The Case Against Capital Punishment Essay, Research Paper
John H. Whitehead
Professor Roth
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A Moratorium on The Death Penalty Should Be Enacted In Illinois
Due to the recent releases of newly exonerated Death Row inmates,
individuals and organizations are calling for a moratorium- a cooling off
period for state executions. The cases of just a few inmates makes it
apparent that this would be a necessary step to save innocent lives.
After 17 years in prison, Illinois Death Row inmate Anthony Porter was
released from jail after a judge threw out his murder conviction following
the introduction of new evidence. This reversal of fortune came just two
days before Porter was to be executed. As reported in USA Today, Porter’s
release was the result of investigative research as conducted by a
Northwestern University professor and students. The evidence gathered
suggested that Porter had been wrongly convicted.
Were these new revelations and the subsequent release of Porter a lucky
break or a freak occurrence? Not likely, reports DeWayne Wickham, also of
USA Today. He points out that since the reinstatement of the death penalty
in the United States in 1976, of those sentenced to death, 490 people have
been executed while 76 have been freed from Death Row. This calculates into
one innocent person being released from Death Row for every six individuals
that were executed. This figure correlates with the 1996 U.S. Department of
Justice report that indicates that over a 7-year period, beginning in 1989,
when DNA evidence in various cases was tested, 26% of primary suspects were
exonerated. This has led some to conclude that a similar percentage of
inmates presently serving time behind bars may have been wrongly convicted
prior to the advent of forensic DNA typing.
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Amnesty International, in its 1998 report “Fatal Flaws: Innocence and the
Death Penalty”, supports the American Bar Association’s call for a death
penalty moratorium. Michelle Stevens, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times,
reported that in 1998 Illinois State Representative Coy Pugh (D-Chicago)
introduced a resolution calling for a bi-partisan panel to study the death
penalty in Illinois. During the study all executions would be postponed.
This proposal was initially killed but revived following the recent
releases.
Yet, this call for a moratorium on the death penalty is not the first time
that state executions have been opposed. Throughout its history capital
punishment has been opposed on many premises. In discussion forums across
the world many individuals often cite deterrence of crime as a viable
defense of capital punishment. However, comprehensive studies, including the
1994 FBI Uniform crime Report, indicate that capital punishment does not
serve as a deterrent to crime. According to the American Civil Liberties
Union, the death penalty not only does not deter crime- among states that
have either abolished or instituted the death penalty crime and murder rates
have remained unchanged. Additionally, Eric Pooley of Time magazine, in his
research, reports that no proof exists to substantiate claims that capital
punishment discourages crime by anyone other than the criminals whom are
executed. Glenn Lammi, of the Washington Legal Foundation is quoted as
saying that “there are no convincing studies” [connecting] the death penalty
and the crime rate.
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In the absence of persuasive studies linking capital punishment and crime
rates, who better to turn to than the individuals who walk the thin blue
line- law enforcement officials may be better equipped to address this
subject. Time magazine reports that 67% of polled police chiefs also did not
believe that the death penalty deters [crime such as] homicide.
According to a 1994 Government Accounting Office report (GAO) substantial
evidence indicates that courts have been unfair in death sentencing. The
1990 GAO report, summarizing numerous capital punishment studies, confirmed
“a consistent pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the
charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty.” The GAO also
revealed that those who murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to
Death Row than those who murdered blacks. According to the Death Penalty
Information Center (DPIC) nearly 40% of those executed since 1976 have been
black although blacks only comprise 12% of the U.S. population. And in just
about every death penalty case, the race of the victim was white. The DPIC
goes on to report that in the previous year, 89% of the death sentences
involved victims whom were white. U.S News and World Report writer Ted Gest
reinforces his concept. He writes that on Death Row race really does matter.
He points out that on Death Row whites and minorities are represented
roughly equally.
The disparity in allocation of the death penalty preempted the American Bar
Association, in it’s 1997 article “The Task Ahead; Reconciling Justice with
Politics, to call for jurisdictions that exercise capital punishment to refrain from its
use until fairness
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and due process could be assured. The ABA further called for the examination
of procedures and practices for each state.
State and federal justices have also spoken out against capital punishment
according to Jack Callahan of the Rochester Institute of Technology. To
point out an instance, Callahan cites U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry
Blackmun as declaring that he henceforth opposes the death penalty on the
bases of the failure of the death penalty experiment. Blackmun, is further
cited to state that the [potential] execution of an innocent individual
comes “perilously to simple murder.” Justice Clarence Thomas is cited as
having stated that “the possibility of perjured testimony?mistaken testimony
and human error remain all to real. We have no way of judging how many
innocent people have been executed but we can be certain that there were
some.”
The United Nations, during an April 3rd 1997 press briefing, announced that
its Commission on Human Rights had voted overwhelmingly to abolish the death
penalty. The resolution called on member states that still maintained the
death penalty to restrict the number of offenses for which the death penalty
could be imposed and to consider abolishing executions completely. This
opposition to the death penalty intertwined with new revelations all
highlights the fact that innocent people are being wrongly sent to Death
Row.
“I had”, said he, “come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which allow, my
dear Watson, how dangerous is always is to reason from insufficient data.’
