cence. These people could have been wrongly executed. Capital punishment is 100% effective as a deterrent to
the criminal being executed; that killer cannot commit any more crimes. As a deterrent to others, it depends on how often the death penalty is applied. In the US, where less than 1% of murderers are executed, it is difficult to assess the true effect of deterrence. But a 1985 study (Ste- phen K. Layson, University of North Carolina) showed that one execution deterred 18 murders.
High execution rates do not deter crimes. Murder rates have declined in every region of the United States except in the South where executions are most prevalent. Ac- cording to a September 15 report, the South was the only region where the murder rate rose in 2008. The South consistently has had the highest murder rate among the four regions.
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If and when discrimination occurs, it should be cor- rected. Consistent application of the death penalty against murderers of all races would abolish the idea that it can be a racist tool. Make the death penalty manda- tory in all capital cases.
Implementation of the death penalty, particularly in the United States, may be negatively influenced by racial and gender bias. Studies consistently show that those who kill white victims are more likely to receive the death penalty than those who murder blacks. Nearly 90% of those executed were convicted of killing whites, despite the fact that non-whites make up more than 50% of all murder victims. There is also overwhelming evidence that the death penalty is used against men and not women.
Opponents of the death penalty prefer to ignore the fact that they themselves are responsible for its high costs by filing a never-ending succession of appeals. Prisons in many countries are overcrowded and underfunded. This problem is made worse by life sentences or delayed death sentences for murderers. Why should the taxpayer bear the cost of supporting a murderer for an entire lifetime?
Capital punishment costs more than life without parole as state studies in the US have shown. For example, a study found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs of a nondeath penalty system imposing a maximum sentence of im- prisonment for life. A 2000 study of executions in Flor- ida revealed that, based on 44 executions from 1976 to 2000, each execution cost $24 million because of legal expenses associated with these cases.
Different countries and societies can have different atti- tudes toward the justifiability of executing mentally incompetent or teenaged murderers. If society opposes such executions, then implementation of the death pen- alty in these cases is a problem. For opponents to seize on such cases is to cloud the issue; this is not an argu- ment against the principle.
Defendants who are mentally incompetent will often answer “Yes” to questions in the desire to please others. This can lead to false confessions. Over 30 mentally retarded people have been executed in the US since 1976.
Some criminals are beyond rehabilitation. Perhaps capi- tal punishment should be reserved for serial killers, ter- rorists, murderers of policemen, and so on.
By executing criminals you are ruling out the possibil- ity of rehabilitation. You have to consider that they may repent of their crime, serve a sentence as punishment, and emerge as useful members of society.
sample motions:
This House supports the death penalty.
This House would take an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a life for a life.
Web Links:
Amnesty International and the Death Penalty. <http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty> Takes an anti-death-penalty stance •
and presents facts and figures as well as current developments pertaining to the issue.
Derechos Human Rights: Death Penalty Links. <http://www.derechos.org/dp/> Links to hundreds of sites on all aspects of the •
death penalty, both pro and con.
Pro-Death Penalty.com. <http://www.prodeathpenalty.com> Offers information from a pro-death-penalty point of view; also •
contains good statistical information.
Further reading:
Bedaue, Hugo Adam, and Paul G. Cassell. Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment? The Experts on
Sarat, Austin. When the State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition. Princeton University Press, 2002. Zimring, Franklin E. The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment. Oxford University Press, 2004.