Life in Prison or the Death Penalty My Opinion of Capital Punishment

Life or Death: My opinion of Capital Punishment.

November 21, 2003... 3:24 p.m... Life or Death: My opinion of the death penalty.

John Allen Muhammad Sentenced to DeathThe Washington Sniper, John Allen Muhammad will have to wait through the weekend to see if his shootings around suburban Washington D.C. gets him a proverbial noose.  I'm predicting he will get life in prison.  The jury is still deliberating, and unsure whether they can come to a verdict.  The way Virginia law reads, if the jury can't decide, the default sentence is life.  The jury must come to unanimous decision for the death penalty.

There was talk about shipping him off to stand trial in Alabama first, because Alabama is more likely to return a death penalty.  If he'd only shot 1 or 2 in Virginia, maybe, but 11 shot means some district attorney runs for governor after the conviction.

Generally I'm against the death penalty.  I'm not against killing off the most violent members of society; I'm not against eye-for-an-eye revenge.  But, the death penalty isn't effective at all.  None of the arguments for the death penalty work.  Here's all the common reasons proponents of the death penalty come up with, and my take on why they are completely bogus.

  1. The death penalty deters crime... wrong, it only deters crime in places where it's carried out quickly and absolutely.  In some countries if you are convicted of murder, you are taken outside and executed publicly, usually within 24 hours.  Americans would never stand for this, so that eliminates the first argument.

  2. I don't want my tax dollars paying to keep criminals alive... unfortunately, it costs dramatically more to kill those same criminals.  The typical death penalty conviction must go through several levels of appeal.  All these appeals must be heard by the courts in virtually every case.  Attorneys are paid dramatically more than prison guards.  One prison guard is responsible for several prisoners, where one prisoner on death row typically employs several attorneys and legal staff for many years, all while still using your tax dollars in prison.  Life sentences are rarely appealed.  The typical life span in prison is about two dozen years, many of the most violent prisoners get murdered in prison, often as a prowess maneuver within the convict population.

  3. Sometimes people convicted of life sentences get paroled after many years... this is true.  Unfortunately, it doesn't make much difference.  Ask people who have been convicted of a life sentence if they've truly lost their life.  They enter jail at 21 and leave at 55, and an old 55.  Many die shortly after, and few ever transition completely into anything that resembles life.  If you are sent away for life, they bleed the life out of you, then might release you.  Virtually all habitual criminals are between 18 and 25.  If you keep most criminals in jail until after their 25th birthday, the chances of repeat offenses drop dramatically.  By the time a life sentence murderer gets released, the chances of him committing violent crime are virtually nil.

  4. It's Democracy at work, if we vote death penalty legislation, then a jury votes for death, it's the people speaking... unfortunately, it is democracy at work, only not the democracy Thomas Jefferson envisioned.  It's the politics of democracy.  Governors push the death penalty to get elected, District attorneys push it to get elected, judges get elected, prison wardens get more budget money, newspapers sell more copies, local TV reporters get noticed by networks, high priced defense lawyers get more press, and professional protesters raise more money.  In my opinion is the necessary evils of politics are at their worst when a death penalty case is being decided.

  5. After guilt beyond reasonable doubt, and many appeals, they must deserve death... look at death row, three things determine if you receive the death penalty and it's carried out.  You are either poor, mentally retarded, or dark skinned.  If you are all three, you'll likely be executed even more quickly.  I would agree with this reasoning, if it were fair.  The reason that the poor, retarded, non-whites were found guilty and lost every appeal is that people dislike them more than wealthy, intelligent, Caucasians.  Granted socially and economically depressed people and mentally retarded people stand a bigger chance of committing crime, they stand an overwhelming chance of being convicted of those crimes.  This is particularly true in our most violent crimes.  Most murders are committed by whites against people they once loved.  With the exception of psychotic serial killers, these are also the most likely to commit multiple murders.  Yet most of the people on death row are people who committed murder where the murderer is economically depressed and involved in crimes such as robbery or drug dealing, and commit murder, often by accident, during commission of these crimes.  Much of the time the death row population are dark skinned people who committed crime against light skinned people.  Until the ratio of white murderers is equal to the ratio of white people on death row, you won't convince me that anyone on death row deserves death exclusively for their crime.  

