Death penalty debate may never end despite incontrovertible cons

About 2000 men, women, and teenagers currently wait on America’s “death row,” and The National Academy of Sciences determined that at least 4% of people on death row are innocent. Their time grows shorter as federal and state courts increasingly ratify death penalty laws, allowing executions to proceed at an accelerated rate. It is unlikely that any of these executions will make the front page, having become more or less a matter of routine in the last decade. Indeed, recent public opinion polls show a wide margin of support for the death penalty. However, human rights advocates and civil libertarians continue to decry the immorality of state-sanctioned killing in the United States, the only western industrialized country that continues to use the death penalty. This death penalty issue is the subject of perennial debate, and Airport High School students are among those who debate the issue. Is capital punishment moral? The answer is hard if not impossible to ascertain although it does appear as though the cons outweigh the pros.

The death penalty system in the U.S. is applied in an unfair and unjust manner against those accused and convicted. Their fate is largely dependent on how much money the defendant has, the skill of their attorneys, the race of the victim, and where the crime took place. People of color are also far more likely to be executed than their peers, especially if the victim is white. Studies have consistently found racial disparities at nearly every stage of the capital punishment process, from policing and charging practices, to jury selection, to jury verdicts, to which cases result in executions. According to DeathPenaltyInfo.org, nationwide, the murder-victimization rate for African Americans is significantly higher than for whites. DeathPenaltyinfo.org states that in the twentieth century, when it was applied for the crime of rape, 89% of the executions involved black defendants, most for the rape of a white woman. In the modern era, when executions have been carried out exclusively for murder, 75% of the cases involve the murder of white victims, even though blacks and whites are about equally likely to be victims of murder. Not only is there discrimination between races, the bias between sexes is clear. In cases where the victim was a woman, the death sentence rate was 10.9%, seven times the rate compared to when men were victims (1.5%). Unfortunately, the sentencing for the death penalty will never be ‘fair’ or ‘equal’ across the board but if the country continues with this practice, the gap between percentages needs to close.

The death penalty is statistically a waste of taxpayer funds and has no public safety benefit. The vast majority of law enforcement professionals surveyed agree that capital punishment does not deter violent crime. Some police chiefs nationwide even ranked the death penalty lowest among ways to reduce violent crime. They ranked increasing the number of police officers, reducing drug abuse, and creating a better economy with more jobs and better pay higher than capital punishment. According to ACLU.org, the FBI has found that states that practice the death penalty have the highest murder rates. Deathpenaltyinfo.org included another statistic, that nearly 78% of those surveyed said that having the death penalty in a state does not lower the murder rate. In addition, 91% of respondents said politicians support the death penalty in order to appear tough on crime – and 75% said that it distracts legislatures on the state and national level from focusing on real solutions to crime problems. Overall, 94% agreed that there was little emperical evidence to support the deterrent effect of the death penalty. And 90% said the death penalty had little effect overall on the committing of murder. Additionally, 91.6% said that increasing the frequency of executions would not add a deterrent effect, and 87.6% said that speeding up executions would not work either. So there are many opinions for both sides, many are ethics while others are screaming ‘they did the crime, they got the consequence.’ The lack of evidence that the death penalty works should concern the people and stop the practice. If it has not shown positive evidence after nearly 100 years, it should not be used any longer. Taking a person's life is not a ‘consequence,’ it is a crime.

Innocent people are too often sentenced to death. Since 1973, over 186 people have been released from death row in 26 states because of innocence. Nationally, at least one person is exonerated for every 10 that are executed. That number is way too high and should make everyone uncomfortable. Four point one percent of people currently on death row are likely to be innocent according to the National Academy of Sciences. Situations like the Central Park Five, solidify the argument. The media and public wanted to put those five innocent, very young boys on death row for a crime they did not commit. America is doing a great injustice to the young in this country. With the lack of accuracy and bigotry in the justice system, the innocent are being punished.

Many people out there purely believe in the death penalty because it cost less than life in prison. As a society, life in prison should not be normalized, nor should killing a person because it costs less. Another popular argument is that it is ‘justice’ or ‘revenge’ or the victim of the crime's family. Suddenly, murder is okay to justify anothers pain. On top of that, what about the defendant's family? While yes, this person, most likely, committed a horrendous crime, their family did not. So now, as a way to ‘heal’ the pain of some, the system is putting pain on others.

“The death penalty is murder,” stated by one of Airport Highs seniors. She strongly was opposed to capital punishment. While she understood why it seems like a good idea, the statistics and evidence is not showing that. She said that the death penalty is just as much murder as it is on the streets. An Airport High junior had the opposite opinion. He stated that “people who take others' lives and cause permanent trauma on others, should not have a life.” He also added that anyone who hurts an innocent child, sexually or otherwise, should be executed. Both sides were passionate about their views and arguments.

The National Academy of Sciences determined that at least 4% of people on death row are innocent. Their fate is largely dependent on how much money the defendant has, the skill of their attorneys, the race of the victim, and where the crime took place. The vast majority of law enforcement professionals surveyed agree that capital punishment does not deter violent crime. Some police chiefs nationwide even ranked the death penalty lowest among ways to reduce violent crime. Overall, 94% agreed that there was little empirical evidence to support the deterrent effect of the death penalty. And 90% said the death penalty had little effect overall on the committing of murder. Innocent people are too often sentenced to death. Since 1973, over 186 people have been released from death row in 26 states because of innocence. These are the facts. Society is way too comfortable with applying power where it is unnecessary.