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- In Cold Blood: Death Penalty
- Capital Punishment has been part of the criminal justice system since the
- earliest of times. The Babylonian Hammurabi Code(ca. 1700 B.C.) decreed death
- for crimes as minor as the fraudulent sale of beer(Flanders 3). Egyptians
- could be put to death for disclosing the location of sacred burial
- sites(Flanders
- 3). However, in recent times opponents have shown the death penalty to be
- racist, barbaric, and in violation with the United States Constitution as
- "...cruel and unusual punishment." In this country,although laws governing the
- application of the death penalty have
- undergone many changes since biblical times, the punishment endures , and
- controversy has never been greater.
-
- A prisoner's death wish cannot grant a right not otherwise possessed.
- Abolitionists maintain that the state has no right to kill anyone; . The right
- to reject life imprisonment and choose death should be respected, but it
- changes nothing for those who oppose the death at the hands of the state.
-
- The death penalty is irrational- a fact that should carry considerable weight
- with rationalists. As Albert Camus pointed out, " Capital punishment....has
- always been a religious punishment and is reconcilable with humanism." In
- other words, society has long since left behind the archaic and barbous"
- customs" from the cruel
- "eye for an eye" anti-human caves of religion- another factor that should
- raise immediate misgivings for freethinkers.
-
- State killings are morally bankrupt. Why do governments kill people to show
- other people that killing people is wrong? Humanity becomes associated with
- murderers when it replicate their deeds. Would society allow rape as the
- penalty for rape or the burning of
- arsonists' homes as the penalty for arson?
-
- The state should never have the power to murder its subjects. To give the
- state this power eliminates the individual's most effective shield against
- tyranny of the majority and is inconsistent with democratic principles.
-
- Family and friends of murder victims are further victimized by state
- killings. Quite a few leaders in the abolishment movement became involved
- specially because someone they loved was murdered. Family of victims
- repeatedly stated they wanted the murderer to die. One of the main reasons- in
- addition to justice- was they
- wanted all the publicity to be over. Yet. if it wasn't for the sensationalism
- surrounding an execution, the media exposure would not have occurred in the
- first place. Murderers would be quietly and safely put away for life with
- absolutely no possibility for parole.
-
- The death penalty violates constitutional prohibitions against
- cruel and unusual punishment. The grotesque killing of Robert
-
- Harris by the state of California on April 21,1992, and similar
-
- reports of witnesses to hangings and lethal injections should leave
-
- So 3
-
- doubt that the dying process can be- and often is -grossly
-
- inhumane, regardless of method(Flanders 16).
-
- The death penalty is often used for political gain.
- During his presidential gain, President Clinton rushed home for the Arkansas
- execution of Rickey Ray Rector, a mentally retarded, indigent black man.
- Clinton couldn't take the chance of being seen by voters as " soft on crime."
- Political Analysts believe that when
- the death penalty becomes an issue in a campaign, the candidate favoring
- capital punishment almost inevitably will benefit.
-
- Capital punishment discriminates against the poor. Although murderers come
- from all classes, those on death row are almost without exception poor and
- were living in poverty at the they were arrested. The majority of death-row
- inmates were or are represented
- by court-appointed public defenders- and the state is not obligated to provide
- an attorney at all for appeals beyond the state level.
-
- The application of capital punishment is racist. About 40 percent of
- death-row inmates are black, whereas only 8 percent of the population as a
- whole are black(Flanders 25). In cases with white victims, black defendants
- were four to six times more likely to receive death sentences than white
- defendants who had similar
- criminal histories. Studies show that the chance for a death sentence is up to
- five to ten times greater in cases with white victims than black
- victims(Flanders 25). In the criminal justice system, the life of a white
- person is worth more than the life of
- a black person.
-
-
- The mentally retarded are victimized by the death penalty.
-
- Since 1989, when the Supreme Court upheld killing of the mentally retarded, at
- least four such executions have occurred. According to the Southern Center for
- Human Rights, at least 10 percent of death row inmates in the United States
- are mentally retarded(Long 79).
-
- Juveniles are subject to the death penalty. Since state execution of
- juveniles also became permissible in the decision cited above, at least five
- people who were juveniles when their crimes were committed have executed(Long
- 79).
-
- Innocent people can-and have been- executed. With the death penalty errors
- are irreversible. According to a 1987 study, 23 people who were innocent of
- the crimes for which they were convicted were executed between 1900 and
- 1985(Long 79). Until human judgement becomes infallible, this problem alone is
- reason enough to abolish the death penalty at the hands of the state more
- dedicated to vengeance than to truth and justice.
-
- Executions do not save money. There are those who cry that we, the taxpayers,
- shouldn't have to "support" condemned people for an entire lifetime in prison-
- that we should simply " eliminate" them and save ourselves time and money. The
- truth is that the cost of state killing is up to three times the cost of
- lifetime
- imprisonment(Long 80). Judges and others are reluctant- as they should be- to
- shorten the execution process for fear that hasty procedures will lead to the
- executions of more innocent people.
- The death penalty has been imposed most for murders committed during the
- course of another felony. Aggravating circumstances for murder are defined in
- the applicable death penalty statute. Circumstances considered for murder
- include:
-
- -The crime was particularly vile, atrocious, or cruel.
-
- -There were multiple victims.
-
- -The crime occurred during the commission of another felony.
-
- -The victim was a police or correctional officer in the line of
- duty.
-
- -The offender was previously convicted of a capital offense or violent crime.
-
- -The offender directed an accomplice to commit the murder or committed the
- murder at the direction of another person.
-
- (Flanders 12)
-
- In the novel, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the main characters
-
- Dick and Perry were guilty of several of the circumstances that eventually led
- to their demise:
-
- -The multiple victims included all four of the Clutter family.
-
- -The event occurred during an attempted robbery.
-
- -Both were former inmates and had previous dealings with the law.
-
- -Dick had chosen Perry for his instinct as a "Natural Born Killer".
-
- Further,it seems that both Dick and Perry fell almost directly under the
- common background of one convicted of death. The death penalty is flawed in
- many facets. Juries in rural counties are more
- likely to impose the death penalty than those in urban areas. Dick and Perry
- were convicted in Garden City, a small to moderate sized town. Both Dick and
- Perry were unemployed, poor, white criminals whose actions wrecked havoc not
- only on the remaining Clutter family and relatives, but on the entire town of
- Holcomb and
- surrounding areas. This only justifies and reinforces the points stated above
- that capital punishment is biased, racist, and is harmful not only to the
- offenders themselves, but to the entire community.
- Opposition to the death penalty finally acheived its goal when in 1972 the
- Supreme Court struck down death penalty laws, finding fault not with the
- theory, but with the method. However, all was lost when four years later, the
- decision was once more revised and ruled the death penalty once more legal.
- Death row will continue to expand. It is almost certain that the rising level
- of executions will be widely condemned. The future of capital punishment may
- finally come down to the question of expense. A single capital trial now costs
- millions of dollars. The
- enormous volume of continuing appeals strain both federal and state court
- systems. Unless workable solutions are found to the practical difficulties
- involved in the administration of the death penalty. American society
- eventually may decide to significantly restrict or
- even abandon capital punishment.
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- So 7
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- Works Cited
-
- Flanders, Stephen A. Capital Punishment. New York, NY: Facts on
-
- File, 1991.
-
- Long, Robert Emmet. Criminal Sentencing. New York, NY: H.W.
-
- Company, 1995.
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