Furthermore, as new DNA analyzing technology becomes available, it's frightening to see the numbers of crimes overturned.  Generally I think our system is good, fair and just.  However, imperfect.  Until it's perfect, we need to eliminate capital punishment.

Disagree?? Good, give us your .  Just don't email me and tell me I'm an idiot.  Prove I'm an idiot beyond a reasonable doubt!  Tell me why I'm wrong about capital punishment or one of the five points above, or offer a sixth point, but support it.

Wrongly convicted,

SunFyre

UPDATE:  Apparently the 12 good Virginians disagreed with me.  A day or two after I wrote this, they sentenced John Allen Muhammad to death.  Apparently they felt the Washington Sniper and his home grown brand of terrorism was more than inexcusable, it deserved vengeance.

Readers Respond

February 12, 2004

Just a quick statement on the death penalty, which with some changes I think would be much more acceptable. I believe that I read 18% to 42% (depending on which study you read and how they present their facts) of released murders commit another murder. I can GUARANTEE you that if properly and fairly tried, convicted and punished by death; those people would not commit another murder. That should make it a no brainer for anyone, but remember I said properly and fairly tried and convicted.

Patrick H.
Minneapolis

PS.  I really enjoy your commentary.  Don’t always agree with it, but it is thought provoking.

Patrick,

Thanks so much for your comments.  I like it when people agree with me, and like it even more when people disagree with me.  I'm of the belief that healthy constructive debate guides us toward truth.  Whether you are a scientist, a theologian, a philosopher or just someone trying to make their way in the world, truth tends to be a principal goal.

I'm not sure if this got across on my website.  I am not anti-death penalty.  I am anti-broken-death-penalty, and I currently believe the system is broken.

I agree that if the death penalty either removed murderers, rapists, and child molesters from society permanently, it would have value, particularly if these individuals are highly likely to continue to be a threat.  Currently, it seldom does that. of the thousands of violent crimes committed yearly, very few executions occur, and these are incredibly expensive the state and painful for everyone involved, including the victim's family.

I also would see the death penalty as valuable if it was an effective deterrent to crime.  If you knew you were guaranteed execution for murder, rape or child molestation, you'd think twice.  Now, you are only guaranteed execution if you are caught, convicted, and lose several appeals over a long period of time, perhaps decades.  Often these individuals die in prison before execution.  For these heinous criminals often have trouble seeing tomorrow clearly, a penalty that is ten years away is uncomprehendable.

With these two values lost, I don't see the  Benefit.

You're point is strong that if "properly and fairly tried and convicted" there would be at the very least the ability to remove some of the worst criminals from society.  Unfortunately, the definition of "properly and fairly" is muddy.  We developed a justice system in the late 1700s that to this day is one of the best in the world.  It's about as fair as possible, but every decade we see more imperfections.  DNA evidence has given us virtually indisputable evidence, but it has also shown that we've been wrong many times before.

A couple other interesting things I've learned about capital punishment.

Some cultures, particularly Arabic cultures, see the death penalty as a tool for peace.  They are less concerned about wrongly convicted someone and more concerned about prevention.  In these countries executions are frequent and almost guaranteed for certain crimes.  Because of this, violent crimes are virtually extinct.  Unfortunately, the price is that innocent men and women are occasionally convicted and executed.

In some cultures, the family makes the decision rather than the courts.  In the U.S. we have degrees of murder.  In other countries, the judges or juries decide guilt or innocence, and the victim or victim's family decides sentence.  They sometimes get the choice of the death penalty, prison, or full pardon.  In a sense, this is also a deterrent, perhaps even more-so than guaranteed death.  Many people who are willing to murder are also willing to die.  But if they are unsure where they will end up, that uncertainty is a deterrent.

Thanks again, Patrick, for your email.

You said "I really enjoy your commentary.  Don’t always agree with it, but it is thought provoking." and I put this among my greatest compliments from a reader.  You obviously get the meaning behind SunFyre.  Thank you.

Sincerely, SunFyre

March 22, 2004

Just for the record i have no opinion either way on the use of the death penalty. i just thought i would let you know that some of your facts are far from true.

Number 1 is true.

But Number 2 is not. This was thought to be true in the past when they expected people not to live as long as they live today. This is true in high profile crimes but in most cases life without parole is more expensive.

