| |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper" |
|---|
|
|
<
< | |
| | |
|
<
< | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. |
| | |
|
<
< | Paper Title |
>
> | The Cost of the Death Penalty
-- By PeterWade - 25 Feb 2010
The Death Penalty in America
In much of the world, including most of those “western” nations we in America like to consider our peers, capital punishment is considered barbaric. While Americans decry the status of human rights in so many other countries, and send young idealists to Africa, or Cambodia, or South America, international organizations in other countries send their young lawyers here, to America, to work to oppose our human rights problem.
Of course, there are those in this country that also oppose this practice, but why is there not a more publicized debate, a la gay marriage or abortion? Why does it receive such relatively little scrutiny?
Public Support
The simple answer is public opinion. As of 2009, 65% of Americans support the death penalty, and state legislators know this. The Supreme Court also knows this. In Gregg v Georgia, the case that reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the Court noted that in determining the constitutionality of the practice, they must look to the “contemporary public attitudes” that reflect “evolving standards of human decency.” |
| | |
|
<
< | -- By PeterWade - 23 Feb 2010 |
>
> | When the UK banned capital punishment for murder in 1969, it did so against public opinion. In 1994, when Parliament was to vote on reinstating it, some reports had public support as high as 75%. They voted it down. |
| | |
|
>
> | The same is not going to happen here. In order to change the law, advocates must change public opinion. |
| | |
|
<
< | Section I |
>
> | Some Traditional Arguments
This is not a novel concept, of course, nor is it the point. The point has always been HOW? There are many arguments made against the death penalty, and yet since the middle of the 1970s support has never fallen below 60% |
| | |
|
<
< | Subsection A |
>
> | Innocence
The fact that we are likely killing innocent people seems to have little impact. Since DNA first hit the evidentiary scene in the late 1980's, it has been used to exonerate 250 convicted felons (according to The Innocence Project), 17 of whom were slated for execution (139 total death row inmates have been exonerated since 1971). Quite recently Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted and executed in Texas on what was later found to be some very bad evidence. Almost 60% of Americans agree that in the last 5 years we have executed at least one innocent person. And yet more than half of those people still support the death penalty. |
| | |
|
>
> | Fairness
Advocates also point to the fact that ineffective sentencing guidelines lead to arbitrary and discriminatory sentencing, where whether a defendant is put to death can hinge on which state the murder takes place in or even the race of the victim. As of 2007, almost 80% of the victims in death penalty cases had been white, though overall, murder victims are white only 50% of the time. The Supreme Court had pointed to the Model Penal Code to show states one way to fix the problems of arbitrariness that had led the court to invalidate their death penalty statutes. Last year, the capital punishment section was eliminated from the MPC; the ALI cited the “intractable institutional and structural obstacles to ensuring a minimally adequate system for administering capital punishment.” Yet almost 60% of Americans think the death penalty is applied fairly. |
| | |
|
<
< | Subsub 1 |
>
> | Cruel and Unusual
Constitutional challenges cite the Eighth Amendment and declare the practice “cruel and unusual!” And yet, as of last year nearly the same percentage of Americans that support the death penalty also specifically find it to be “morally acceptable.” |
| | |
|
<
< | Subsection B |
>
> | An Alternative |
| | |
|
>
> | Maximum of Life Without Parole
Where support falters, and there appears a small chink in the armor, is when Americans are given an alternative: life without parole. When given this choice, only 48% favor the death penalty over it. |
| | |
|
<
< | Subsub 1 |
>
> | It seems that while many Americans see “an eye for an eye” as morally acceptable, not all of them think it absolutely necessary. |
| | |
|
>
> | Economic Impact
How can we (those of us who want to) use this? Since many of the arguments cited above focus on capital punishment in principled terms, perhaps it might be a better idea to focus on this alternative and its more practical implications. |
| | |
|
<
< | Subsub 2 |
>
> | Most notably, in this economy, the cost to the American people. |
| | |
|
>
> | Last year Philip Cook, of Duke University, published a study conducted to estimate the costs of the death penalty in North Carolina. He estimated that if the state had abolished the death penalty, they would have saved over $21 million over the previous two years. Likewise, a 2008 study by The Urban Institute found that Maryland taxpayers had paid $186 million dollars more since 1978 because of capital punishment. That same year, the state senate in California commissioned a study of its criminal justice system which estimated the additional annual cost of its death penalty program at $137.7 million, and that a system with a maximum sentence of life without parole would drop this number to $11.5 million. Similar data has come out of other states as well. |
| | |
|
>
> | Practical Appeal
Capital defense attorneys are usually state appointed and supported. Juror selection is more time consuming and costly. The trial is followed by a series of automatically triggered appeals, which can stretch on for years. Capital punishment systems are an incredible economic drain on many states (see California) that cannot exactly afford to waste money. |
| | |
|
<
< | Section II |
>
> | Popular support for the death penalty makes opposing it an uphill battle, and principled negative attacks on capital punishment may be more polarizing than effective. It might be more persuasive to shift focus from abstract arguments based on morality and human rights, to increased empirical study and a positive discussion of the practical economic impact of alternatives. Though not the newest argument, in today's struggling economy, it may have become the strongest. |
| | |
|
<
< | Subsection A |
>
> | Conclusion
Taking this path, maybe we can avoid trying to topple the beliefs of the “morally acceptable” crowd, and instead appeal to that section of America that might be persuaded to consider alternatives. If what the current system might be doing to innocent defendants doesn't give people pause, maybe what it is doing to them will. |
| | |
|
<
< | Subsection B |
| |
|