The Death Penalty Promotes Violence thereby Making Society Less Safe

Does the imposition of the death penalty reverse the moment when brute force was employed, or a deadly weapon was wielded to claim the life of somebodies loved one? Of course not, and similarly, does the imposition of the death penalty resurrect the life of the person, whose life was taken? Does it eliminate, or even in the tiniest, fragment of a sense, mitigate, the pain experienced by those that loved the victim? I think to say it does trivializes and undermines what we know as love. Moving beyond the human face, does the imposition of the death penalty deter crime? Does it stop would be murders in their tracks, making our society a safer place? The answer is no. Contray to that, statistically speaking, states that do not practice the death penalty have remarkably lower murder rates than their life taking counterparts. In 2007 the difference being an astonishing 42%. I repeat, states that did not impose the death penalty in 2007 as reported by (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates) had 42% less cases of murder than those that did. Clearly making states that impose the death penalty less safe than those who do not. In examining these statistics, the question remains why? Why does the death penalty not deter crime? Perhaps the answer lies in the message that the death penalty sends to citizens. By quote unquote, fighting fire with fire, we are essentially promoting violence as a solution. We state, violence is a way of correcting what has happened, it is an equalizer, through violence we can find justice, and after introducing this message into the lives of our families and children, are we really surprised when they adopt this idea, make it their own and apply it? The death penalty teaches murder, and more horrific than that, it teaches that murder is a just solution. The statistics speak for themselves. It is time to recognize that when we stop demonstrating violence as an answer, we begin to be greeted with real solutions and make our society a safer place.

put yourself in their shoes

According to the website pro-deathpenalty.com (Imposition of the death penalty is extraordinarily rare. Since 1967, there has been one execution for every 1600 murders, or 0.06%. There have been approximately 560,000 murders and 358 executions from 1967-1996). Think of all the families effected by these murders that never had justice served. In some of these cases I'm sure that the families would have liked to see their child, or mother, of fathers murderer put to death for a terrible crime committed on their family member.

Put yourself in the shoes of a family member that has a loved one killed, intentionally by a man or woman. Now you go to trial with the killer, and they get 20 years in prison or life. Will you sleep at night knowing that they are being fed, working out, reading, watching television and socializing even if it is in prison. This to me is not justice.

Works sited

Pro-0death penalty.com

There is a death penalty for a reason, I do think that it is terrible that a person could loose their life when convicted and sentence to death for a crime they did not commit. At the same time I do believe that there are crimes worthy of the death penalty. Capital murder or first degree intentional murder are the two main crimes that when proven guilty I think should be eligible to serve the death sentence. Beside my blog entry here I have placed a "quick Facts chart" just so that you can get the idea of what states do or do not have the death penalty.

Here are a few true stories that might sway your opinion of legalizing the death penalty...
A small sampling of case histories will leave readers shaken.Melvin and Linda Lorenz, and their son Richard were killed by Roger Stafford. Melvin stopped on a highway near Purcell, Okla., to help what he thought was a woman whose car had broken down, but instead was ambushed by Stafford and his brother, using Stafford's wife as bait. Less than a month after these horrific murders, the trio killed six employees of a steak house in Oklahoma City.

In 1985, 13-year-old Karen Patterson was shot to death in her bed in North Charleston, S.C. Her killer was a neighbor who had already served 10 years of a life sentence for murdering his half-brother Charles in 1970. Joe Atkins cut the Pattersons' phone lines, then entered bearing a machete, a sawed-off shotgun, and a pistol. Karen's parents were chased out of their home by Atkins. Karen's mom ran to the Atkins home nearby, where Joe then murdered his adopted father, Benjamin Atkins, 75, who had worked to persuade parole authorities to release Joe from the life sentence.

When Katy Davis observed three strangers outside her Austin, Texas, apartment, she walked away. Returning later, she was attacked and forced to open the door by Charles Rector, on parole for a previous murder. The men ransacked her apartment, abducted her and took her to a lake where she was beaten, gang-raped, shot in the head and repeatedly forced underwater until she drowned.

