Writer's Block: Capital offense

[sunlit_music]

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I'm against the death penalty. I find killing someone to show that killing is wrong is hypocritical. Death prevents people from having the chance of rehabilitation. Keep people in prison without parole if they are incapable of reform (like serial killers). The death penalty doesn't protect people from violence (yes, I am aware that there is violence in prisons. But this means we need to improve security in prisons. It doesn't mean we have to support capital punishment). There's the argument that it can be used in the war against terror. However, It doesn't serve as a deterrent against people like suicide bombers. It can make martyrs out of people (e.g. Timothy McVeigh). Mistakes happen. Judges and juries are not infalllible. Innocent people have been killed through capital punishment, and you can't bring back the dead to life.

Death Penalty: Questions and Answers (Amnesty international):  http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT50/010/2007/en/f45ed09c-d3a2-11dd-a329-2f46302a8cc6/act500102007en.html

Use of Death Penalty around the world:http://www.amnesty.org.au/images/uploads/adp/amnesty_international-death_sentences_and_executions_in_2009.pdf

Here are some posts on the death penalty  I found fascinating: http://miketroll.livejournal.com/399799.html

http://bec-87rb.livejournal.com/190189.html

http://peace-froggs.livejournal.com/155466.html

http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/571752.html?thread=41561192#t41561192

List of posts at the lj community talk_politics about the death penalty (Pros and Cons): http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/tag/death%20penalty

I'm certain there was an excellent post on the death penalty by Daniel (baeraad), but I can't find it...

Comments

[moonspinner.livejournal.com]

what about rapists and paedophiles?

[sunlit-music.livejournal.com]

I can understand why people would want rapists and paedophiles killed. But I think we should keep them in prison without parole. Killing them doesn't do anything to keep others safe - they're already in prison after all. It also costs more money to kill them through capital punishment than it does to keep them inprison without parole (and that money could be used to help crime victims and reform criminals). And with capital punishment, there's also the risk of sending an innocent person to their death. So, I'm still against it.

[moonspinner.livejournal.com]

Killing them doesn't do anything to keep others safe - they're already in prison after all.

It keeps the other prisoners and the prison wardens that they share living space with safe. It keeps their past and possible future victims safe from the prisoners being released on parole for "good behaviour".

It also costs more money to kill them through capital punishment than it does to keep them inprison without parole (and that money could be used to help crime victims and reform criminals).

That's impossible. There's no way the cost of killing someone (with a bullet, a lethal injection or a gas chamber) is anything compared to the cost of keeping someone alive for an average of 50-odd years, feeding him, clothing him, providing him with healthcare and physical and intellectual outlets, and generally giving him a standard of living that most honest citizens can't afford to have.

And with capital punishment, there's also the risk of sending an innocent person to their death.

That's about the only valid argument against capital punishment and it still comes up against the reality that sometimes an innocent man might prefer to have a swift, humane death than live through the theft of his life for decades only for justice to come too late.

Part 1- why the death penalty is more costly

[sunlit-music.livejournal.com]

The following info is from this website: http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=42

It costs approximately $90,000 more a year to house an inmate on death row, than in the general prison population or $57.5 million annually.

The Attorney General devotes about 15% of his budget, or $11 million annually to death penalty cases.

The California Supreme Court spends $11.8 million on appointed counsel for death row inmates.

The Office of the State Public Defender and the Habeas Corpus Resource Center spend a total of $22.3 million on defense for indigent defendants facing death.

The federal court system spends approximately $12 million on defending death row inmates in federal court.
Source: Tempest, Rone, "Death Row Often Means a Long Life", Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2005.

Capital punishment in California, as in every other state, is more expensive than a life imprisonment sentence without the opportunity of parole. These costs are not the result of frivolous appeals but rather the result of Constitutionally mandated safeguards that can be summarized as follows:

Juries must be given clear guidelines on sentencing, which result in explicit provisions for what constitutes aggravating and mitigating circumstances.

Defendants must have a dual trial--one to establish guilt or innocence and if guilty a second trial to determine whether or not they would get the death penalty.

Defendants sentenced to death are granted oversight protection in an automatic appeal to the state supreme court.

Constitutional Safeguards

Since there are few defendants who will plead guilty to a capital charge, virtually every death penalty trial becomes a jury trial with all of the following elements:

a more extensive jury selection procedure

a four fold increase in the number of motions filed

a longer, dual trial process

more investigators and expert testimony

more lawyers specializing in death penalty litigation

automatic, mandatory appeals

This study titled "Capital Punishment at What Price: An Analysis of the Cost Issue in a Strategy to Abolish the Death Penalty" was completed by David Erickson in 1993 in the form of a Master's Thesis for U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Public Policy. The complete study can be found in the U.C. Berkeley Graduate Library or can be obtained by contacting Death Penalty Focus.
Full study is here: http://www.deathpenalty.org//downloads/Erickson1993COSTSTUDY.pdf

Re: some innocent people preferring death penalty

[sunlit-music.livejournal.com]

That's about the only valid argument against capital punishment and it still comes up against the reality that sometimes an innocent man might prefer to have a swift, humane death than live through the theft of his life for decades only for justice to come too late.

It's true that that's some people prefer. But many people die while awaiting execution on Death Row. Many stay on Death Row for incredibly long amounts of time (while thinking about their own execution). Only a few are executed. That sounds a lot worse than being in jail without 1) not having to worry about being killed, and 2)having the chance of being set free:

Death row inmates stay indefinitely
No one has been executed in Pennsylvania since 1999
dated: Monday, January 25, 2010

website:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10025/1030841-454.stm#ixzz0u7p9UDfa
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10025/1030841-454.stm

The main reason for all the appeals is that exonerations, like those that led to a moratorium on executions in Illinois in 2000, have cast doubt on how the death penalty is administered.