Number 3 this is true but has been fixed today with life without parole. We can thank the good old Supreme Court for Furman v. Georgia for allowing all death row inmates to receive life and come up for parole in 1972.

Number 5 you can think all you want that it is a racist system but it can be proven that it is racist against whites. Blacks make up 42% of the population on death row, 12% of the general population but they commit 51% of the murders in our society. That shows statistically that whites are much more likely to get death than a black man is.

Pete S.

Thanks, Pete for your information.  I would like to see real numbers about No. 2.  You suggested that with longer life expectancy today that life without parole is far more expensive than the death penalty.  My hesitation here is, does the life expectancy of a typical inmate mirror the population at large?  AIDS is a crisis in many maximum security prisons.  That, along with poor health in general may actually shorten the lifespan of inmates compared to, say, the '80s.  I'm not saying you're wrong, I'd just like to see statistics.

Your point about No. 5 is well taken.  Perhaps the problem isn't that we have conditions that allow too many African Americans to be executed, maybe the problems leading African Americans to murder more frequently per capita need to be addressed first.  Again, I'd like to see the statistics.  I'm a little skeptical, simply because your commentary didn't include any information about Latino Americans.  I'd also like to know if your statistic includes only jury convictions or also plea agreements.  I heard one comment that suggested that African Americans are less likely to plea bargain, and more likely to receive public defenders.  Again, you aren't wrong, I'd just like to see the numbers.

If you, or any SunFyre reader, have any documentation of statistics, I'd love to publish them here.

My best, SunFyre

June 20, 2004 Update

I decided to investigate a little further.  As I was updating this page.  I found a few of the statistics I was craving about race and capital punishment as well as the monetary costs of capital cases versus the costs of life without parole.  Here's a little of what I found, mostly thanks to the Death Penalty Information Center.

First, some financial data:

  • A 2003 study in Kansas determined that capital cases cost the state 70% more per case than comparable non-capital cases, including incarceration.

  • A 2002 study in Indiana found that it was 38% more expensive for capital cases including incarceration, and 20% of death sentences were later resentenced to life.

  • A comprehensive 1993 Duke University study found that a typical capital case cost the state $2.13 million dollars more than a typical non-death penalty murder case.

  • A 2000 report of every execution in Florida after 1976 found that Florida spends $51 million additional dollars per year on death penalty cases compared to first-degree murder cases with life without parole.  The 44 executions have cost Florida approximately $24 million each.

  • A 1992 Dallas Morning News article found that the average death penalty case costs $2.3 million more than incarceration in maximum for 40 years.  (SunFyre's Two Cents: Coincidentally, Texas executes by far the most people, you'd think they'd get a quantity discount.)

  • A 1988 study found that California spends $90 million annually on death penalty cases, and $78 million of that is incurred in court costs.

  • Source: Death Penalty Information Center FactSheet

Apparently Pete wasn't correct about extended life expectancy causing life sentences to be more expensive.  Two studies indicated it costs about $2 million extra per case, including the ones that are declared innocent or resentenced to life without parole.  If we took that $2 million (paid out to lawyers during trial) and put it in a money market account for the inmate, the interest alone (at today's horrible interest rates, about 2.0%), that would generate about $40,000 a year.  That should be enough to pay for the entire incarceration, and the principal could then be given to the victim's family after the inmate dies.  Sounds like a better use of funds than Attorney fees to me.

Pete's information about the racial makeup of death row was pretty accurate.  African Americans make up 42% of death row inmates, and 38% of people executed since 1976.  This is roughly the same proportions as the murder conviction rate, indicating that African Americans aren't given the death penalty more frequently per conviction.

But, I looked a little deeper and found that 80% of all death sentences had white victims.  While well over 50% of murder victims are non-white.  This indicates that a death sentence has more to do with the victim's skin color than the offender. A University of North Carolina study from 2001 found that murdering a white person creates a 350% greater chance of receiving a death sentence than murdering a non-white person.

Finally, in support of one of my original beliefs, that capital punishment is not a deterrent to crime, a 1995 poll of U.S. Chiefs of Police, only 1% believed that the death penalty is a deterrent.  Reducing drug abuse (31%), improving economic conditions (17%), simplifying court rules (16%), longer prison sentences (15%), more Police officers (10%), and reducing guns (3%) were all more important focuses for Police Chiefs.

