Capital Punishment: the Asterisk in the Bible
I think I'm going to write a position paper about capital punishment. I'm against it, and I think it's for pretty good reasons. I don't harbor any illusions that the people on death row are not criminals deserving of the harshest punishment available. That much is true. I just don't think capital punishment is effective or necessary, to say nothing about the possibility of error or about the value of human life.
In 1995, twice as many people left death row as were executed. This means they either died of natural causes, received reduced sentences, or were pardoned altogether.
In 2000, Illinois pulled its death penalty because too many people on death row were found to be possibly innocent because of DNA evidence and new information regarding their trials.
Capital punishment as crime control requires swift and certain execution (pun not intended--sorry, Ted) of sentences. Potential criminals (meaning everybody) must know that if they commit a capital crime, then they WILL be convicted and they WILL be executed and they both events will happen very soon. I'm not making this up myself; a doctor at the Criminology school told me. So, capital punishment, despite what politicians and conservatives will tell you, offers no tangible deterrent effect to potential criminals. Doctor Hay, who taught a class I took last summer, told me, "it's very hard to get social scientists to agree on anything, but they all agree on this."
After deterrence, there's the incapacitation aspect of corrections. We have capital punishment because, after they've been executed, offenders can't kill again. While that's true, it's no different than life in prison. Escapes are very, very, VERY rare, and successful escapes virtually never happen. Also, it costs more money to the state to keep a guy on Death Row for ten years than it does to keep them in prison for life because of appeals. It bogs down the courts and drains money from the state corrections budget. So, yeah, if you just sentence them to life and keep them in there, from a crime control perspective, it's just as good and costs much less.
That leaves the morality issue for last. I'm about to say some rude things about the bible.
People want murderers to pay for what they did. Most death penalty advocates are right-wingers, and the core of the right wing is fiercely christian. This has always stumped me. One of the ten commandments says, "Thou shalt not kill." Okay, that's fine by me. Then later, the bible says that you can take your insubordinate son or daughter out into public and have them stoned to death by the community. It also says that the penalty for working on the sabbath is death. Same thing for touching the skin of a dead pig. So..... it's more like, "Thou shalt not kill*" and then you look at the bottom of the page for the other asterisk and you'll see that there's a list of the numerous exceptions. I think we should remove the asterisk, but that's just me.
The "get tough" policies of the eighties did about as much to stop violent crime as the D.A.R.E. program did to curb drug use. Most of the "get tough" legislation targeted drug crimes, not violent crimes. The result is that you're more likely to go to prison for a drug crime than a violent crime. Also, drug offenders may serve much harsher punishments than violent offenders. Finally, you can't mention "get tough" without talking about the 100:1 ratio sentences for crack cocaine over powder cocaine, which has been called "an assault on the black community" because the vast majority of crack users are black. But the right will tell you that's just incidental. There are no racists in our party, they say.
There is one legitimate function of capital punishment. It gives closure (or the something like it) to the families of victims. Still... I don't see that as justification. Now we're getting into personal values. Is it right to execute someone (who, as christians will tell you) are going to hell anyway? What's the difference if you delay their arrival in hell until their inevitable deaths? Doesn't the bible also say that vengence is for God to decide? Aren't we playing God by killing people and sending them anywhere?
And here's a thought: what if you're wrong? Could you live with yourself? Wrongful execution is the reason Illinois pulled their death penalty, so don't tell me that never happens.
I'll never understand someone who applauds at an execution. I'll never understand someone who enjoys homicide or looks forward to the opportunity to get vengence. But that's just my opinion.
What's yours?
In 1995, twice as many people left death row as were executed. This means they either died of natural causes, received reduced sentences, or were pardoned altogether.
In 2000, Illinois pulled its death penalty because too many people on death row were found to be possibly innocent because of DNA evidence and new information regarding their trials.
Capital punishment as crime control requires swift and certain execution (pun not intended--sorry, Ted) of sentences. Potential criminals (meaning everybody) must know that if they commit a capital crime, then they WILL be convicted and they WILL be executed and they both events will happen very soon. I'm not making this up myself; a doctor at the Criminology school told me. So, capital punishment, despite what politicians and conservatives will tell you, offers no tangible deterrent effect to potential criminals. Doctor Hay, who taught a class I took last summer, told me, "it's very hard to get social scientists to agree on anything, but they all agree on this."
After deterrence, there's the incapacitation aspect of corrections. We have capital punishment because, after they've been executed, offenders can't kill again. While that's true, it's no different than life in prison. Escapes are very, very, VERY rare, and successful escapes virtually never happen. Also, it costs more money to the state to keep a guy on Death Row for ten years than it does to keep them in prison for life because of appeals. It bogs down the courts and drains money from the state corrections budget. So, yeah, if you just sentence them to life and keep them in there, from a crime control perspective, it's just as good and costs much less.
That leaves the morality issue for last. I'm about to say some rude things about the bible.
People want murderers to pay for what they did. Most death penalty advocates are right-wingers, and the core of the right wing is fiercely christian. This has always stumped me. One of the ten commandments says, "Thou shalt not kill." Okay, that's fine by me. Then later, the bible says that you can take your insubordinate son or daughter out into public and have them stoned to death by the community. It also says that the penalty for working on the sabbath is death. Same thing for touching the skin of a dead pig. So..... it's more like, "Thou shalt not kill*" and then you look at the bottom of the page for the other asterisk and you'll see that there's a list of the numerous exceptions. I think we should remove the asterisk, but that's just me.
The "get tough" policies of the eighties did about as much to stop violent crime as the D.A.R.E. program did to curb drug use. Most of the "get tough" legislation targeted drug crimes, not violent crimes. The result is that you're more likely to go to prison for a drug crime than a violent crime. Also, drug offenders may serve much harsher punishments than violent offenders. Finally, you can't mention "get tough" without talking about the 100:1 ratio sentences for crack cocaine over powder cocaine, which has been called "an assault on the black community" because the vast majority of crack users are black. But the right will tell you that's just incidental. There are no racists in our party, they say.
There is one legitimate function of capital punishment. It gives closure (or the something like it) to the families of victims. Still... I don't see that as justification. Now we're getting into personal values. Is it right to execute someone (who, as christians will tell you) are going to hell anyway? What's the difference if you delay their arrival in hell until their inevitable deaths? Doesn't the bible also say that vengence is for God to decide? Aren't we playing God by killing people and sending them anywhere?
And here's a thought: what if you're wrong? Could you live with yourself? Wrongful execution is the reason Illinois pulled their death penalty, so don't tell me that never happens.
I'll never understand someone who applauds at an execution. I'll never understand someone who enjoys homicide or looks forward to the opportunity to get vengence. But that's just my opinion.
What's yours?