Death Penalty Essay
by
sc_dramaqueenkirsty123 (student)
The death penalty “is one of the most compelling and vexing issues of our time”[1] and has been subject to controversy in regards to implementation, costs, miscarriage of justice and its abolishment. Death as a punishment has been an inherent part of British history from almost the beginning of time. However, the evolving standards of decency in this modern age means the death penalty is becoming increasingly incompatible with society’s morals. Executions by governmental bodies should have no place in a civilised society. L.J Blackburn commented: -"Nothing could be more contrary to contemporary standards of decency or more shocking to the conscience than to execute a person who innocent.”[2]
In the U.K the death penalty was suspended in 1965[3] for five years for all crimes except piracy and treason but was entirely abolished via removal from the statute book in 1998, when a 158 majority[4] of MP’s voted to adopt the ECHR provisions, [5] meaning capital punishment was outlawed. The last death penalty carried out in the UK was the hanging of Peter Allen, on the 13th August 1964, for murder.[6]
Some would argue that there are social benefits of capital punishment as it prevents crimes from being repeated since the criminal is murdered. However, this, and the argument that it deters criminals from committing crimes are not factually supported. Any type of punishment can act as an effective deterrent if only it is promptly and consistently employed. Capital punishment cannot meet these conditions. Very few first degree murderers are sentenced to death and the option projected in 1976 to enact a mandatory death sentence for all murderers was ruled as unconstitutional.[7] If a criminal premeditates a murder, he will concentrate on avoiding arrest and conviction; therefore the threat of the most severe punishment will not deter them. The majority of capital crimes are committed in moments of immense emotional stress or under the influence of drugs etc.; arguably at a time when irrational thoughts rule supreme over logical thought processes. To impose the death penalty for this reason would be senseless as these people would disregard the consequences.
Opponents of the death penalty would argue the death penalty is justified by retributive justice. Who is to say that death is a fair punishment for past actions? I dispute that these retributive theories are not fully satisfactory in establishing whether the death penalty is morally acceptable. Bedeu enunciated “[R]etributive considerations may be sufficient to tell us who deserves to be punished – it is the guilty. But retribution fails to tell us what they deserve as their punishment.”[8] Who are we as governmental bodies to act as God, holding the power to take away life as we please?
One of the most compelling arguments against the death penalty is its cost. In California, taxpayers spent $4 billion since the death penalty was re-instated in 1978 to fund capital punishment which has only carried out 13 executions since. [9] The backlog of cases became so severe that the majority of the 714 prisoners on death row in California will have to wait twenty years before their cases are resolved, [10] as the average wait for execution is 17.2 years, double the national figure.[11]
For four years, the inmates simply have to wait the appointment of counsel. If both conviction and sentence are affirmed, they have to wait three years before state counsel is appointed, usually finding that the Legislature have not provided sufficient funds to allow the counsel to conduct adequate investigations into the merits of their claims.[12] This has gone to create America’s largest death row. How can one say that this extraordinary amount of time and money spent is justified in killing just thirteen people in the past thirty-four years?
The Commission[13] argues: -
“[T]he failures in the administration of California’s death penalty law create cynicism and disrespect for the rule of law…weakens any possible deterrent benefits of capital punishment… increases the emotional trauma experienced by murder victims’ families and delays the resolution of meritorious capital appeals.”[14] They found that abolishing and replacing it with a system that imposes a sentence of life without parole for those now on death row would reduce the costs in California from $137.7 to $11.5 million per year.[15] The real cost derives from court review expenses, which vary due to the ...
