Death to Death Sentences?

Use of the death penalty around the world (as of 2012).

  Abolished for all offenses** (97)

  Abolished for all offenses except under special circumstances (8)

  Retains, though not used for at least 10 years (35)

  Retains death penalty (58)*

* While laws vary among U.S. states, it is considered retentionist because the federal death penalty is still in active use. **Russia retains the death penalty, but the regulations of the Council of Europe prohibits it from carrying out any executions.

As society has shifted, the question of maintaining executions for certain criminal behavior has been debated fiercely in the land of the free and the home of easily-obtained guns: the United States of America. The discussions have ranged from the exorbitant costs (see below) of convicting, handling appeals for, housing, maintaining and occasionally actually executing death row inmates to the barbaric cruelty of this act of sanctioned homicide and the rare but very real possibility of killing an innocent man or woman in the process.

For many executioners these days, the inability to get the necessary drugs to implement the sequential death cocktail has stalled a number of scheduled executions. No problem, at least in Tennessee as of early July: “Eight states authorize electrocution as a method of execution but only at the inmate's discretion. Now Tennessee is the first state to make use of the electric chair mandatory when lethal injection drugs are unavailable.” CNN.com, July 2^nd. How about getting rid of the entire process?

“Opponents of the death penalty have cited a number of factors that argue in favor of abolishing the death penalty. It is, they say, not an effective deterrent against crime. Statistics appear to back this up: states which impose the death penalty continue to report the highest murder rates in the country with only three states without the death penalty ranked in the top twenty five (Michigan, New York and Alaska)…

 “For years, these reasonings have failed to sway a majority of Americans. But now, something else may be turning the tide of public opinion – and it has little to do with ethical, moral or legal arguments. It’s all about cold, hard cash.

“As states face increased pressure to cut costs in their budgets, every line item is getting a second look. One startling finding? Death penalty cases are, from start to finish, more expensive than other criminal cases including those that result in life without parole.” Forbes.com, September 22, 2011. A California study of the cost of the death penalty tells us that it costs well over 10 times more than a life-without-parole sentence, adding about $130 million a year in excess costs to that state alone. The costs may vary from state to state, but the general order of magnitude is pretty much the same everywhere.

In April, we watched a horrific execution in Oklahoma in the state’s lethal injection chamber, apparently from an ill-positioned needle. “The botched execution of Clayton Lockett has spawned a new lawsuit accusing Oklahoma prison officials of shoddy lethal injection practices. The suit, brought by a group of death-row prisoners, says that one of the drugs used in Lockett's case — midazolam — is unsuitable for use in executions and that the execution teams lack expertise, backup plans and supplies.

“Lockett, a convicted rapist and murderer, appeared to regain consciousness and writhe in pain during his April 29 execution, which was halted — but not in time to save his life. Executions in Oklahoma are temporarily on hold while the state reviews the Lockett case.” NBCNews.com, June 25^th. Given what happened, the plaintiffs have a point.

And now we have yet another reason why the death penalty may just be unconstitutional, at least in the way states just keep prisoners on edge for decades without clarity or reason. A mid-July decision from a federal trial court ruled California’s capital crime punishment as violative of the U.S. Constitution.  “The ruling by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, was unprecedented and likely to further inflame the debate over the state's death penalty. Several prominent judges have excoriated California's death penalty for its dysfunction, but Carney was the first to rule the delays amounted to a constitutional violation and left the system without any legitimate purpose…

“Carney focused on how the state enforces the death penalty and ordered lawyers to present written arguments on it… California's system, ‘where so many are sentenced to death but only a random few are actually executed, would offend the most fundamental of constitutional protections — that the government shall not be permitted to arbitrarily inflict the ultimate punishment of death,’ wrote Carney, who serves in Orange County… Carney noted that more than 900 people have been sentenced to death in California since 1978 but only 13 have been executed.

“‘For the rest, the dysfunctional administration of California's death penalty system has resulted, and will continue to result, in an inordinate and unpredictable period of delay preceding their actual execution,’ Carney wrote. ‘As for the random few for whom execution does become a reality, they will have languished for so long on Death Row that their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary.’… Carney said the delays had created a ‘system in which arbitrary factors, rather than legitimate ones like the nature of the crime or the date of the death sentence, determine whether an individual will actually be executed.’” Los Angeles Times, July 16^th.

Globally, the number of countries applying the death penalty has fallen dramatically as the above chart (from Wikipedia) illustrates. With the exception of Belarus, European nations have effectively eliminated the death penalty for any crimes. “The United Nations General Assembly has adopted, in 2007, 2008 and 2010, non-binding resolutions calling for a global moratorium on executions, with a view to eventual abolition. Although many nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the world's population live in countries where executions take place, such as the People's Republic of China, India, the United States of America and Indonesia, the four most-populous countries in the world, which continue to apply the death penalty (although in India, Indonesia and in many US states it is rarely employed). Each of these four nations voted against the General Assembly resolutions.” Wikipedia.

Isn’t it time, for whatever reason you choose, simply to abolish the death penalty entirely in the United States? Perhaps if we made those who support the death penalty pay an extra tax to support their belief? Disgusting, right?

I’m Peter Dekom, and if human beings have the slightest claim to social evolution, let’s prove it by banning the death sentence in at least the United States.