Other interesting facts:

  • Since 1976 over 84% of all executions carried out have been in the South, including 45% in Texas and Virginia alone.

  • As of this writing, 10 women and 905 men have been executed since 1976.  There are currently 49 women on death row, approximately 1.4% of the death row population. There are currently 3500 inmates on death row.

  • Juvenile defendants have been executed 22 times for crimes committed before their 18th birthday.

  • Two people have been executed by firing squad, and three by hanging since 1976.  Three states still allow firing squad and two states allow hanging as options.

  • Twelve states don't have the death penalty.  Six states have it, but have never used it since 1976.

  • These Upcoming Executions are scheduled this year.

  • As of today, 114 death row convicted inmates have been exonerated, 13 of those with DNA evidence of innocence.  Those 114 people spent an average of 9 years incarcerated.

If nothing I've written has convinced you that we should declare a moratorium on capital punishment, here is a page of Post-Furman Botched Executions that convinced me.  Warning, the descriptions on this previous link are graphic and, in my opinion, horrifying.  It's difficult to read, and many of them are similar, but I encourage you to read every one.

Convinced and convicted,

SunFyre

Thanks to these insightful readers.  If you have an opinion about capital punishment or the death penalty, please send them to me.

 

June 25, 2004... News on the Capital Punishment Front

The New York State Supreme Court has stricken down the death penalty, at least temporarily, and removed four inmates from death row.  Here's the story from USA Today.

December 13, 2004... Scott Peterson gets the Death Penalty

Scott Peterson after hearing the jury recommended the death penalty.Capital punishment is back in the national spotlight today as California jurors recommended the death penalty for Scott Peterson.  For those of you living under a rock, he was found guilty of murdering his wife and unborn child on Christmas Eve, 2002, or thereabouts.

Now, all of you know my opinion of the death penalty, or if you don't, you can read my ongoing Capital Punishment Opinion page.  The Scott Peterson case actually supports my decision even further.

Here's why I believe that if the California jurors wanted to punish Scott Peterson to the severest extent possible, they should have opted for life in prison.

First, there are currently approximately 650 inmates on California's Death Row.  However, since 1978, when the death penalty was re-adopted in California, the state has only actually executed 10 individuals.  More convicts exit death row by natural causes or suicide than execution.

Second, according to California law, all death penalty appeals are heard by the Supreme Court.   According to an Associated Press article "If Peterson is sentenced to death, he will sit on death row for more than five years before he is appointed an attorney for his first and mandatory appeal to the California Supreme Court." The reason for this length of time is the enormous backlog of criminals awaiting attorneys.

Third, Scott Peterson won't receive the benefit of becoming some three-strikes crackhead's butt buddy!  Life termers are put into the general population and have a cellmate.  Peterson, because he will likely reside on death row, will have a single-occupancy cell.  He will have five hours a day in the exercise yard, and three private showers each week.  He will probably have a far more comfortable and safe life on death row.

The judge in the case, The Honorable Alfred A. Delucchi, doesn't officially pass sentence until February 25th.  He technically could choose to disregard the jury recommendation, and grant a life sentence, or as I call it, a life-of-pain sentence, but he probably won't.  He could make a great speech about how a life sentence would ultimately avenge the deaths of Laci Peterson and her fetus, but he probably won't.  You see, a Judge ultimately can only seek justice if elected by voters.  Next election, his opponent will be running smear ads saying how Alfred chickened out, and doesn't respect the jury's wishes.

Want to learn more?  I have found the Death Penalty Information Center to be a quality resource of facts.  While the website is clearly in favor of eliminating capital punishment, they present quality information in a relatively unbiased way.

Finally, use that little link that says and give me your opinion. I'll publish all opinions, and my responses, on the Death Penalty page.

 

 

   

 

 

 

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Books about Capital Punishment

Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States by Helen Prejean

Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing With the Death Penalty by Scott Turow

The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment by Franklin E. Zimring

SunFyre recommended Movies about the death penalty

Dead Man Walking Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon

Monster's Ball Halle Berry, Billy Bob Thorton

The Green Mile Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan

SunFyre recommended DVDs about life in prison

The Shawshank Redemption Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

Capital punishment and the death penalty

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