Death Penalty Paper Rough Draft

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ENGL P050 CRN 32356
Professor Jacinto Gardea
27 April 2011

"Capital Punishment: A Blemish on the Face of Justice"

(Intro)
"Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life," writes activist and civil rights leader Coretta Scott King. Yet to this day we continue to carry out death sentences. I strongly feel that the death penalty needs to be abolished from the United States because it is costly, ineffective, and outdated. According to the online newspaper The Guardian, the United States has executed approximately 1,156 people in the time period of 1976 to April 2009. Do not forget to include the 107 people executed from 2009 up until January 2011. In fact, the United States executes a death row convict approximately every 3.5 days (“Is the Penalty” par.4). We, as humans, are prone to make mistakes, and this punishment system is capable of leaving irreversible results, so the two should not be intertwined. Many people have been executed either because they were in the minority or because they lacked the appropriate funds to pay for adequate representation in the courts. The Death Penalty Information Center explains that since 1976 there have been eight cases which reveal that the prosecuted persons were innocent after they were executed. That is eight innocent lives among other miscarriages of justice that have been meaninglessly lost due to this unnecessary penalty. In addition, several studies show that that the death penalty does not deter, prevent, or reduce crime. Also, there are many circumstances which determine who gets the death penalty and who does not. So why continue to pretend that all the wicked will be punished? Even if we did choose to go through all these processes to make sure that the prisoner was one hundred percent guilty, it would bombard our taxpayers with a ridiculous amount of money to pay for the court costs and appeals. So why does the United States continue to waste millions and millions of dollars on this obsolete system? All of the money funding this legalized murder should be put into services that are actually beneficial such as abuse prevention programs, drug treatment programs, education, and public safety programs. Former Los Angeles district attorney Gil Garcetti declares in a Los Angeles Times article:
The money would be far better spent keeping kids in school, keeping teachers and counselors in their schools and giving the juvenile justice system the resources it needs. Spending our tax dollars on actually preventing crimes, instead of pursuing death sentences after [they have] already been committed, will assure us we will have fewer victims. (“New Voices” par.1)

(Body 1. Cruel and Unusual)
Not only is capital punishment ineffective but its methods are also subject to cruel and unusual punishment. Pro death penalty advocates will argue that capital punishment is not cruel and unusual punishment but a humane way to murder someone. The Eighth Amendment to the 1787 U.S. Constitution declares that "excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed or cruel and unusual punishments inflicted" (Wikipedia). Someone who has not committed a murder cannot be sentenced to death because they did not kill another human; the punishment has to fit the crime and it must be neither cruel nor unusual. WordNet defines cruel and unusual punishment as punishment prohibited by the 8th amendment to the U.S. Constitution; this includes torture, degradation, or punishment too severe for the crime committed. Some capital crime punishments are electrocution, firing squad, gas chamber, hanging, and lethal injection. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia still use electrocution. Sometimes during electrocution, the prisoner's eyeballs pop out and rest on their cheek. Often times prisoners defecate, drool, urinate, or vomit blood. As the temperature rises, the body swells and turns red while the skin stretches. After the execution, the autopsy is postponed until the body is cooled down because the inmate's body is hot enough to blister if touched. Oklahoma and Utah are the only states that use firing squad. During firing squad, the inmate is tightly bound to a chair, strapped from head to ankles, and has a black hood covering their head. A medical doctor then locates the person's heart and pins a target over it. Five shooters, sometimes marksmen, armed with .30 caliber rifles line up about 20 feet away. Only one of the five shooters is given blank rounds. All shooters aim at the inmate's indicated heart and then fire. The person dies as a result of blood loss or the ripping of the lungs. If the shooters miss, accidentally or intentionality, the inmate could bleed to death slowly. The gas chamber is still legal in Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, and Wyoming. During execution, the person is deprived of oxygen to the brain which feels almost like a heart attack. Hanging, which is still legal in Washington and New Hampshire, can also lead to a slowly occurring death as a result of asphyxiation, or restriction of air to the brain, if it is administered incorrectly. By far the most used method of execution is lethal injection which is legal in 34 states. In the article “Study Indicates Lethal Injections May Cause Pain, Suffering” published in 2005 by The Seattle Times newspaper it explains, "An examination of 49 autopsies found that in 43 cases, the concentration of anesthetic in the bloodstream was less than what is required to numb a surgical patient before making an incision” (par.2) In 21 of those cases, the concentration was not sufficient enough to prevent a patient from responding to a spoken demand. Therefore, the prisoners were still in a state of awareness because the drug levels administered were lower than required (par.3). An example would the case of Angel Nieves Diaz's, who was executed on December 13, 2006 via lethal injection. The workers incorrectly injected the poisons, which were carried by needles, into Diaz. The chemicals surged not into his veins as intended, but into his soft tissue. When a second set of needles was inserted Diaz began to struggle in agony for over 30 minutes. After the execution, examiners found chemical burns which measured twelve inches deep inside both of Diaz's arms (“5 Reasons” par.22). The result of this misconstrued execution was an executive order led by death penalty supporter and ex-governor of Florida Jeb Bush to halt all executions in the state (par.21). Before his execution, Diaz left a final statement which said, "The death penalty is not only a form of vengeance, but also a cowardly act by humans" (Wikipedia).

