Facts About the Death Penalty I am all for the continued use of the death penalty within the criminal justice system. I just don't approve of the way it is currently being utilized. I found some great information at the Death Penalty Information Center and choose to share some of that with you adding a few comments.

As of: November 12, 2004
STATES WITH THE DEATH PENALTY (38^)
Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, New Hampshire*, Oregon, Virginia,
Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey*, Pennsylvania, Washington,
Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina, Wyoming,
California, Illinois, Missouri, New York* ^, South Dakota*,
Colorado, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, Tennessee,
Connecticut*, Kansas*, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas,
Delaware, Kentucky, Nevada, Oklahoma, Utah, U.S. Military*

*Indicates jurisdictions with no executions since 1976.
^ New York's death penalty statute was declared unconstitutional on June 24, 2004.

STATES WITHOUT THE DEATH PENALTY (12)
Alaska, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont,
Hawaii, Massachusetts, North Dakota, West Virginia,
Iowa, Michigan, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, District of Columbia

Why isn't it used across the board? This should be available in every state. Somebody commits a heinous crime in Texas is going to be put to death, where same crime in Iowa will result in a lifetime in the gray bar hotel. Just doesn't make sense. Crimes worthy of the death penalty, regardless of where committed, should adhere to the same punishment.




DEATH ROW INMATES BY STATE*
California 635
South Carolina 73
Washington 11
Texas 457
Mississippi 69
Maryland 10
Florida 382
Missouri 57
Utah 10
Pennsylvania 233
Arkansas 40
Connecticut 8
Ohio 210
Indiana 38
Kansas 7
North Carolina 203
Kentucky 36
U.S. Military 7
Alabama 199
Nebraska 7
Arizona 130
Oregon 31
Montana 4
Georgia 117
Virginia 26
South Dakota 4
Tennessee 106
Delaware 20
Colorado 3
Oklahoma 100
Idaho 20
New York 3
Louisiana 92
New Jersey 15
New Mexico 2
Nevada 87
Illinois 11
Wyoming 2

TOTAL: 3,490*
Source: NAACP LDF Death Row, U.S.A. (7/1/04) (includes cases with temporary reversals)
*When added, state totals are slightly higher because some inmates are sentenced in more than one state.


One of the arguments that I hear from people opposed to the death penalty is that there are a large number of people accused and incarcerated wrongly, and we shouldn't take the chance of killing an innocent person.

• Since 1973, over 100 people
have been released from death
row with evidence of their
innocence. (Staff Report, House
Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil
& Constitutional Rights, Oct.
1993, with updates from DPIC).

So, in 30 years, only about 100 people have been released from death row due to being found innocent. Only 100. Considering there are currently about 3,500 people waiting to die at the state level, had these 100 inmates not been released, it would have meant 100 dead "innocent" people. 100 doesn't sound like a bad error rate to me. Any chef will tell you, if you want to make an omelet, you'll have to break some eggs.

FINANCIAL FACTS ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY
• The state of Kansas reviewed its death penalty expenses and found that capital cases are 70% more expensive than
comparable non-capital cases, including incarceration. (Kansas Performance Audit Report, December 2003)
• A study by Indiana's Criminal Law Study Commission found that the total costs of the death penalty exceed the
complete costs of life without parole sentences by about 38%, assuming that 20% of death sentences are overturned
and resentenced to life. (Indiana Criminal Law Study Commission, January 10, 2002)
• The most comprehensive study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per
execution over the costs of a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of imprisonment for life. The majority of
those costs occur at the trial level. (Duke University, May, 1993).
• Enforcing the death penalty costs Florida $51 million a year above and beyond what it would cost to punish all
first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole. Based on the 44 executions Florida has carried out since
1976, that amounts to a cost of $24 million for each execution. (Palm Beach Post, January 4, 2000)
• In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in
a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. (Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992).
• The death penalty costs California $90 million annually beyond the ordinary costs of the justice system-$78 million of
that total is incurred at the trial level. (Sacramento Bee, March 28, 1988).

But I haven't been able to find out WHY it's so much more expensive to kill a convicted felon rather than have them sit on our tax dollars for 30 years+, living out a life sentence? I mean, how much does a bullet cost? How much is a length of rope long enough to hang a man? Let's assume that your average everyday bullet costs one dollar. Shit, I'd be willing to pony up the $3,500 just to take out the inmates currently sitting on death row across the nation.

EXECUTIONS SINCE 1976 BY METHOD USED*
*some states authorize more than one method
775 Lethal Injection (37 states, plus the U.S. Government and Military)
152 Electrocution (8 states; sole method in 1 state (Nebraska))
11 Gas Chamber (5 states; all have lethal injection as an alternative method)
3 Hanging (2 states; all have lethal injection as an alternative method)
2 Firing Squad (3 states; all have lethal injection as an alternative method)

I say that we keep the firing squads and the noose. Get rid of the gas chamber (not painful enough). Get rid of lethal injection (sure, wipe his arm with an alcohol swab before injecting him. wouldn't want him to get an infection before he dies!). Get rid of Ol' Sparky (this might be where the expense of killing someone comes in). Or start bringing back the more grisly methods of death: drawn and quartered, or maybe impaled on a giant spike.

DETERRENCE AND THE DEATH PENALTY
•According to a survey of the former and present
presidents of the country's top academic criminological
societies, 84% of these experts rejected the
notion that the death penalty acts as a
deterrent to murder. (Radelet & Akers, 1996)

Of course it's not a deterrent. Not every state utilizes the death penalty, so there's no consistency, therefore it does not deter. Every instance of the death penalty being invoked does not always conclude with the death of the person for which it was invoked, so there's no consistency, therefore it does not deter. The punishment does not always fit the crime. A man accused of multiple murders can only be killed once. Definitely not "an eye for an eye" in that case. Not only can we not kill the man repeatedly, but we're going to do it in a humane way. HUMANE?!? Was his act of death to multiple persons humane? NO! But we don't want to violate his civil rights and beat him to death with a brick, now do we?

Easy answer to the question of whether the death penalty can be used as a deterrent to violent crime: YES! But how we use it will necessitate change. 1) when the death sentence is handed out by a jury, it must come full circle. The person must ACTUALLY die! 2) timeliness. no 30 year waiting period on death row, taking up more resources to house, clothe, medicate, wash, etc. Once the verdict is handed out, you've got 1 year to work on appeals, proving your innocence, etc. After the 1 year period, if there are no changes, kill 'em. 3) publicize it. make execution a spectator sport again. The more people that see it and are aware of why it is being used, the less people you will have attempting to do what the guy that is getting killed did.

To sum up: Death Penalty = A Good Thing.
If we can only follow my suggestions, we can eliminate what has been reported to be an outrageous amount of money to kill someone. Hell, if money were the issue, there wouldn't be any murder in the first place for someone to be convicted of the death penalty. The guilty party wouldn't be able to afford it!




  ¶ 3:45 PM