Should the Death Penalty Be Abolished?
The long lasting debate about the death penalty may be an issue that is never truly decided. The death penalty laws have been established as far back as the eighteenth century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi in Babylon. (Intro to the death penalty) As the population in the United States continues to grow, we as a society must decide what to do with the growth of career criminals. We must decide as a society if we are any better for taking a life or abolishing the death penalty and come up with a better plan for the future.
Abolishing the Death Penalty
The death penalty has outlived its stay here in the United States. Although the death penalty, has been around since 1800 B.C. We are now far more civilized than those who felt that death was the best punishment are. Our country was greatly influenced by Britain in the fact that when they settled here in the United States, they brought the “practice of capital punishment with them.” (Intro to death penalty laws) Although it should be kept in mind, that many of these laws regarding the death penalty at that time in history were based upon religious beliefs. For instance if you did not believe in the “true god” you could be put to death. (Randa, 1997)
As time has progressed into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, people took a step back to look at the use of the death penalty. Is it being misused was the main concern. In the 1960’s people began seeing the death penalty as “cruel and unusual punishment.” In the case of Trop v. Dulles (356 U.S. 86), it was decided that this case was important, because it marked a “standard of decency”. This marked the progress of a maturing society. (Intro to death penalty laws) It was also noted that because of this new standard of decency in its relation to the eighth amendment, we should “no longer tolerate the death penalty”. (Bohm, 1999)
The death penalty was once again brought to the table in the case of Furman v. Georgia in 1972, when it appeared before the Supreme Court. This was a landmark case that made it known a punishment could only be considered “cruel and unusual” if it was in fact ” too severe for the crime.” In the final decision, of a vote of 5 to 4, the court upheld the decision that the death penalty did in fact violate the eighth amendment and was considered to be “cruel and unusual”. (DPIC. Org) This was a substantial case due to the fact that on June 29, 1972, the Supreme Court commuted 629 death row inmates and suspended the death penalty because the death penalty laws were no longer valid.(DPIC.Org)
However this did not remove the death penalty on a permanent basis, as it should have. In 1976 in the case of Gregg v. Georgia the death penalty was re-instated. It was not until 1977 that the ten year ‘moratorium” period ends with the execution of Gary Gilmore, who was put to death by a firing squad in Utah.
Why has there been such indecision with the death penalty? In 1994 President Clinton signed a bill which made dozens of federal crimes subject to the death penalty. (Pbs.org, Criminology of Capital Punishment) Then in 1997 The American Bar Association called for a moratorium on executions until fairness can be assured with the death penalty. This states that something is truly wrong, when we have lawyers and the ABA asking for a change in the way that we are sentencing people to death.
John M. Bailey has publicly stated that “Every dollar we spend on a capital case is a dollar we can’t spend anywhere else. We have to let the public know what it costs [to pursue a capital case]. (Bailey, Chief States Attorney, Connecticut) Bailey has an excellent train of thought with his statement when you look at just how expensive it truly is to put someone to death.
According to Death Penalty info.org:
The Investigation in death sentence cases costs 3 times greater than for non-death cases.
Trial costs are about 16 times more expensive than non-death, as in 508,000 for a death case, and 32,000 for a non-death case.
The costs exceed into the millions for many of these states to pursue death penalty cases while it is proven that it is cheaper to imprison the inmates for life instead of imposing death. Just for thoughts in 1999, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree, which freed all of the convicts with death row sentences. (DPIC.website) Now if a country such as Russia can take a step such as this, why are we still in the dark ages?
With all of this in mind, we should take this wasted money and invest it where it is needed, as opposed to flushing it down the toilet. We could hire more law enforcement officers, and use it for the good of the communities to improve them as needed. Yet, as long as we keep the death penalty in effect we will be wasting millions of dollars per state each year.
References:
Criminology of Capital Punishment retrieved: June 27, 2004 from:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel/timeline.html
Death Penalty Information Center Website retrieved: June 27, 2004 from:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=108&scid=7
Introduction to the Death Penalty retrieved: January 27, 2004
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=15&did=410
