Reinstating the death penalty in the UK would save innocent lives, due to the profound deterrent effect that it has. Abolitionists will claim that the death penalty does not deter criminals. Even if this were the case, the death penalty would still be appropriate. ‘If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of ... innocent victims.’ Thus sparing the lives of ‘even a few prospective victims’ due to the deterrence of their murderers ‘is more important than preserving the lives of convicted murderers because of the possibility that executing them would not deter others.’ Logically however, the death penalty is indeed a deterrent, and a strong one at that. If we were to ‘assume all murderers would instantly die upon murdering, murderers would then kill only if they wished to die themselves. Murder/suicide is an extremely small component of all murders. Therefore, if a swift and sure death penalty was universally applied to our worst criminals, it is logically conclusive that the death penalty would be a significant deterrent.’ This logical conclusion has prompted numerous academics to research the effect further, and there is myriad evidence to support this.
Professor Isaac Ehrlich of the University at Buffalo concluded in his article in the American Economic Review that ‘In light of these observations, one cannot reject the hypothesis that punishment, in general, and execution, in particular, exert a unique deterrent effect on potential murderers.’ A comprehensive study by three professors at Emory University claim in their most conservative estimate is that the each execution ‘seems to save, on average, the lives of 18 potential victims,’ using mathematics to prove the commonsensical conclusion. The same study found that other crimes such as ‘robbery and aggravated assault’ are ‘associated with increased murder rates,’ indicating that criminality would be reduced even further if the death penalty were to be reintroduced. Since the death penalty was abolished, ‘official crime figures show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S,’ which employs the death penalty. When taking into account the rise in population vs. the increased crime rate, the rates for unlawful killings in the UK have more than doubled since the abolition of the death penalty, strongly suggesting the existence of a positive correlation between employment of the death penalty and deterrence of crime. Secondly, it certainly also ‘deters’ the individual criminal from re-offending. There is no possibility of a re-offence if said criminal is not alive to offend. Even if such a criminal were to serve multiple life sentences and never get out, there is still the danger that he may pose to members of staff within the prison, as well as other inmates. In short, the death penalty is both logically and mathematically proven to be a significant deterrent to crime.
Money is a finite resource, that shouldn’t be squandered without reason. Especially now that the UK is in recession, the prison system has limited resources to deal with these criminals. ‘Each new prison place costs £170,000 to build and maintain, and the cost per prisoner per year is £41,000;’ an alarming statistic considering that maintaining a prisoner for a year is almost double the GDP per capita in the UK. Are perpetrators of the worst crimes really worth double what the average hardworking British taxpayer is? The answer to that question as far as this paper is concerned is a clear-cut, categorical no.
Abolitionists will cite the United States (U.S.) legal system where the cost of executing someone is higher than life without parole. Firstly, this high cost figure is the offshoot of intense hyperbole; abolitionists usually employ unique statistical methods and thus in many cases divide the total cost of the death penalty by the number of executions, without subtracting the cost of criminals who were not sentenced. It is comparable to taking all the court and police costs of people accused of a crime, and dividing the number by people serving time, releasing a cost figure per prisoner; it is erroneous arithmetic. Secondly this alleged high cost isn’t an inherent byproduct of the death penalty. In the U.S. it boils down to the endless appeals process and delays in carrying out death sentences where the average time spent on death row is over a decade. In 20th century Britain however, the average time was from 3 to 8 weeks, allowing for only one appeal, feasibly making it an inexpensive and proficient process. The UK is incurring a massive opportunity cost by not reinstating the death penalty; the money saved could be invested in superior law enforcement in order to reduce crime even further. The only real cost would be the one-off cost of the method employed, which would be the lethal injection. Although a shooting range would be cheaper, the lethal injection is probably the most suitable method of execution. Shooting is messy and the shooter would perhaps be put under unfair psychological duress by having to shoot someone point-blank, an issue lacking with the lethal injection. Even though the lethal injection is probably the most humane, ‘some risk of pain is inherent in any method of execution’ However ‘simply because an execution method may result in pain, either by accident or as an inescapable consequence of death, does not establish the sort of ‘objectively intolerable risk of harm’ that qualifies as cruel and unusual.’
It is also legally feasible to reinstate the death penalty in the UK. Firstly European Union (EU) membership would have to be renegotiated, something increasingly likely to occur anyway with the rise of the Eurosceptics. Secondly, the UK would have to withdraw from the Optional Protocols to the ECHR. Following from that, the death penalty could be reinstated via a passage of an Act of Parliament, which would more than likely be supported by the people. The purpose of this paper however has been to prove why it should be reinstated, without laying out a bulletproof framework pertaining to how it would be done; although as elucidated previously, it is possible.
Consequently it can and must be reinstated for the worst crimes. Determining which crimes are the ‘worst’ is a delicate task; the UK certainly would not follow the example of Sudan and sentence homosexuals to death. There should be a guideline as to what crimes should be considered when there is irrefutable evidence to condemn the perpetrator. A good starting point would be intentional homicide and/or rape plus one or more aggravating factors. The death penalty is thus morally and practically justified whilst simultaneously carrying the support of the majority of the populous. By not reinstating it, the UK is granting mercy to the guilty, and ‘mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.’
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