What's Wrong With
the Death Penalty?With over 600 people on death row in California, it is time to look at and understand what's wrong with the death penalty.
The death penalty kills innocent people. Studies have documented that over 400 innocent people have been sentenced to death and 23 executed in America in the 1900's. Illinois recently placed a "moratorium" on the death penalty after it was proved that there were more innocent people on Illinois' death row than the total number of people Illinois had executed since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1977. Over 100 people on death row have been released from prison since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. There is no way to correct a wrongful conviction after an execution.
The death penalty punishes the families of the victim. The long appeal process prevents the victim's family from moving on with their lives. A study of all death penalty cases in America over a 23-year period found over 2/3 of the death sentences were overturned on appeal requiring a new trial years later or a dismissal.
The death penalty wastes taxpayer's money. The average cost of a death penalty prosecution exceeds $2 million. Many of these cases do not result in a death penalty verdict. A 1993 study by the Sacramento Bee concluded that California taxpayers would save over $90 million a year if the death penalty was replaced with life sentences without the possibility of parole (LWOP). A jury in a death penalty case always has the option of giving LWOP as a possible sentence instead of death. Death penalty cases backlog the courts and make it difficult for other cases to be heard without long delays.
The death penalty is not a deterrent. It does not stop others from killing. In California, a person need not be the actual killer nor even intend to kill anyone to face execution. How can the death penalty deter in these circumstances? The Sonoma County District Attorney has stated he could not prove that capital punishment is a deterrent. The studies conducted have not shown that the death penalty reduces the murder rate. States without the death penalty have a lower murder rate per capita than states that execute. Studies show that the murder rate actually goes up with each execution. Unstable people react to media attention surrounding executions with "copycat" crimes or use the state to help them commit "suicide."
The death penalty has always been administered in a discriminatory fashion. Studies show that it is the poor, uneducated, mentally retarded and people of color who are more often sentenced to death. If the victim is white, middle or upper class, the death penalty is more likely to be given. This means that it is the I.Q., class, and race of the perpetrator, and the race and class of the victim, which determines whether the state will kill, not the act committed.
America is one of the only Democratic, industialized countries, which still execute its people. Worldwide, over 105 countries have stopped using capital punishment. Of our allies, only Japan still has the death penalty, which it rarely uses. The U.S. is one of only 6 countries in the world that executes juveniles. Most countries look upon the death penalty as a violation of human rights. Almost all religions and human rights groups oppose it. Only China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Congo execute more people than the United States. Isn't it time that we join the rest of the world's leading countries and just say "No" to the death penalty?
Join the ACLU and help stop the death penalty.
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