Capital punishment is a form of punishment that dates back as far as the eighteenth century B.C. It is a form of punishment that is irreversible. The abolitionist movement to cease the use of capital punishment received a big push in 1767. Cesare Beccaria's essay, "On Crime and Punishment" explained why there was no justification for the state to take a life. Since its reinstatement back in the United States in 1977, there have been 1004 executions ("Capital Punishment 2004" 9; "Capital Punishment Statistics" Para. 1). Thirty-seven states and the federal government have capital punishment statutes. Besides being inhumane abolitionists see capital punishment as a politically fueled bias punishment. This report examines abolitionist views on race bias, deterrence effect, and cost.
Abolitionists believe an underground bias exists in our Criminal Justice system that makes a fair playing ground impossible in deciding who should receive the death penalty. Race has become an issue in who receives capital punishment. Amnesty International reported in 2003 that out of 845 death row inmates, between January 1977 and 10 April 2003, 53 percent were whites convicted of killing whites and 10 percent were blacks convicted of killing blacks (Amnesty International 2). Concerning interracial crimes, reports reveal bias in the outcome of a trial and the race of the victim. As of 21 September 2006, there have been 213 capital punishment convictions where the offender was black and the victim was white, while only fourteen cases have involved a white defendant and a black victim ("Race of Death Row" Para.3).In the latest “Death Row USA” report published by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (2008), it was reported that Texas, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania had the highest percentage of minorities among those who were sitting on death row. These percentages were 70%, 70%, and 69%, respectively, among states that had at least ten people on death row. These statistical differences imply that if the victim is white the chances of receiving the death penalty increase tremendously.
Though there are concerns regarding the issue of race in capital punishment trials, in recent history, the fact remains that more white men are sitting on death row or were executed than black men. In 2007, 56% of the 3,220 prisoners incarcerated and under the sentence of death were White males (Figure 1). Black males made up 42% of the population and the other 2% were American Indian, Asian, or of Unknown race. Of the 37 men who were executed in 2008, 20 were white and 17 were black. Since the death penalty was reinitiated in 1976 by order of the Supreme Court, white men have accounted more than half of the number of people under the sentence of death. Of the 3,149 people under the sentence of death in 2007, 1,804 of them were white and 1,345 were black. In addition to the blacks, other minorities are also present. At the end of 2007, fifty-six women were under sentence of death. Also, for inmates of a known ethnicity, 13% of the inmates under sentence of death at the end of 2007 were Hispanic (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009).
Figure 1. Race of Prisoners Under Sentence of Death
Deborah Fins from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) reports, as of 1 July 2006, the following statistics concerning the race of the victim in capital punishment cases: whites 79.35%, Black 13.91%, Latino 4.55%, Native American .32%, and Asian 1.69% (12). This is not an issue that has recently become a concern. Professor David Baldus examined 2500 homicide cases in Georgia, in the 1970's, and found that a person accused of killing a white person was 4.3 percent more likely to be sentenced to death ("Double Justice" Para. 6). In Maryland, criminologist Raymond Paternoster found that race of the victim played a large role in whether or not the prosecutor would seek the death penalty ("Death Penalty Injustice" Para. 2). In 2004 a Supreme Court justice wrote, "Even under the most sophisticated death penalty statutes, race continues to play a major role in determining who shall live and who shall die" (Fins 3). After hearing these words from one of the most honorable persons in our society, capital punishment needs to be re-evaluated, and should be unconstitutional until race bias is cleared.
Does capital punishment not act as a deterrent? Does it not threaten with an imposition of a penalty for the commission of an act considered wrong by society? What about segregation? Does capital punishment remove criminals from society so that they cannot repeat their offence or commit other offences against society? Doesn't capital punishment follow the above three objectives well? Most people would say it does. But then, of course, people who support the abolishment of capital punishment would ask about rehabilitation, the re-training of prisoners with an employable skill for use when they are released. Not only is it expensive to re-train and house criminals, but with some, it is just not possible, because they are hardened criminals and will not change. For those people, it is just not worth the effort and the taxpayers' money to even attempt to reform them. Also, another point to consider is that today prison terms are not enough. Many people are allowed out early on parole and/or remission resulting in criminals just serving one third of their prison terms and being released back into society. This type of quick release cannot adequately reattribute someone's death nor deter others strongly enough from repeating the same offence that the criminals already have. As you can see, capital punishment fulfils our society's "checklist" of what a punishment should do, especially the objective of retribution. Many people, who want capital punishment restored, have also clearly stated that without suitable punishments for crimes, justice will never truly be served to those that have suffered damages or losses. People will think less and less of the law and start resorting to "private law and order". This would not only create chaos but also raise the crime rate further with people running around on private vendettas. Even with these facts and arguments, the federal government refuses to restore the death penalty. So all we can do now is protest to the government, wait, and hope that it will not take a high crime rate and the loss of many innocent lives before they realize what a mistake they made in 1976 by totally abolishing capital punishment. ... A sinner may commit a hundred crimes and still live. - Ecclesiastes 9:11-12
Deterrence is one of the four different theories behind the effectiveness of punishment. As shown in Figure 2, the number of executions declined steadily until the death penalty was deemed unconstitutional in 1968. Following the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, the number of executions increased to a high of 98 in 1999, and since then has decreased in frequency. At the end of 2007, of the inmates who were under the sentence of death, and who had available criminal histories, there were some interesting statistics regarding prior convictions. Nearly 2 out of 3 inmates had prior felony convictions and one out of twelve had a prior homicide conviction. But this being said, the number of prisoners under sentence of death decreased for seven consecutive years as of 2007 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009).
