The Death Penalty
Updated on April 2, 2008
The Death Penalty Is a Contradiction
Moral
It's wrong to kill people.
Rule
You are not allowed to kill people.
Consequence
If you kill people, we will kill you.
Lesson in Contradiction
We're killing people to let people know that it's wrong to kill people.
Problem #1: Humans Make Mistakes / Our Justice Systems Aren't Perfect
Innocent Criminals
I'm always surprised by how many people on death row have their convictions overturned because they were later found not-guilty. I'm saddened by the number of death-row convicts who continue to proclaim their innocence at their moment of death. I have seen far too many news stories and documentaries about individuals who were found not-guilty after they were wrongly executed. That alone is reason enough for me to oppose the death penalty.
How can we possibly apologize enough for such tragic mistakes? "I'm sorry we killed your parents and destroyed your childhood and possibly your life." "I'm sorry we killed your baby, and you'll never see your beloved child again." "I'm sorry we executed your husband/wife. Oops! Our bad." No amount of apology will ever atone for such a sin.
Wrongful Conviction Can Happen to Anyone
It almost happened to the brother of my home economics teacher when I was a kid. His car was the same make and model of one used by a man who committed a murder. Even more coincidentally, he had the same birth date. He had nothing to do with the murder, and because he was able to afford a good lawyer he was able to prove his innocence. The actual criminal was later found guilty with overwhelming evidence.
Imagine it happened to you. Imagine you wake up one day, expect everything to be normal, and suddenly find yourself under arrest for a crime you didn't commit. What if there was enough coincidental evidence to convince a jury that you were guilty even though you knew that you were innocent? What if somebody mistakenly identified you as the criminal because you look somewhat like the offender? What if the real offenders pointed the finger at you just to save themselves? What if the crime lab mixed up the DNA tests? What if...?
What would that do to your family? Your children? Your parents? Your spouse? Your dreams of having a happy life? Do you have a few hundred thousand dollars to pay for a good legal defense team? What would you do?
Revenge Isn't So Sweet
Revenge Doesn't Heal Any Wounds
Even if you witnessed the murder and know for certain that this criminal killed another person, no matter how horrific the crime, will killing the murderer fix anything? "It would make me feel better," is the response I typically hear from the victim's families. I know that feeling.
My uncle was murdered by a coworker during a typical day at the office. I wasn't close to my uncle, but I was overwhelmed with anger that somebody would do such a thing to my family. I suddenly became an advocate of the death penalty. It was years before I realized that executing this murderer wouldn't right any wrongs. It would destroy another innocent family, and I couldn't find peace in knowing that others were grieving so that I could feel slightly better.
Criminals Have Families Too
Every murderer is a person. Every person has a family. What if this murderer was somebody in your family? (Don't just say "that won't happen to my family" because it could happen to your family.) What if somebody you loved was mentally unstable or simply became overstressed and did something unthinkable? How would you want them to be punished? How would it feel to see your child, wife, husband, sibling, mother, father, best friend, ... being sentenced to death, on death row, in the execution chamber?
Why would you want to do that to another family? Why would you want to punish the criminal's children by forcing them to grow up without a mother or father? Why would you want to punish the criminal's spouse by forcing them to be a widow? Why would you want to punish the criminal's parents by killing their baby? It's not their fault this happened. Could you really look those people in the eyes and say joyfully, "I'm going to kill your baby" or "I'm going to kill your husband" or "I'm going to kill your Mommy" and believe that you are doing a good deed by ridding the world of this person?
Killing somebody because you are angry will do nothing to bring back a murdered victim or to turn back time and stop a crime from happening. Destroying the hopes of another family and victimizing them, makes you just as guilty as the convicted criminal.
Practical Solutions
Quarantine
Certainly, the first thing we need to do is quarantine a dangerous offender as a protective measure to keep other people from becoming victims.
Punishment
Imprisonment is a sufficient punishment, since it takes away the criminal's freedom. Anyone who has spent even one night in a jail cell can tell you that it isn't a pleasant experience. Humans need to feel a sense of control over their environment and the freedom to exhert that control in order to be happy. Imprisonment takes away much of a person's sense of control and freedom. Most people would choose homelessness or exile over imprisonment.
Punishment can also be used as a detourant, but this only works for individuals who can understand the ramifications of their actions. Unfortunately, most violent offenders aren't thinking about the consequences of prison or even the death penalty when they commit their crime because they are mentally focused on the present moment, not the future. However, rational people, if given the time to calm down and think about the consequences, will be likely to view imprisonment as a sufficient detourant.
Repaying a Debt to Society
Imprisonment does cost taxpayer money, but we can reduce that cost by requiring able prisoners to work. It may not be safe to let violent criminals pick up trash on the side of the highway, but they can still manage to accomplish tasks even within their prison cell or under highly controlled conditions in a prison workroom.
Rehabilitation
Any person who would kill another person, assault a child, rape someone, etc. is in some way mentally ill. Insanity can happen over a long period or during a few minutes of rage. There are two types of mentally ill criminals, the mentally ill who don't realize that what they are doing is wrong, and the mentally ill who know it is wrong but do it anyhow because they've snapped. A mentally ill person needs to be given treatment. This doesn't mean that we should just give a murderer some psychotherapy and let them go, but we should help them understand the wrongs of their crime and teach them ways to safely manage their problems.
We Can Learn from Their Mistakes
We also need to focus more on studying the psychology of these criminals to determine why they conducted the act in the first place. We can study what turned this baby, this child, this teenager, this adult into a criminal. By learning how their minds work, we can treat other individuals before they ever commit crimes and stop future crimes from happening. We can only do this, though, if we do not execute them since it's hard to study the psychology of a dead person.
Banning the Death Penalty
The first step in stopping wrongful executions, wasting information from valuable criminal psychology subjects, and destroying families is to ban the death penalty.
Write Your Government Officials
The easiest thing you can do is write a letter. Contact your representatives for your state's legislature and your governor. Contact your senators, your house represenatives, and the President. Let them know that you are against the death penalty and encourage them to work toward banning it as well.
To contact your officials, go to http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml and follow the links to obtain their contact information.
Tell the Media
If you hear a story about the death penalty or a wrongful conviction, tell your local media about it. Let them know during election and voting periods that the death penalty issues are important to you.
Support Wrongful Conviction and Anti-Death Penalty Groups
A couple of very good organization to consider working with are the Innocence Project and the ACLU.
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