Ruby Longsworth of Pasadena, Texas, met Jeffrey Barney through a prison ministry, then helped him get paroled from an auto-theft sentence. Her kindness was repaid when Barney raped and sodomized her, then strangled her with a cord. She had made the mistake of calling Barney "a bum" after she had gotten to know him better.

In 1965, Robert Massie murdered mother of two Mildred Weiss in San Gabriel, Calif., during a follow-home robbery. Hours before execution, a stay was issued so Massie could testify against his accomplice. Massie's sentence was commuted to life when the Supreme Court halted executions in 1972. Receiving an undeserved second chance, Massie was paroled, but eight months later robbed and murdered businessman Boris Naumoff in San Francisco.

Faith Hathaway was 17 when she was murdered by Robert Willie, whose story became the inspiration for the film Dead Man Walking. Hathaway had just graduated from high school and was leaving for the Army the next day. She was abducted after leaving a farewell party in Mandeville, La. Willie and accomplice Joseph Vaccaro had been on an 8-day murder, robbery and rape spree. Hathaway was raped by both assailants and stabbed 17 times. She was raped again after she died.

Kenneth Boyd murdered his estranged wife Julie and his father-in-law, Dillard Curry in Rockingham County, N.C. Julie and her children were living with Curry. Boyd entered the home and shot them both in the presence of his own children, then ages 13, 12 and 10.

We must think about the lives that all 1,895 murdered victims affected. Every one had families, friends, relatives, co-workers, neighbors. The combined loss is incalculable.

After reading all of these stories I am not sure how anyone could think that the death penalty is in-humane...these crimes are in-humane, and the people that commit them deserve to be put to death.


Sources
Pro-deathpenalty.com
Stateline.org

Costly punishment

Some proponents of the death penalty argue that tougher punishment or sentences will deter crime. Fact of the matter is that the average murder rate of death penalty states was 5.2 per 100,000 people and the average murder rate of states without the death penalty was 3.3 per 100,000 people (Bureau of Justice Statistics). Proponents may also argue that it is cheaper and easier to just kill the killers and not pay to house them in prisons for life. Federal statistics say that the average cost of defending a federal case is $620, 932, which is about 8 times as much as a trial not seeking the death penalty (Office of Defender Services of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts). Once in prison, it costs an additional $90,000 a year to house an inmate on death row versus a non-death row prisoner. The average investigative costs are more than 3 times as much in capital cases and the appeal process is 21 times more expensive in capital murder cases (deathpenaltyinfo.org). All of this money comes out of the taxpayers’ hard earned money. Why spend all the extra money to punish criminals in such a heinous way?

To conclude my blog postings, I would just like to say that the data does not lie. Capital punishment is costly to the taxpayers, racially biased, does not deter crime, and there is very much room for error, both on the investigative and defensive ends. There is no justification for this outdated method of punishment and it should be abolished.



Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, June 30, 2008, February 4, 2010.

Office of Defender Services of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, "Update on
Cost, Quality, and Availability of Defense Representation in Federal Death Penalty Cases," June 2008, February 4, 2010.

Death Penalty Information Center, 2010, February 4, 2010,

FBI Uniform Crime Reports, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2008, February 4, 2010,

Capital Punishment and race..

Race plays a huge role in determining who is going to be sentenced to the death penalty. Nearly 80% of criminals on death row have been executed for killing white victims, yet in society as a whole African Americans count for nearly half of murder victims. Of the prisoners on death row today, 15 are white defendants who killed a black victim and 242 are black who killed a white victim. The United States General Accounting Office stated that “In 82% of the studies [reviewed], race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty, i.e., those who murdered whites were found more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks.” There is no justice in this. This is purely racial discrimination. From these statistics, I can clearly see that being white in America is deemed more important than being any other race, according to the law.

United States General Accounting Office, Death Penalty Sentencing, February 1990, February 4, 2010.

Just one story...

