Capital Punishment--Is it Really Something We Can Agree with as a Society?

Capital punishment is a topic much discussed. People on both sides of this issue feel strongly that their opinion is right. Unfortunately there are no easy answers. Those who have had capital punishment affect their lives personally are forced to see the human side of the issue. Even killers are not just faceless deviants; thye are people with families and friends and people who love them. There are so many factors such as race, gender, geography and timing that affect the outcome of each case, so much so that many times the sentencing is arbitray. There are also innocent people convicted and sentenced becuase our justice system does have flaws. There are other more viable and human solutions. From a human rights and a religios standpoint, the death penalty is wrong and simply cannot be defended. According to Bishop Madden (2007): "The teachings of our church recognize the right of legitimate government to resort to capital punishment, but directly challenge the appropriateness of government's doing so in a society that is capable of defending

the public order and ensuring the public's safety," said Bishop Madden (Madden). Capital punishment should be abolished because too many innocent people are sentenced to death, sentencing can be arbitrary, and there are simply other more viable alternatives.

One of the biggest reasons that the death penalty should be abolished is because too many innocent people have been sentenced. As good as teh justice system is, it does have flaws. According to Dutta (2007): "Between 1976 and 2005, 123 people convicted of murder and awaiting execution were exonerated, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Some were minutes from execution; most had spent more than ten years on death row. How many innocent people have we executed?" (Dutta). That is indeed the question of the hour. The statistics of people convicted and sentenced to the death penalty are just too unreliable. Even in a great justice system, there is so much room for error. Illinois is one state starting to understand this concept. According to an editorial in America magazaine called The Death Penalty: "Tinkering" to Good Effect: "In 2000 Illinois took a major step when George Ryan, then governor, imposed a moratorium on capital punishment after 13 of its death row prisoners were exonerated following the introduction of exculpatory evidence. (Tinkering). Even one wrongly convicted person should be enough to rethink our concept of the death penalty. If America is a country who stands for human rights, and it is, one wrongly convicted person is too many. America cannot convct innocent people and sentence innocent people to death.

Another reason why the death penatly should be abolished is that the sentening is just too arbitrary. Again, the justice system makes errors, and the people who handle the justice system have biases. These biases may relate to race, income level, gender, or any number of other reasons. According to Dutta (2007): "Since 1976 there have been more than half a million homicides in the United States, but the number of convicts on death row hovers near 3,300, and we have executed just over a thousand. In simple terms, since 1976, on average, roughly 20,000 people have been killed in America every year and just over thirty executed for murder. Considering that homicide has the highest "solved" rate of all serious crime (62 percent in 2002) and we send barely one out of 100 convicted murderers to death row, one might naïvely believe we are sending the worst murderers to death row (Dutta). These numbers just don't make sense if America is so sure about the death penalty. One of the reasons for these inconsistencies is bias. If the death penalty is to be used at all, the numbers must be much more consistent than this, but human error and bias get in the way. One such bias that has been proven is race. According to the "Tinkering" article in America magazine: "In 1990, the U.S. General Accounting Office concluded that "the 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." (Tinkering). America would like to believe that its citizens are past just prejudice and bias, but these statistics prove that just isn't true. There is still much bias in the system. America cannot use capital punishement until and unless all these biases are gone. America must protect the rights of its citizens and sentence them fairly and equally, not sentence them more harshly based on race.

The last reason that the death penalty should not be used is because there are other, more effective solutions that do not involve "playing God." As Dutta (2007) says: "An effective alternative to the death penalty already exists. Life in prison without parole is moral, practical and far less expensive than the complicated and flawed process that leads to the death chamber. With life imprisonment, the murderer is removed from society and forgotten, so that attention can be turned to the victim's family and their needs" (Dutta). If the goal is punishing people appropriately for crimes committed, then life in prison definitely qualifies. Life in prison assures the public that the perpetrator will not be able to commit the crime again. Life in prison ensures that the focus will be on the right person. In other words, society won't be focused on all the drama that surrounds lethal injection but will instead be focused on the victim and the family of the victim. This is where the focus should be anyway. The killer should not attract more media than the victim. However, life in prison allows our society not to "kill someone who kills someone to show that killing someone is wrong." Life in prison allows America not to inflict cruel and inhumane punishment on one more person unnecessarily. Life in prison allows the judicial system time to figure out and right any wrongs that have happened.

In short, capital punishment should be abolished. Society is not, nor should be, in the business of killing its citizens. It is bad enough that the person who is convicted may have taken a life, society should not be willing to take a life in retribution. it is not the role of society to "play God," so to speak. As long as the judicial system is flawed enough to allow innocent victims to be convicted and sentenced as criminals, America cannot continue with the death penatly. As long as our judicial system is flawed by bias for any number of reasons, America cannot continue with the death penatly. As long as there are toher viable opptions for producing the results society wants, America cannot continue with the deeath penalty. Citizens should not be in the business of sentencing fellow human beings to die. Even for those who committed crimes, they did so illegally. It is illegal in this country to kill someone, so the punishment should certainly not be killing someone.

Dutta, Sunil. (2007). Kill the Death Penalty. The Nation.

Editorial. The Death Penalty: "Tinkering" to Good Effect. (2007). America.

Signs of the Times Vatican Rejects Appeal Against Excommunication. (2007). America.