For the most part deterrence does work, except in the matter of capital punishment. In 1977, Gary Gilmore demonstrated that capital punishment was a not a deterrent but a reward (Van Wormer 92). Gary Gilmore, moved from his home state of Oregon, which did not use capital punishment, and moved to Utah were capital offenses were punishable by a firing squad. He killed two random people, and then during his trial, requested the death penalty. During his final moments before being executed, Gary Gilmore's last words were, "let's do this" (Van Wormer 92). In 1992, a fifteen year old boy, who wanted to die and was too scared to do it himself, killed his friend in hopes of being executed by the state (Van Wormer 92). The fact that capital punishment was looked at as a reward means that people who are for the death penalty cannot legitimately argue that it deters crime. In September 2000, The New York Times released a survey that found in the last twenty years, the homicide rate in states that utilized the death penalty was 48 to 101 percent higher than states that did not have the death penalty (Fessenden Para. 2). This survey gives greater reason for the Criminal Justice system to reevaluate the idea of capital punishment as an effective deterrent to crime.
Figure 2. Executions from 1930 through 2008.
Source: Capital Punishment, 2007 -Statistical Tables, December 2008, NCJ-224528
The cost associated with executing a person is much higher than the cost of life imprisonment. In California, the average cost of eleven executions in the past twenty-seven years has been $250 million ("Price of Death" Para. 2). The average cost to house an inmate, in California, is $34,150 per year. The cost of the death penalty is so much because of the length of trials and the extra steps that occur in a capital punishment case ("Price of Death" Para. 2). Currently, New Jersey has ceased the death penalty, and has created a commission to investigate the cost of execution compared to life in prison as well as various other aspects of the death penalty (New Jersey Para 1). This information clearly shows that capital punishment is costing states tremendous amounts of money. Every industry in America, including the government, is always looking for ways to cut costs. Punishments for capital offenders should be no different. Concerning cost, if an offender is not executed, that person could provide a service for the state while serving their life sentence. If cost is more of a factor than severity of the crime in determining whether or not to seek the death penalty, states are punishing in a very unjust manner.
Capital punishment is a statistically verified biased system that has been proven to have no more a deterrent effect than life in prison. For a state to stop executions to measure cost demonstrates that capital punishment is not about punishing the wrong or sending a message to the public, it is about politics.On March 18, 2009, New Mexico became the third state in two years to abolish the death penalty. Governor Bill Richardson signed the bill that repealed the death penalty, saying “I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime.” (Death Penalty Information Center 2009) If a state truly believed in capital punishment, cost would not be enough to halt the entire process. As stated above, capital punishment is a politically fueled biased system. Capital offenders should not be used as pawns in a person's or states political agenda. With discrepancies such as race bias, no deterrence effect, and cost, capital punishment should be abolished.
References Page
Amnesty International. Death by Discrimination: The Continuing Role of Race in Capital Cases. N.P. Amnesty International, 2003.
Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice
Programs. Capital Punishment Statistics. Retrieved March 15, 2009 from
Fessenden, Ford. "Deadly Statistics: A Survey of Crime and Punishment" New York Times 22 Sept. 2000: A23.
Fins, Deborah. "Death Row U.S.A.: Summer 2006." Criminal Justice Project. N.P. NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
"Double Justice: Race and the Death Penalty." Northern IllinoisUniversity. 14 Oct 2006.
"Death Penalty Injustice." The Washington Post 8 Jan. 2003: ProQuest Newspapers. West ChesterU. Lib. 14 Oct 2006.
"Price of Death Penalty Has Many Questioning the Punishment." Lodi News-Sentinel 11 Mar. 2006: 36.
New Jersey. New Jersey Legislature. "Death Penalty Study." New Jersey Legislature. 2006. 14 Oct. 2006.
"Race of Death Row Inmates Executed Since 1976." Death Penalty Information Web Site. 14 Oct 2006.
United States. Dept. of Justice. "Bureau of Justice Statistics: Capital Punishment Statistics." Dept. of Justice. 2006. 14 Oct. 2006.
---. Dept. of Justice. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Capital Punishment, 2004. Doc. NCJ 211349. Washington: GPO, 2005.
Van Wormer, Katherine. "Those Who Seek Execution: Capital Punishment as a form of suicide." USA Today Magazine 123.2598 (1995): 92. Academic Search Premier. 15 Oct. 2006.