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The Commission[13] argues: -
“[T]he failures in the administration of California’s death penalty law create cynicism and disrespect for the rule of law…weakens any possible deterrent benefits of capital punishment… increases the emotional trauma experienced by murder victims’ families and delays the resolution of meritorious capital appeals.”[14] They found that abolishing and replacing it with a system that imposes a sentence of life without parole for those now on death row would reduce the costs in California from $137.7 to $11.5 million per year.[15] The real cost derives from court review expenses, which vary due to the contrasting resources of the convicted. The only way to decrease these costs would be to weaken the due process and reduce appellate review, both of which are the defendant’s only source of protection against a possible miscarriage of justice. The saving in money would be at the cost of justice. As it was once stated: - “The death penalty is not now, nor has it ever been, a more economical alternative to life imprisonment.”[16] Is this cost really justification for re-instating it in the UK in this time of austerity, when the UK’s GDP contracted by 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2012 as Britain plunged into its first double-dip recession since 1975?[17]
It would be asinine not to mention the fact regarding chances of innocence has become the most salient reason in eliminating the death penalty. One scholar noted, “The prospect of killing an innocent person seemed to be the one thing that could cause people to re-think their support for capital punishment”[18] and even Bandes affirmed wrongful convictions have propelled “…the most successful death penalty reform movement of our lifetime.”[19]
It was not until 1989, that Dotson became the first American to be cleared post-conviction of rape due to the emergence of new DNA evidence. Where DNA evidence is used, there is no guarantee of its accuracy as it has been subject to error and misinterpretation in the past. Employees of the Houston Police Department’s Crime Laboratory fabricated DNA evidence and even lied in court regarding results. After investigations, it was exposed that in forty-three DNA cases there was “significant doubts about reliability of work performed, the validity of the Crime Lab’s analytical results, or the correctness of the analyst’s reported conclusions.”[20] If DNA results cannot be relied upon, how could the death penalty be re-introduced with the knowledge that no-one will be executed who was later proved innocent? If the highest members in government are prone to recklessly endangering the accuracy and reliability of work, then our nation should not feel obliged to trust them in administering justice or avenging in a justifiable manner.
How can one prove that the DNA evidence found on a victim’s body came from the alleged murderer from a DNA match? It could have been placed innocently at a different time or by a third party. Perhaps the DNA was maliciously planted there. In cases where more than one set of DNA results are discovered, the evidence may be construed to explain more than one version of events, leading to interpretive flexibility, where authorities make judgements upon whether these ambiguous results should be treated as fact. This occurrence could risk a person being wrongfully convicted.
If, in the UK, we have bodies and functions such as the Ombudsman to critically scrutinize our government for any wrong-doings, how then would it be legal for the government to murder when they forbid society at large from committing such an immoral offence?
In cases such as Furman v. Georgia,[21] the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 majority, stuck down the death penalty, arguing that it violated the Eight Amendment, which rules against ‘Cruel and Unusual Treatment,’[22] as well as breaching the Fourteenth Amendment which expounds that no person should be deprived of life or liberty without "due process of law " or denied of "equal protection of the laws."[23] I believe that the sovereign rights of the accused are being threatened by the pain inflicted by execution. In Diaz v. State,[24] Angel endured an inhumane death, as a second series of drugs had to be injected. This process should be quick, painless and humane, yet the first instalment of drugs failed to paralyse his muscles causing asphyxiation. Eye-witnesses enunciated that Angel was in severe pain and wide-awake during the ordeal, which lasted more than three times the average length of an execution. This could obviously be deemed as torture, and this is compounded by the fact that his last words were ''The state of Florida is killing an innocent person. The state of Florida is committing a crime, because I am innocent. ”[25] This proves that the US has breached its constitution; If the death penalty were to be enacted in the UK, there is no doubt that our Article 3 of The ECHR[26] would be breached, which prohibits torture and the threat of torturing someone, as well as prohibiting treating someone in an inhumane or degrading manner. This is an absolute right meaning it cannot be limited as a result of a crime that a perpetrator may have committed. How can one proclaim that strapping a felon to a chair with chains and handcuffs, is not degrading? Not only is execution torture for the victim, but it is a cruel and unusual punishment against the relatives of the perpetrators, who often witness their loved one’s death.
Despite Furman[27], it was four years later in Gregg[28] that it was ruled that the death penalty was not a violation of these amendments under all circumstances because the punishment must be excessive to be considered as “Cruel and Unusual.” It was also ruled that it must involve unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain and be grossly out of proportion with the severity of the crime. They argued that the careful and judicial use of death penalty may be employed in extreme criminal cases.
