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Voting Criminal Justice DEATH PENALTY FACT SHEET
Devin McDonnell
BRIEF HISTORY
THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT:
The abolitionist movement began with Cesare Beccaria's 1767 essay, On
Crimes and Punishment, who theorized that there was no justification for
the state's taking of a life. American intellectuals were influenced by
Beccaria ( Thomas Jefferson introduced the first attempted reforms of the
death penalty in the U.S. with a bill proposing that capital punishment be
used only for the crimes of murder and treason. It was defeated by only one
vote.
Also influenced was Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of
Independence and founder of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. Rush
challenged the belief that the death penalty serves as a deterrent, and was
an early believer in the "brutalization effect" - that the DP actually
increased criminal conduct. Rush gained the support of Benjamin Franklin. ABOLISHED IN US.. BUT REVIVED:
Because of doubts of constitutionality and all-time low public support, in
1972 the Supreme Court effectively voided 40 DP statutes, commuting the
sentences of 629 death row inmates around the country and suspending the DP
because existing statutes were no longer valid. Reforms to end arbitration
were sent in from DP supporting states and accepted by the Supreme Court,
and after a ten-year moratorium on executions they resumed January 17, 1977
Pros: Prevents Crime 2001 British Home Office (equiv. of US Justice Dept.) study found violent
and property crimes on the rise in every wealthy country EXCEPT the US. Our
homicide rate has dropped to levels unheard of since 1960's. Only the
Japanese have a lower victimization rate than the US of the Group of Seven. During years when executions were banned, the national murder rate doubled: = a 131% increase! The Texas Example:
Texas practices the most executions of any single state, does so for a
reason. Numbers show:
The Murder rate in 1991 = 15.3 muders per 100,000 people...
But when Texas started upping its capital punishment practices (already 5
put to death in 2009, a total of 428 since 1976)
saw that murder rate drop to 6.1 per 100,000 by 1999. That's a 60% drop in
8 years! In states not as strict as Texas, murderers know they won't have to face
the DP:
Quote: On murdering Rosa Velez, Luis Vera, who burglarized and
murdered the woman in her Brooklyn home, was quoted as saying, "Yeah, I
shot her... And I knew I wouldn't go to the chair." Scientist Studies:
Naci Morgan economics professor at U. of Colorado, Denver, reexamined in
2006 a study on DP Deterrance Effects and found that each execution on
average resulted in five fewer homicides that year. On what her studies
found, Naci said: "The conclusion here is that there is a deterrant effect.
The results are robust." "I oppose the death penalty, but my results show
the death penalty deters. What am I going to do - hide them?"
This is only one of a dozed similar studies since 2001 that show similar
evidence. Another nationwide study done in 2003 by professors at Emory
University found that each execution deters an average of 18 murders. The DP is a Punishment for Human Rights Violations, not one itself At the time the UN Declaration of Human Rights was implemented, most
nations had the DP and continued to use it long after the Declaration was
approved by them ( the original writers obviously recognized and
appreciated the difference between MURDER(lawless) and EXECUTION
(punishment for a crime committed carried out by a judicial system after
due process and evidence is seen.) Article 3 of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the
right to life, liberty, and security of person."
(This is what the DP justly and legally defends.. not violates.
Article 5: "No one shall be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment."
(Highly subjective + no evidence for lethal injections (what 37/38
states currently use as regular method of execution) being cruel or
unusual in any way.
It is mere opinion that the Death Penalty is cruel and unusual. Most are
done with lethal injection, which is an almost serene death (ESPECIALLY
when you compare the criminal's death to their victim's deaths!) "European Support" Argument Deceiving There is barely a country in Europe where the DP was abolished in response
to public opinion. Public Opinion polls show that Canadians and Europeans
was the DP just as much as US citizens, but politicians dismiss them. Director of the center for Capital Punishment Studies at the University of
Westminister in London said this about Centripetal Pressure:
"What the Council of Europe did was to exercise the coercive powers
they had over these young, emerging democracies who all wanted to join with
a view of joining the EU in the future." The EU has basically forced its own agenda and opinion on capital
punishment on countries that are looking to join up for other benefits.
This makes it seem like everyone is against us in opinion, but really its
only the EU, not the actual realities of what the majorities of their
citizens think is effective crime and punishment routine.
Cons: Doesn't prevent crimes
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)
A 1995 Hart Research Poll of police chiefs in the US found that the
majority of the chiefs do not believe that the
death penalty is an effective law enforcement tool. ((((((((( Consistent with previous years, the 2006 FBI Uniform Crime Report showed
that the South had the highest murder rate. The South accounts for over
80% of executions. The Northeast, which has less than 1% of all executions,
again had the lowest murder rate. [all above facts from DP information
Center, WA DC]
Research has never shown it deters more than long term prison. Studies have
anylized murder rates in neighboring states with and without the DP, before
and after the DP's abolition or reintroduction, and before and after high
profile executions in states which practiced the DP. NONE of these studies
have found good evidence for detterance. [economist] 2005 = 46% more murders in states WITH Death Penalty. // The murder rate is
much higher in US than the DP free Europe. Murder rate in US is actually
the highest in the industrialized world. // The DP is reserved for the
"worst kinds of murder", but those are the people least likely to think
about or be deterred by the prospect of the DP. // Time Magazine found that
though 52% of American's did not think it deters, and 80% thought murders
did not think about it. Chances too slim to create real deterrence: Chances of being caught, and
procecuted WITH a death penalty sentence are 1/1000 . The Economist
reports:
From 1983 - 1993: 22,000 homicides annually.
Only 2000-4000 qualified for DP
Only 250 actually resulted in sentenced DP.
Only 22 people on average actually executed annually of
these numbers.
( these days executions have
increased annually (thanks mostly to Texas)
but not much, and does not change the
argument. For it to be a real deterrant,
the US would have to execute in the 100s or 1000's - not a few dozen a
year.
Unconstitutional and Inhumane 1960s ( Before then, the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments were
interpreted as permitting the death penalty. However, in the early 1960s,
it was suggested that the death penalty was a "cruel and unusual"
punishment, and therefore unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. Lethal Injections = standard form of government funded killing for 37/38
states
The tranquility of these supervised deaths are misgiving: if not done
right, the procedure would, with the first shot, leave the victim paralyzed
yet wide awake and unable to voice or indicate distress as he or she
suffocates and then suffers