State Sanctioned Murder Essay, Research Paper

State Sanctioned Murder

Old Sparky and Gruesome Gertie (affectionate names for the electric chair) have taken the lives of many, even the innocent (Finnerty 18). They are prejudiced and lack compassion. However, many Americans believe that they represent justice. Capital punishment does not represent justice, but vengeance and hate. Among the 7,000 people estimated to have been killed in the United States between 1900 and 1985, at least 23 were innocent (Finnerty 18). In at least 8 of 261 executions performed since 1976, something went wrong; for example, the executioner couldn’t find a good vein, or the first jolt of electricity failed to do the trick (Finnerty 18). An innocent person, let alone 23 that were wrongfully executed might seem insignificant to one. Just for a moment think if that one person was your brother or father, and they were innocent! Would you then see that the American judicial system is imperfect, and that capital punishment should be abolished? Capital punishment is wrong and should be abolished because of its imperfections, high cost, and immoral existence.

Many people argue that we should keep practicing capital punishment because it would be a waste of money to sentence someone to life in prison. Facts show that it is more expensive to give someone the death sentence than life in prison. The cost of state execution is up to three times the cost of lifetime imprisonment (Dority 37). So many people are convinced that it is cheaper to practice capital punishment, but those people are not aware of the facts to be presented. If someone is interested in saving “tax payer’s dollars,” it is much cheaper to sentence someone to life in prison. The reason that life imprisonment is cheaper than the death penalty is due to the cost of appeals.

One might then argue that we should lower the number of appeals, or maybe we shouldn’t have any at all. They might argue that if someone does not prove their innocence in the first trial, then they are guilty. After all, we have a perfect judicial system, right? That is wrong! We do not have a perfect judicial system. According to a 1987 Stanford Law Review study, between 1900 and 1985 at least 23 innocent people were convicted and executed for crimes that they never committed (Dority 37). Barbara Dority said, “Until human judgment becomes infallible, this problem is reason enough to abolish the death penalty at the hands of a state more dedicated to vengeance than to truth and justice” (Dority 37). We are talking about 23 innocent lives that were taken away. What if one of those lives was your brother’s, father’s, mother’s, or even yours? Would you then change your opinion on capital punishment?

Apart from just ordinary people who are killed, capital punishment is practiced on those who are mentally retarded. In 1989 the Supreme Court upheld state executions of the mentally retarded, and since then at least four mentally retarded people have been killed. Also, at least 10 percent of death-row inmates in the United States are mentally retarded (Dority 37). We are choosing to kill people who don’t even fully comprehend what they did. These people should be in hospitals, but we are waiting for the first chance to ravage their bodies with jolts of electricity.

Capital punishment is very immoral. I do not see how anyone could be in favor of it and call themselves a human being. The government, which is supposed to be an example to society, is telling people not to kill otherwise their punishment will be death. This is so contradictory. People insist that we need strict laws to deter people from committing murder. In an article entitled “Not in My Name,” written by Barbara Dority, she concluded:

The death penalty is not an effective deterrent and, in fact, creates an atmosphere that encourages and fosters violence. Studies comparing homicide rates in death penalty states with those in other states show that the death penalty does not lower the murder rate. And the number of police, prison guards, and inmates killed is higher in death penalty states. We continue to have shockingly higher rates of murder than do Western European nations, none of which practice capital punishment (37).

The death penalty isn’t even an effective deterrent. The reason that people in America are so in favor of capital punishment is because they are not aware of the facts about it.

Along with being an ineffective deterrent the death penalty is racist. Black people make up only about 12 percent of the United States population, yet 40 percent of the prisoners awaiting execution are black (Monagle 13). In an article entitled “The Death Penalty,” written by Katie Monagle, she discovered:

In a landmark study on the application of the death penalty, University of Iowa professor David Baldus examined all capital cases in Georgia from 1973 to 1979. He found that even after controlling for all variables that affect sentencing, people convicted of killing whites were 4.3 times more likely to receive the death sentence than those convicted of killing blacks. When the defendant was black and the victim white, blacks were 22 times more likely to be sentenced to death (13).

Racism is not moral and neither is capital punishment. When we are presented with the facts we find it cheaper to send someone to prison for life than to sentence them to death (Dority 37). Facts show us that at least 23 people who were innocent have lost their lives by power of the death penalty (Dority 37). If we were to decrease the amount of appeals allowed the number of innocent people, who are unjustly executed, would only increase. The mentally retarded people on death row need to be given the proper medical treatment that they deserve, not death. Capital punishment is an ineffective deterrent that only demonstrates violence for society (Dority 37). We are teaching society that it is acceptable to kill. We are saying that revenge is justifiable. Racism is no stranger to capital punishment. The death penalty wants to save as many white people as it can, and kill as many black people as possible. Violence begets violence, and murder begets murder. The violent crimes that capital punishment attempts to control will only increase if we, the people, do not demand moral alternatives to state sanctioned murder.

Dority, Barbara. “Not in My Name.” The Humanist March/April 1993: 36-37.

Finnerty, Amy. “Sunday: Six Facts.” The New York Times Magazine 5 February 1995: 18.

Monagle, Katie. “The Death Penalty.” Update 4 September 1992: 13-15.