(Body 2. Retributive Justice)
Capital punishment is retributive justice; therefore, it cannot stop the vicious cycle of violence. Retribution is defined as the act of punishing or taking vengeance for wrongdoing, sin, or injury. And like Angel Diaz said, capital punishment is fueled more by vengeance rather than by justice. Catholic archbishop of Washington Cardinal McCarrick writes, “The death penalty diminishes all of us, increases disrespect for human life, and offers the tragic illusion that we can teach that killing is wrong by killing [others]." In the article "Capital Punishment Exacerbates Violence," attorney and formal judge Robert Grant says, "Violence begets more violence" (Williams 123). Death penalty opponent Brian Evans points out that the 2008 FBI crime report shows that the number of death sentences and executions declined slightly as well as the murder rates in 2008. This has been an ongoing rate for a while now. Generally speaking, the Southern states contain the highest murder rates ("Homicide Rates" par.1). Consequently, states that do not use capital punishment usually have lower murder rates. "In fact all but one of the 14 states with no death penalty [...] had murder rates below the national rate of 5.4 per 100,000 [people]" ("Homicide Rates" par.2). Many criminologists agree that the death penalty does not pertain to solving this issue. According to The Death Penalty Information Center, a survey asked the country's most prestigious criminological associations if capital punishment executions reduced homicide rates. 5 percent agreed that the death penalty was effective. 7 percent of the criminologists had no opinion. However, 88 percent strongly rejected the idea that the death penalty resulted in lower homicide rates ("Facts About" 3). Although the death penalty tries to teach us not to kill, ultimately it is backwardly killing people, which could be sending off the wrong message. Regardless, violence is still prominent in almost every aspect of our culture: in music, movies, television shows, video games, literature, political attitudes, and abuse towards children, domestic partners, and prisoners. This past century has been the most violent in human history so it is no surprise why the death penalty still remains (Williams 124). Lawyer Clarence Darrow points out that states continue to execute victims not so much to protect society itself but to satisfy the people’s strong emotions of hatred and revenge (Williams 121). Murderers do deserve a punishment because they have violated other human beings’ fundamental right to live. However, there are other alternatives to punish the criminal. Life imprisonment with parole, life imprisonment without parole, and life without parole and restitution are all effective punishments in place of the death penalty.

