Capital Punishment, is it an effective or ineffective deterrent?

By the 1850s these reform efforts began to bear fruit. The first nations to abolish the death penalty altogether were Venezuela (1853) San Marino (1865), Portugal (1867) and Costa Rica (1877).  First state to abolish it for murder in the United States was Michigan in 1847. Today, it is virtually abolished in all of Western Europe and most of Latin America.

Britain effectively abolished capital punishment in 1965. Even though the movement to bring about the abolition of the death penalty began in 1850, when Norval Morris presented his report to the United Nations in 1965 there were only 12 countries , along with a few constituent states that had abolished it completely Colombia (1910), Costa Rica (1877), Ecuador (1906), Federal Republic of Germany (1949), Honduras (1956), Iceland (1928), Monaco (1962), San Marino (1865), Uruguay (1907), Venezuela (1863). Argentina (1921), and Brazil (1882), re-introduced the death penalty after 1965.  In addition one Australian state (Queensland) and nine American states ( Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, West Virginia and Wisconsin) and 24 of the 29 Mexican states, had abolished the death penalty for all crimes.  11 other countries had abolished it for ordinary peacetime crimes, these were Austria (1950), Denmark (1930), Finland (1949), Italy (1947), Netherlands (1870), New Zealand (1961), Norway (1905), Portugal (1867), Sweden (1921).  In America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East with the exception of Israel most countries still retain the death penalty for certain crimes and impose it with varying frequency.  

Sometimes criminals suffer more during their executions than is anticipated or planned.. Is there a moral significance in situations such as these? Should this be a factor in deciding whether the death penalty should be permitted? What counts as "a cruel and unusual" punishment? Although there are obviously degrees of cruelty, is the death penalty inherently cruel?   The two most common methods of executions in the modern world are shooting and hanging these are followed by beheading and lethal injection. It can be argued that when carried out correctly (in the British measured drop manner) death by hanging occurs within 15 seconds of the condemned going through the execution chamber door.  In Iran and the Sudan death can be inflicted by stoning, hanging or shooting, in accordance with the type of the offence. In the Middle East several countries use stoning as punishment for adultery, while beheading with a sword is the common method in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Electrocution and the gas chamber are used only in America and seem to be disappearing rapidly. Lethal injection is becoming almost universal in America as it is considered to be a ‘clean’ method of execution, if there ever could be such a thing.  Oklahoma was the first state to introduce this so-called ‘clean’ method of execution, there are approximately 25 other states in America also using this method, five of these offer the prisoner a choice of execution mode.    This is also the method used in the Philippines and Guatemala. In some Islamic countries, stoning for sexual offences including adultery occurs. China with a quarter of the world's population carries out the most executions, mostly by shooting, for a wide variety of offences. Often these are trivial offences.  In May 2000 China executed 91 people.  In January 2003 China executed 9 people for various offences ranging from bombing to poisoning, 6 of the executions were for unknown offences.  Since 1998 China has been experimenting with lethal injection and like Thailand plans to make it the sole form of execution in the next few years.  Although lethal injection is claimed to cause less severe pain than any other form of execution, there have been problems with the administering of the drugs this probably caused the prisoner considerable distress. It can take up to 45 minutes from the time the condemned person enters the execution chamber until death  has occurred.

In 2002 the number of people executed worldwide was1,526, these were from 31 different countries, China, accounting for 1,060 of them, Iran with 113 and America with 71.   67 countries had 3,248 under sentence of death.  In America alone during 2002, 71 persons in 13 States were executed; 33 were carried out in Texas; 7 in Oklahoma, 6 in Missouri; 4 each in Georgia and Virginia, 3 each in Florida, South Carolina, and Ohio; 2 each in Alabama, Mississippi, and North Carolina; and 1 each in Louisiana and California.  

Of those persons executed in 2002; 53 were white; 18 were black; of those executed in 2002; 69 were men; 2 were women Lethal injection accounted for 70 of the executions; 1 was carried out by electrocution.   Thirty-eight States and the Federal government in 2002 had capital statutes.

60 years ago Marc Ancel stated ‘...in general the modern tendency is more and more to drop the mandatory character of the death penalty.  It is provided as the ultimate punishment but replaceable by another penalty’.  

There are very strong arguments against the abolition of capital punishment. It could be said that it removes the worst criminals from society.  It would be much cheaper and safer for the rest of us than long term or permanent incarceration. It was recently reported in the British press that the cost of keeping child killer Ian Huntley in prison for then duration of his sentence is in the region of £18-20 million. Our  resources would be better spent on the old, the young and the sick rather than the long term imprisonment of murderers, rapists etc. It is obvious that dead criminals can not commit any further crimes, either within prison or after being released from it.

Does the death penalty deter? only where execution is an absolute certainty. It was noted that in  Britain, between abolition of the death penalty in 1965 and 1998, the murder rate more than doubled to around 750 per annum.  71 murders were committed by people who had been released after serving "life sentences" in the same period,. During the 5 year period that capital punishment was suspended in Britain (1965 - 1969) statistics showed a 125% rise in murders that would have attracted a death sentence. Whilst statistically all this is true it does show how society has changed over the those 30 odd years. It is possible that the murder rate would be the same today if we had not abolished the death penalty. The fact that divorce is now easier to obtain might well have reduced the number of domestic murders,. Advances in medical techniques have saved many victims who would have previously died from their injuries. Josie Russell for example would have probably died of her injuries if it had happened 30 years ago.

But then there is the argument for the abolishment of the death penalty.

The most frighteningly important one is the fact that genuinely innocent people have and could be executed and that there is no possible way of compensating them for this miscarriage of justice. Also there is the situation where the person convicted of the murder is actually guilty of manslaughter. It is then  down to the skill of the defence lawyer as to whether there will be a conviction for murder or for manslaughter. It would occur that people are convicted of murder when they should really have only been convicted of manslaughter as happens now but without the execution.  There are the feelings of the condemned’s family, it is hard enough accepting the death of a loved one in normal circumstances, but one cannot imagine the feelings if your loved one is to be executed by the state for a crime that they have not committed.  Lord Callaghan stated ‘…it should not be forgotten that there are men who would have been hanged although they were innocent, but who are alive today because the law was changed’   The humane method of putting a person to death has yet to be discovered irrespective of what the State may claim. There is not one form of execution that does not cause the prisoner suffering, some methods perhaps cause less than others, but there is no doubt that being executed is a terrifying and gruesome ordeal for the criminal. It is often overlooked but what about the extreme mental torture that the criminal suffers in the time leading up to the execution. Imagine the feeling knowing that you were going to die in the morning at 8.00 a.m. And the fear knowing the method by which you will dye.  The death penalty removes the individual's humanity and with it the possibility of rehabilitation and the ability to give something back to society that they have offended against. It may be acceptable  against some of the more repulsive criminals but is more questionable in the case of less awful crimes.

In conclusion it has to be said that the phrase ‘ two wrongs don’t make a right’, can never be more true than in the case of the death penalty, as by carrying out the cold blooded murder of the condemned in the name of the state, the state is actually condoning murder albeit justified in the name of the state.  Society has to accept that no one not even the state has the right to murder someone or take the life of another.  Murder is wrong whether legalised or not.  But it must also be accepted that some will agree with the phrase ‘an eye for an eye’ and that the penalty for murder should be the taking of the murderers life.  Just as it has been around since the start of mankind in his present state then this argument will continue for as long as mankind does, it would appear that they go hand in hand.

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