I cannot imagine being one of the 139 people who were on death row for crimes they did not commit. Since 1973, that is the number of lives that could have been wrongfully taken (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org). Out of all of them, I will just share with you the story of one. Ryan Matthews was just 17 years old in 1999 when he was arrested for the murder of a convenience store owner. Because he could not afford an attorney, he was issued a public defender. His lawyer was unprepared and did not know how to handle the case. The three eye witnesses that prosecutors had stated that the murderer was approximately 5’8”, Matthews was 6’. This was all they had to go on. After three days on trial, the judge ordered closing arguments and the jury was sent to deliberate. The jury could not reach a decision after several hours. The judge then ordered them to continue deliberations until they could reach a verdict. Less than an hour later the jury returned with a guilty verdict. Ryan Matthews was to be put to death.

In 2003, Matthews’ physical evidence was re-tested. The DNA from the evidence, including a ski-mask, excluded him completely and pointed to another inmate in the prison. That inmate was already in prison for another murder that happened just blocks away from the convenience store murder. All charges against Ryan Matthews were dropped in 2004, after another trial was conducted. He spent over five years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The prosecution said that the charges should have never been brought. No apology, no giving him his 5 lost years back. I just cannot imagine being Ryan Matthews.


Death Penalty Information Center, 2010, Feb 2, 2010,

Capital Punishment

The death penalty is an outdated, foolish method of punishment, disproportionately affecting minority groups and the poor. Punishing murder with murder is a petty and contradictory idea, that achieves little more than revenge, and risks condemning innocent lives to death. For these reasons, the death penalty should be abolished.
The death penalty disproportionately affects the poor because people who cannot afford legal representation receive substandard court appointed lawyers. The National Law Journal reviewed capital cases within the united states, and reported that court appointed defense lawyers are more often than not "ill-trained, unprepared...and grossly underpaid" (Capital Punishment Should Be Abolished, 1999). This contrasts the counsel the wealthy are able to hire. With quality legal representation, no matter how violent the crime in question, people who can afford good attorneys are often allowed the luxury of buying their life.
The death penalty also unfairly impacts minority groups. Racism is clearly reflected in the system of capital punishment. In a report by the Death Penalty Information center, published in 1998, 96% of studies examining the relationship between race and sentencing showed patterns of racial bias (Capital Punishment should be abolished, 1999).
Accompanying the inherent unfairness of capital punishment, is the fact that the death penalty being a decision imposed by human beings, is a decision subject to human error. This is not uncommon either! Since 1976, 77 persons have been released from death row, because they were proven not guilty after their sentencing (Capital Punishment Should Be Abolished, 1999).
The death penalty should be abolished because it is unfairly applied to minority groups and the poor, and risks taking the lives of people, who are not guilty for the accused crime.

captial punishment..

Growing up I was taught to treat others how you want to be treated. Therefore, I am for the death penalty. I believe that if you commit a crime so horrendous toward another individual and are convicted to life in prison, you deserve to be put to death. It is a version of eye for an eye. In this version that family that lost a loved one knows that the killer will never get out of prison, will never lead a life in society, or attempt another one of these terrible crimes.

Capital Punishment - wrong or right?

One thing I have been taught since I was a child is that two wrongs do not make a right. This is how I formed my opinion on capital punishment. An eye for an eye is not the correct way to handle a situation. It just turns into a vicious cycle. Let me give you an example. My friend gets into an argument with someone. The fight turns physical. One wrong punch, and it's lights out. My friend dies. Seeking revenge, I find the bastard that did this to my friend, and kill him. An eye for an eye. Now his friends are mad at me, and I'm the newest target. And the cycle begins. It's possible that some may not consider this capital punishment, but it is. Killing someone for killing somone is capital punishment - and it's wrong.

In my blog postings, I would like to persuade my readers that the death penalty is not the answer. I will discuss several factors in determining my opinion on this matter. I will cover the costs of a capital murder case, the murder statistics in death penalty and non death penalty states, race as a factor in determining who gets a death sentence and who does not, and the possibility for error.