(Body 3. Retributive vs. Restorative Justice)
When we support capital punishment we assume that the convicted criminals are unable to recover. Who is to say that all criminals are unable to be rehabilitated? Pro death penalty advocates argue that these murderers should die instead of clogging our already overcrowded prisons to house them, and they believe that all the wicked are unable to recover. Though, if our retributive justice system were replaced by a restorative justice system not only would costs go down but so would the amount of returning prisoners. The way the U.S. system currently works does not give enough focus on recuperating offenders. First of all, prisons should be reserved for those who commit truly heinous crimes, such as mass murders, homicide attempts, rape, and so on. However, the vast majority of prisoners in the U.S. were convicted on drug related crimes. According to One Day at a Time magazine, approximately 80 percent of America's prisoners committed crimes because they needed the money for drugs, violated alcohol or drug laws, were on drugs while committing the crime, have a history of drug abuse and addiction, or a few of these traits combined ("Overcrowded prisons" par.9). A 2008 report, conducted by PEW's Center on the States, found that in the beginning of 2008 the amount of adult inmates totaled to 2,319,258 and one in every 99.1 adults were incarceration on drug charges ("Overcrowded prisons" par.9). That means the United States holds the highest amount of incarcerated drug related felons in the world. While that is an amazing feat, approximately two out of three inmates end up back in prison years after being released on new charges or on violations. Metaphorically, our system is broken but not beyond repair. We must not hastily push the execution switch, but we must replace our current punitive, failed and costly system of mass incarceration with a more cost-effective criminal justice approach that is based on reconciliation, restoration, healing and rehabilitation ("Restorative Voice" par.1).

(Body 4. Comparison with other countries)
The United States is the last democratic industrialized nation that still practices capital punishment. According to some statistics from antideathpenalty.org, the U.S. ranks as the fifth highest nation with the most annual executions, executing 177 in 2010. Due to several circumstances, China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia have more executions than the United States. Amnesty International revealed that 37 nations got rid of the death penalty all together. Another 86 nations have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 73 nations still maintain the death penalty; however, the number of practicing nations is much smaller. On the other hand, the list of abolition nations is broad and impressive. The list of abolitionist nations includes Iceland, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Nicaragua, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. British newspaper The Guardian points out that since 1990, 40 countries have abolished capital punishment including Armenia, Canada, Cyprus, Greece, Mexico, Samoa, Senegal, and Serbia. The number of abolitionist countries is increasing, while the number of executing countries is decreasing as shown in recent data. The peak of executing countries in the last two decades was in 1995 with 41 countries each executing prisoners that year. In recent years, for example 2009, the number of executing countries has sharply declined. Only 19 countries executed prisoners in 2009 (Guardian par.2). That is 22 less executing countries in a little over ten years. Are other countries finally realizing that the death penalty conflicts with basic human rights?

(Body 5. Playing God)
Our government and state holds power over one mankind’s most basic rights, the right to live. Often times, capital punishment is impelled coldly on those who are deemed to die. However, no human being or government entity holds the rightful power to choose who will live and who will die—that power belongs solely to God. New York Times magazine published an article by Clyde Haberman titled "Playing God And Politics With Death" which explains how hastily the death penalty is assigned, especially since there is a possibility that the person is innocent. In one case, suspected murderer Scott Schneiderman was awaiting a decision from the jury to determine whether or not he was guilty. Next, New York district attorney Robert M. Morgenthau would decide if the death penalty should be implemented or not. Morgenthau was described as "personally discomforted" with the death penalty (Haberman par.4). After the grand jury had made their decision, the governor and mayor of New York instantly requested that Schneiderman be executed via lethal injection. "There is, too, a question of how the politicians could be so sure, so fast, that Mr. Schneiderman qualified for death despite having been caught on the spot" (par.7) They have to take account other factors. Does the felon suffer from a mental disorder? Were they intoxicated? Were they mentally stable? All of the questions must be answered critically before the penalty is selected, because capital punishment makes mistakes irreversible once carried out. New York district attorney Charles J. Hynes, who also personally opposes capital punishment agrees, "You're playing God" (par.16). These men are in a predicament because they have 120 days for each case to decide whether or not a person is worthy of living, in other words stepping past the boundaries of which humans are supposed to roam. In the article titled "Capital Punishment Cannot Be Justified" by sergeant of the Los Angeles police department Sunil Dutta she explains that one of God’s Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt not kill” technically cannot be taught to us by our state run executioners because it would ridicule the overall message (Williams 42). By inflicting the death penalty on one group while disregarding another, it becomes immoral and unjust.