Said Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventures of the Speckled
Band.”
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Since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States, 490
people have been executed while 76 have been freed from Death Row, DeWayne
Wickham of USA Today points out. The Death Penalty Information Center’s 1997
report on Innocence and the Death Penalty attributes these releases to
scientific advancements such as DNA testing and journalistic investigations.
Numerous factors such as overzealous prosecutors, deliberate actions of
police, inadequate counsel, convictions based solely upon questionable
eyewitness reports, laboratory error and unreliable evidence have all
resulted in innocent individuals being sent to Death Row. This strengthens
the call for a death penalty moratorium in Illinois.
Inadequate counsel is a major contributing factor that has landed the
innocent on Death Row, according to Ted Gest of the US News and World
Report. According to Gest courts in southern states, the location of most
American executions, are only able to find poorly paid lawyers for many
defendants. Attorneys diligent enough to input 500-1000 hours in a death
penalty case must often work [well] below minimum wage. According to Amnesty
International, the average salary of court appointed lawyers was $11.70 per
hour. The 1996 National Institute of Justice also cites inadequate counsel,
specifically in failing to consult competent scientific experts, as a
contributing factor to the dilemma of individuals being false sentenced to
Death Row.
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According to the National Institute of Justice, prior to the advent of DNA
typing courts were forced to rely on less reliable types of evidence such as blood
typing and eyewitness accounts. Blood typing, it is reported by the National
Institute of Justice, has oftentimes yielded completely erroneous results. This logically indicates
the possibility that individuals may have been erroneously convicted based
upon this evidence.
According to the National Institute of Justice 1996 report, courts relying
solely upon eyewitness accounts wrongly convicted individuals in 28
documented cases. DNA evidence later cleared these individuals. In this
report, Supreme Court Justice Brennen in the United States vs. Wade, 12 was
quoted as saying that “The vagaries of eyewitness identification are well
known; the annals of criminal law are rife with instances of mistaken
identification.” Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, a noted critic of the reliability of
eyewitness testimony noted that witnesses are susceptible to intentional or
unintentional suggestions from police. She explains that there is pressure
on the part of witnesses to see the crime solved. This susceptibility may
contribute to false eyewitness identifications.
In assessing physical evidence, the National Institute of Justice indicated
that the common practice of blood typing, as the primary source of
indicating guilt, is faulty in its unreliability. The deterioration of the
genetic materia
results. This logically implicates the possibility that individuals may have
been erroneously convicted based upon this form of evidence. In cases where
new DNA forensic was tested, 26% of primary suspects in similar cases
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were exonerated. This has led some to conclude that a similar percentage of
inmates many have been wrongly convicted prior to the advent of forensic DNA
typing.
DNA testing, though a conduit for exoneration in these cases has also been
challenged and the courts in at least one case have been refused to admit
analyzed laboratory results because the lab failed to reveal its testing
methods. Such an omission can prevent replication of the results and may
result in an innocent person being wrongly convicted.
The deliberate misconduct of the prosecutor’s scientific experts has been an
issue in a number of cases in which formerly convicted individuals were
later exonerated. The NIJ reported that the West Virginian Supreme Court
indicted Fred Zain, a forensic scientist for perjury. This following his
failure to disclose information relating to the high unliklihood that fluid
samples could have come from the defendant. The subsequent investigation
resulted in the courts declaring Zain’s testimony, in more than 130 cases
inadmissible.
Technical issues aside, the violence and barbarity of executions is
considered by some as a justification to end capital punishment. Some
American states continue to utilize such methods as death by electrocution,
hanging, gas chambers and firing squads. Many question the humanity of these
procedures.
Let’s take a look at exactly what most execution methods entail. Hanging, a
method of execution that dates back to the American colonial times, is
described in the official hanging protocol as developed for the state of
Delaware (Execution by Hanging, 1990).The official procedure for handing
involves the inmate being dropped a distance
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and being stopped by a rope fasten around the neck, the force of this
drop-and-stop method breaks the bones of the neck, thus severing the spinal
cord. This causes the inmate to become unconscious, and at this point,
strangle to death due to lack of oxygen. The individual should be brain dead
within six minutes and heart dead in about eight. The report indicates that
the individual may experience pain-briefly. However, an error in the hanging
procedure could possibly result in instances where the spinal cord is not
severed and the inmate is conscious during strangulation. A drop of too far
a distance will result in the decapitation of the subject.
In gas chamber executions, a cyanide pellet is placed in a container below
the inmate’s seat. A switch is thrown and the cyanide reacting with a
sulfuric acid solution releases lethal gas. The inmate is denied air and
thus suffocates. The time that elapses from the time that the prisoner is
restrained to death is about 38 minutes, though it is believed that death
occurs 6-18 minutes after the gas is released.
According to the 1997 sate of Florida Corrections Commissions Annual Report
Michael Radelet, chairman of the University of Florida sociology department
has documented 22 cases where executions have been botched. For example,
officials in Mississippi were forced to clear the room eight minutes into
the execution of Jimmy Lee Gray after his desperate gasps for air repulsed
witnesses. David Bruck, a writer for the New Republic, reported that Lee
died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas chamber-while
reporters counted his moans.