In relation to biblical teachings, the phrase “an eye for an eye” was extinguished by the introduction of the New Covenant in the New Testament. Even Gandhi said “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”[29] The death penalty is not justice, but revenge. We should not have to resort to something a criminal does to prevent crimes occurring. From a Christian point of view, the Death Penalty should be vetoed in the hope that one is holding out for the possibility of redemption for a soul ultimately to be saved. It does not seem humane that we should seek vengeance to right a wrong. If the punishment ought to be the same as the crime committed, then how would it even be remotely plausible for a rapist to be raped, or a thief to be stolen from? As Cady explained, this is often impossible; how could one punish Hitler when it is inconceivable to commit genocide against one individual?[30] However, Sorell argues that equality of crime can equate to similarity of the crime, yet it need not imply exact similarity.[31] How can we as humans pinpoint this similarity when it is such a subjective issue? Is death via an injection really equivalent to a brutal murder?
Race plays a distorting role in capital murder cases. A defendant accused of killing a white person is more likely to be sentenced to death than one who is accused of killing a black victim. Also, the average sentence for black offenders sentenced to incarceration in U.S. district courts in 1992 was 84.1 months, while the average sentence for white offenders was 56.8 months.[32] How can this social bias that some lives are worth more than others possibly be moral?
There may be some people in society who escaped justice because innocent people served their sentences, but when can one ever rule out the possibility of error when humans are by nature fallible. Indeed, in the last twenty years seventy people in the US have been released from death rows after being found innocent.[33]
The death penalty should never be re-introduced into UK law. Executing someone for an offence they did or did not commit, does not solve anything. If the government were allowed take this action, it would compromise our deepest moral values by disregarding the invaluable dignity of a human being.
Bibliography
. Case
. Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390, 430 (1993) (Blackmun, J., dissenting)
. R v Allen (1964) 48 Cr. App. R. 314
. Woodson v. North Carolina (1976), 428. U.S. 280
. Furman v. Georgia 408 U.S. 238 (1972)
. Diaz v. State, 513 So.2d 1045 (Fla. 1987) (Direct Appeal).
. Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S. Ct. 2909, 49 L. Ed.2d 859 (1976)
. Legislation
. Article 3; Human Rights Act 1998; European Convention on Human Rights
. US Constitution.; 8th Amendment; 45
. US Constitution; 14th Amendment; 32
. Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965
. European Convention of Human Rights, Human Rights Act 1998, Schedule 1,c. 42 The Articles Part; III Article 1 of the Thirteenth Protocol
. Case Comment
. Dannel P Malloy, Governor of Connecticut, on Signing Bill to Repeal Capital Punishment
. Hugo Adam Bedau, “The Minimal Invasion Argument Against the Death Penalty,” Criminal Justice Ethics 21 (Summer/Fall 2002): 7
. Joseph P. Shapiro, The Wrong Men on Death Row: A Growing Number of Bad Convictions Challenges the Death Penalty's Fairness, U.S. News & World Rep., Nov. 9, 1998, at 22
. Sarah-Roberts-Cady, Against Retributive Justification of the Death Penalty, Vol. 41 No.2, 2010; 186
. Tom Sorell, Moral Theory and Punishment (New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987), 138
. Child Rape, Moral Outrage, and the Death Penalty; Susan A. Bandes; 103 Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy 17 (2008
. The Death Penalty: An American History; Stuart Banner: Harvard University-Press, (2003),304
. Executing The Will Of The Voters?:A Roadmap To Mend Or End The California Legislature’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Death Penalty Debacle Judge Arthur L. Alarcón* & Paula M. Mitchell*
. The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice
. Final Report and Recommendations on the Administration of the Death
. Penalty in California (“Final Report”) 30/6/2008 supra note 4; 115
. Final Report and Recommendations on the Administration of the Death
. Penalty in California (“Final Report”) 30/6/2008; 146
. Spangenberg and Walsh; Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review,(1989);47