(Body 6. Innocence)
The Death Penalty Information Center explains that since 1973, 138 people in 26 states have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence ("Innocence" par.2). Up until October 2010, Florida has exonerated 23, Oklahoma 10, Ohio 5, Mississippi 3, Kentucky 1, Illinois 20, North Carolina 7, New Mexico 4, South Carolina 2, Maryland 1, Texas 12, Pennsylvania 6, California 3, Indiana 2, Nebraska 1, Louisiana 8, Alabama 5, Massachusetts 3, Tennessee 2, Nevada 1, Arizona 8, Georgia 5, Missouri 3, Idaho 1, Virginia 1, and Washington 1. The average time spent on death row is approximately 11 years before inmates are finally executed. In comparison, the average amount of time spent in jail before exoneration is approximately 9.8 years. From 1973 until 1999 there was an average of 3.03 exonerations per year. From 2000 through 2007, there has been an average of 5 exonerations per year. In 17 cases, DNA had an important role in proving innocence. The importance of DNA testing is demonstrated in Kirk Bloodsworth's case. In the mid 1980's, Bloodsworth was charged for first degree murder, sexual assault, and rape against a nine year old girl. His sentence was death. Not until eight years after incarceration did they agree to DNA testing. By using both Polymerase chain reaction and DNA testing they concluded that Bloodsworth was not at fault. He became the first in history to be exonerated from death row by the means of DNA testing. Capital punishment should be abolished because it is a system that allows innocent people to die.

(Body 7. Comparing Costs)
At first glance, executing an inmate seems like the cheaper option rather than keeping them in jail for the rest of their life. In reality, the total cost of death penalty cases are almost four times higher than the cost of life imprisonment cases. The money funding capital punishment cases is taken from taxpayer's pockets, whether they support it or not, to pay for appeals, juries, and specialized attorneys. The article titled "The High Cost of the Death Penalty," written by Death Penalty Focus, it compares the annual costs of both life imprisonment without parole and capital punishment. According to a 2008 report from the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, it would cost an estimated $94,000 to house a death row inmate annually. The death row population was 670 in 2008, so that would total to up $63.3 million per year ("High Cost" par.6). However if we replaced the death penalty with life imprisonment the cost would decrease to $11.5 million per year, which is dramatically lower (par.10). The report titled "The Hidden Tax" written by ACLU of Northern California reveals that taxpayers pay "$117 million annually for trials before the sought execution of the inmates currently in death row; and it costs California approximately $4 billion more than if they would have just sentenced a criminal to die from disease, injury, or old age inside the prison. Capital Punishment trial costs can amount up to $10.9 million, and in times of economic peril that amount saved could save our sinking and fund-suffering states (par.12). We should move forward and focus on programs such as juvenile and youth crime prevention programs that can help prevent crimes. Revengefully killing the murderer does not and never will bring the victim back to live.

(Body 8. Conclusion)
Penalty of death has existed as long as man has; however, if we want to become a civilized society we must get rid of it in its entirety. For example, in the past, many people strongly opposed slavery because they saw through the few advantages and into the overall picture. They realized all people were born equal and they strove towards abolition, which was successfully achieved in 1865. A lot of people strongly opposed monarchy because they realized that a select few should not have the power to dictate everyday lives of the population. Abolition was reached in 1776 after several centuries. In modern times, the people of the United States debate whether or not capital punishment should be kept legal. In conclusion, the dozens of negatives outweigh the few benefits of the death penalty. The millions of dollars spent annually on excess appeals, the insufficient evidence that it is a reliable deterrent, and that mistakes made are irreversible are ultimately its fatal flaws. Is being quickly executed after a few years really worse than being imprisoned for a lifetime while haunting feelings and thoughts reoccur?

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