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Also documented is the case of John Evans. According to Radelet, after the
first jolt of electricity, sparks and flames shot from the electrodes that
were attached to Evan’s leg. The electrode then caught fire. Smoke and
sparks shot from underneath the hood that was attached to his head. Soon,
Evan’s flesh began to smoke and burn. Doctors rushed in, discovered a
heartbeat and applied additional jolts. This continued for an additional 14
minutes despite the pleas of Evan’s attorney.
Lethal injection heralded by some as a more humane method of execution also
has its share of problems. It was reported by Michael Radelet that in a 1989
Texas execution, inmate Stephen McCoy had such a violent reaction to the
drugs (i.e. heaving, coughing, gasping) that a male witness fainted-
crashing into and knocking over another witness. In Texas, December 1988,
Raymond Landry was pronounced dead 40 minutes after being strapped to the
table. Two minutes into his execution the syringe came out of his vein
spraying deadly chemicals across the room towards the witnesses of the
execution. The U.S. Court of Appeals in 1983 made the observation that
“?Lethal injection poses a serious risk of cruel, protracted death?even a
slight error of dosage or administration can leave a prisoner conscious but
paralyzed while dying?a sentient witness to his or her own asphyxiation.”
Many individuals in defense of the death penalty give the argument that a
life sentence as compared to execution is a waste of taxpayer money.
However, numerous studies have shown that the cost of execution far exceeds
the cost of life imprisonment.
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In The Geography of Execution?The Capital Punishment Quagmire in America it
is reported that Florida estimates the total cost of an average life in
prison of 40 years to cost $680,000, far less than the #3.18 million average
cost of a single execution. These figure correlate with those of Texas, the
nation’s leader in executions, according to Department of Justice figures.
In Punishment and the Death Penalty the Texas criminal justice system
estimated the cost of appeal capital murder at 2.3 million dollars. The cost
of life in prison totals only $750,000. Clearly, state executions are not
cost effective.
When given concrete figures the public’s support of capital punishment
diminishes. A 1994 Gallup poll asked that if given a choice, which would be
a better choice-, the death penalty or life in prison without parole?
Support for the death penalty (80%) dripped to 50% according to the 1995
Bureau of Justice Statistics Report.
In conclusion, all of the above arguments support a death penalty moratorium
in Illinois. The most common argument in favor of the death penalty is that
it deters crime. This simply is not true. Law enforcement officials, the
very individuals that deal with crime on a daily basis, doubt the deterrent
effect of capital punishment. Considerable evidence indicates that racial
disparities exist in the allocation of death sentences with blacks receiving
a disproportionate amount of death sentences as compared to their white
counterparts. Organizations such as the American Bar Association and
individuals such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas have spoken out in
opposition to the death penalty. The UN has adopted a worldwide resolution
calling for an eventual end to state executions. From Anthony Porter to
dozens more released from Death Row since it’s
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reinstatement, there exists significant possibilities that there are
individuals innocent of their accused crimes sitting on Death Row.
Journalistic investigations have proven this possibility and DNA evidence
has furthered cleared those previously convicted. An overwhelming number of
factors including, overzealous prosecutors, inadequate defense
counsel, the unreliability of evidence, the cost ineffectiveness of
executions, the sheer brutality of executions and the decline of public
support for state execution when presented with other options, all warrant
at least a temporary halt to executions to allow time for these issue to be
addressed.
As members of a collective American society, we are all affected by a
judicial system that though designed to protect the weak and innocent, sends
these very same individuals to their deaths. It must become our quest to see
that true justice is at least addressed. Yesterday, Anthony Porter was
almost sent to his death. Today, it may be someone you barely know. However,
tomorrow it may be you or I. This call for a moratorium in Illinois is a
call for justice. Thomas Jefferson once wrote “Truth is [the] handmaid [of
justice], freedom is its child, peace is its companion, safety walks in its
steps, victory follows in its train; it is the brightest emanation from the
gospel; it is the attribute of God.” These words written over a century ago
still ring true today. Let’s take the time to take a look at justice.
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United States. U.S. Government Accounting Office. Capital Punishment.
Washington:
GPO, 1994
Cheatwood, Derral and Keith Harries. The Geography of Execution: The
Capital
Punishment Quagmire in America. Rowman, 1996
NAACP Legal Defense Fund . Death Row. New York: Hein, 1996
“Ex-Death Row Inmate Cleared of Charges.” USA Today 11 Mar. 1999: 2A
“Fatal Flaws: Innocence and the Death Penalty.” Amnesty International. 10
Oct. 1999
23 Oct. 1999
Gest, Ted. “House Without a Blue Print.” US News and World Report 8 Jul.
1996: 41
Stevens, Michelle. “Unfairness in Life and Death.” Chicago Sun-Times 7 Feb.
1999:
23A
American Bar Association. The Task Ahead: Reconciling Justice with Politics.
1997
United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform Crime Report.
Washington:
GPO, 1994
Wickham, DeWayne. “Call for a Death Penalty Moratorium.” USA Today 8 Feb.
1999:
17A