. Malindi Myers, Office for National Statistics 25 April 2012; 1
. Office of the Independent Investigator for the Houston Police Department Crime Laboratory and Property Room 2006
. Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopaedia of the Literature of Empire (2009)316
. Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times; “Death Penalty Costs California $184 Million a Year”; <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/20/local/la-me-adv-death-penalty-costs-20110620> accessed 20th April 2012
. Florida Supreme Court; Briefs and Opinions <http://www.murderpedia.org/male.D/d1/diaz- angel-nieves.htm> accessed 20th April 2012
. Economic Review - April 2012 < www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_263951.pdf >
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[1] “Dannel P Malloy, Governor of Connecticut, on Signing Bill to Repeal Capital Punishment” http://www.governor.ct.gov/malloy/cwp/view.asp?A=4010&Q=503122
[2] Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390, 430 (1993) (Blackmun, J., dissenting)
[3] Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965
[4] Human Rights Act 1998, Schedule 1,c. 42 THE ARTICLES Part III ARTICLE 1 OF THE THIRTEENTH PROTOCOL
[5] European Convention of Human Rights, Human Rights Act 1998, Schedule 1,c. 42 THE ARTICLES Part III ARTICLE 1 OF THE THIRTEENTH PROTOCOL
[6] R v Allen (1964) 48 Cr. App. R. 314
[7] Woodson v. North Carolina (1976), 428. U.S. 280
[8] Hugo Adam Bedau, “The Minimal Invasion Argument Against the Death Penalty,” Criminal Justice Ethics 21 (Summer/Fall 2002): 7
[9] EXECUTING THE WILL OF THE VOTERS?:A ROADMAP TO MEND OR END THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE’S MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR DEATH PENALTY DEBACLE Judge Arthur L. Alarcón* & Paula M. Mitchell*
[10] Executing The Will Of The Voters?:A Roadmap To Mend Or End The California Legislature’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Death Penalty Debacle Judge Arthur L. Alarcón* & Paula M. Mitchell*
[11] Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times; “Death Penalty Costs California $184 Million a Year”; <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/20/local/la-me-adv-death-penalty-costs-20110620> accessed 20th April 2012
[12] Executing The Will Of The Voters?:A Roadmap To Mend Or End The California Legislature’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Death Penalty Debacle Judge Arthur L. Alarcón* & Paula M. Mitchell
[13] The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice
[14] Final Report and Recommendations on the Administration of the Death
Penalty in California (“Final Report”) 30/6/2008 supra note 4; 115
[15] Final Report and Recommendations on the Administration of the Death
Penalty in California (“Final Report”) 30/6/2008; 146
[16] Spangenberg and Walsh; Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review,(1989);47
[17] Economic Review - April 2012 < www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_263951.pdf >
Author Name(s): Malindi Myers, Office for National Statistics 25 April 2012; 1
[18] The Death Penalty: An American History; Stuart Banner; Harvard University-Press, (2003),304
[19] Child Rape, Moral Outrage, and the Death Penalty; Susan A. Bandes; 103 Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy 17 (2008),4
[20] Office of the Independent Investigator for the Houseton Police Department Crime Laboratory and Property Room 2006
[21] Furman v. Georgia 408 U.S. 238 (1972)
[22] US Constitution.; 8th Amendment; 45
[23] US Constitution; 14th Amendment; 32
[24] Diaz v. State, 513 So.2d 1045 (Fla. 1987) (Direct Appeal).
[25] Florida Supreme Court; Briefs and Opinions <http://www.murderpedia.org/male.D/d1/diaz- angel-nieves.htm> accessed 20th April 2012
[26] Article 3; Human Rights Act 1998; European Convention on Human Rights
[27] Ibid.
[28] Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S. Ct. 2909, 49 L. Ed.2d 859 (1976)
[29] Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopaedia of the Literature of Empire (2009) p 316
[30] Sarah-Roberts-Cady, Against Retributive Justification of the Death Penalty, Vol. 41 No.2, 2010; 186
[31] Tom Sorell, Moral Theory and Punishment (New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987), 138
[32] . Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics – 1995, At 474 (1996).
[33] Joseph P. Shapiro; The Wrong Men on Death Row: A Growing Number of Bad Convictions Challenges the Death Penalty's Fairness, U.S. News & World Rep., Nov. 9, 1998, at 22