Lethal injection, hanging, firing squad, electrocution, gas chamber – all methods used in the United States in order to carry out 1,099 death sentences since 1976, the year capital punishment was reinstated. Only Iran and China outdo us when it comes to offing our own citizens. I’m not one to compare the United States with other countries; I don’t mind that we are lumped in this category with two countries known for human rights abuses. I actually believe our execution and prison rates are so high because of the excessive freedoms we enjoy, not a lack of them as you will find in Iran and China. Nevertheless, it’s time our justice system rids itself of capital punishment.
It’s not difficult to find reasons to eliminate the death penalty. I could tell you that since 1976 more than 120 people have been released from death row due to newly found evidence of their innocence; I could list the studies that reject the notion that capital punishment acts as a deterrence; I could name eight men who have been executed despite serious doubts about their guilt; I can’t imagine Jesus Christ supporting the death penalty; I could explain the under-representation that takes place in capital punishment cases (In Washington state 20 percent of those who faced execution in the past 20 years were represented by lawyers who had been, or were later, disbarred, suspended or arrested). These reasons have some merit, markedly the first and last, yet we still accept the death penalty.
What about the Eighth Amendment? It declares that no “cruel and unusual punishments” shall be inflicted. What is cruel and unusual? In 1972, while fundamentally declaring capital punishment unconstitutional Justice Brennan authored four principles for us to determine just that. The short version is: Punishment cannot be degrading to human dignity, cannot be arbitrary in fashion, cannot be patently unnecessary and it must be generally accepted throughout society. By declaring the death penalty to be arbitrary the Supreme Court thought it to be unconstitutional.
But the death penalty is still here. So what happened? In 1976 the Supreme Court held that capital punishment does not necessarily violate the Eighth Amendment. The court reasoned that if a “guided-discretion approach” were applied to capital punishment cases a death sentence could be carried out. Essentially, if states adequately addressed the problem of unfettered jury discretion they would be within constitutional boundaries to execute the convicted.
What the court won’t admit is that attempts to determine what is or is not arbitrary when reviewing capital punishment cases is futile. No two cases are the same; therefore, every death sentence will be based on different evidence of different events. Moreover, no two juries are the same, and they shouldn’t have to be; Vermonters are different from Texans. Because of these variables in a trial the court has no way of determining if something is arbitrary or simply a result of a unique aspect of the case.
The truth is: I don’t believe any of these arguments are tenacious enough to abolish capital punishment. What it really comes down to is money. Everything in most societies boils down to money, for better or worse. Capital punishment is no different. I oppose the death penalty only because, as a tax-payer, it costs me too much money. Cold enough for you?
State costs vary, but on average it costs 2.3 million to execute an individual. Why so high? When a death sentence is handed down appeals are automatically triggered. These appeals not only contribute to high costs, but a clogging of our judicial system as well. An average death row inmate is on death row for 15 to 20 years. This is a drain on our society.
The alternative to the death penalty is life in prison with no possibility of release. To keep an inmate in a Texas maximum security prison for 40 years costs $750,000, less than a third of the cost of executions. And these numbers don’t account for the freeing up of our court system.
None of this is to say I don’t care about justice or understanding our Constitution; I do. I just think that when discussing the death penalty it’s not necessary to debate these issues. We are a democratic society and as the United States Supreme Court has said, “Indeed, the decision that capital punishment may be the appropriate sanction in extreme cases is an expression of the community’s belief that certain crimes are themselves so grievous an affront to humanity that the only adequate response may be the penalty of death.” If our community concludes capital punishment is necessary I will support its decision; however, I believe solitary confinement-without-parole is an adequate punishment for any crime. Death isn’t always the worst thing that can happen.
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