Every case is now subject to more thorough reviews as lawyers, and in some cases anti-death penalty groups, file petitions to stay executions or review evidence.

The appellate process in death row cases is especially lengthy because there are two levels of judicial review. In Pennsylvania, an inmate's petition for a new trial is first heard by the state's appellate courts, up to the state Supreme Court.

After those appeals are exhausted, an inmate can repeat the process in the federal courts.

Each stage takes months or years, and state clemency hearings at the end of it all can add even more time.

In the end, Pennsylvania's inmates sit on death row indefinitely, as they do in most other states. Even Texas, which executes more prisoners than any other state, is seeing long delays.


From FAQs about costs of California's Death : http://www.aclunc.org/issues/criminal_justice/death_penalty/frequently_asked_questions_about_the_costs_of_california's_death_penalty.shtml#Can we speed it up?

It is true that a person sentenced to execution is much more likely to die of illness or old age than they are to be executed. 64 people have died on death row awaiting executions since 1978, while only 13 have actually been executed; the average wait on death row is over 20 years.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT50/010/2007/en/f45ed09c-d3a2-11dd-a329-2f46302a8cc6/act500102007en.html

The death penalty is a unique form of punishment entailing conditions not present in imprisonment: the cruelty of the execution itself, and the cruelty of being forced to wait on death row -- often for many years -- contemplating one's intended execution.

Re: some innocent people preferring death penalty

[moonspinner.livejournal.com]

From what you've written the problem isn't capital punishment itself but the Death Row system.

Pennsylvania's inmates sit on death row indefinitely, as they do in most other states.

the cruelty of being forced to wait on death row -- often for many years -- contemplating one's intended execution.

If capital judgment can be carried out as swiftly as any other kind of judgment, then the psychological and financial costs to the individual, his victims and the society can be greatly reduced.

Re: some innocent people preferring death penalty

[sunlit-music.livejournal.com]

I doubt that capital punishment could be carried out swiftly and fairly. It takes so long due to the necessary constitutional safeguards I mentioned before that are needed to make sure justice is served properly. http://anglerfish07.livejournal.com/98473.html?thread=75177#t75177


It sounds like you speak from personal experience. I'm extremely sorry that someone you knew was raped because a criminal re-offended. That's horrifying and unspeakable. I think that shows rapists shouldn't be given parole, but I don't think it means they should be executed.

Re: some innocent people preferring death penalty

[moonspinner.livejournal.com]

It is a personal issue for me and I'm sorry I vented out my anger at you. I was rude and sarcastic and that's unpardonable, regardless of the circumstances. Please forgive me and let's just agree to disagree.

Re: some innocent people preferring death penalty

[sunlit-music.livejournal.com]

I accept your apology, and I do forgive you. I think it's best if we agree to disagree too.

[sunlit-music.livejournal.com]

It keeps the other prisoners and the prison wardens that they share living space with safe. It keeps their past and possible future victims safe from the prisoners being released on parole for "good behaviour".

It'd rarely keep people safe as very few people get executed (and few people get executed due to the lengthy appeals process, cases are subject to more thorough reviews as lawyers and anti-death penalty groups, file petitions to stay executions or review evidence).

There are sex offenders who stop reoffending after rehabilitation. They don't get a chance of rehabilitation if they're executed.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/46434.php

http://www.ccoso.org/newsletter/worthit.html

From the Talkleft website: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2005/02/20/115/08784

"For those that refuse (rehabilitation) treatment, parole boards likely will keep them in jail. Many states allow for civil commitment of sex offenders after their prison terms are up".

Considering the above, I think these following solutions would be a lot more effective in reducing rape compared to the death penalty:

-improving police depts and training,
-spending more money on policing, and rehabilitation,
-campaigns against rape culture, teaching society to value women,

-teach boys and men that rape is inexcusable and a crime no matter what. laying blame on the rapist, not the victim
- teaching people that victim blaming is inexcusable
-addressing factors that make rapists more likely to rape people - such as sexism, poverty, violence, laws with poor defnitions of rape http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factors_increasing_men's_risk_of_committing_rape

[moonspinner.livejournal.com]

And there are also repeat sex offenders. It's all well and good to look at statistics until you meet a person or child whose life has just been brutalized because someone in the system thought that John Doe, a convicted criminal, should be let go on "good behavior". (What the f--- does that mean anyway? Wow, he's been on his best behavior behind bars and has said everything the prison psychologist's textbook said he should say. Let's set him loose on society and see if he rapes/kills another bunch of kids.)

I see the "one innocent man" rule from the opposite direction: I'd rather a 100 potential reformed pedophiles are executed than one child become the victim of the "lapsed" ex-con.

-campaigns against rape culture, teaching society to value women,

I can't think of a bigger campaign against rape culture than making it a capital crime.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this post. I definitely agree with you.

[sunlit-music.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome, Hannah.

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I am very much against the death penalty (if someone can not keep from breaking the law, then they must be placed in a controlled environment, i.e. prison, so that they don't hurt anyone else - but they are still citizens and human beings, and the state still has a duty to care for them), but I have never written any posts about it as far as I can recall. Are you sure it wasn't someone else?

[sunlit-music.livejournal.com]

It might have been someone else. I'm not sure. :)

[sunlit-music.livejournal.com]

ragewoks, you should be ashamed of yourself. This is a post on capital punishment, and you reply by posting "Find friends with benefits and Be Naughty! Go Here dld.bz/chwZN"?

Do you really think that anyone is going to be impressed? *raises eyebrows* Please stop embarrassing yourself and stop making such stupid and rude posts. Thanks.