Gandhi said it best, "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind..."
There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than long terms of imprisonment. States that have death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without such laws. And states that have abolished capital punishment show no significant changes in either crime or murder rates.The death penalty has no deterrent effect. Claims that each execution deters a certain number of murders have been thoroughly discredited by social science research. The death penalty is a waste of taxpayers money and has no public safety benefit. The vast majority of law enforcement professionals surveyed agree that capital punishment does not deter violent crime; a survey of police chiefs nationwide found they rank the death penalty lowest among ways to reduce violent crime. They ranked increasing the number of police officers, reducing drug abuse, and creating a better economy with more jobs higher than the death penalty as the best ways to reduce violence. The FBI has found the states with the death penalty have the highest murder rates.
What statistics do show is that there is a great disparity between those who receive the dealth penalty and their race, and/or socioeconomic status, especially if the perpetrator is black and the victim is white. There is no justice there and that should always be the overarching pricipal we are striving toward in any punishment as a society as a whole. Despite the fact that African Americans make up only 13 percent of the nation’s population, almost 50 percent of those currently on the federal death row are African American. And even though only three people have been executed under the federal death penalty in the modern era, two of them have been racial minorities. Furthermore, all six of the next scheduled executions are African Americans. The U.S. Department of Justice’s own figures reveal that between 2001 and 2006, 48 percent of defendants in federal cases in which the death penalty was sought were African Americans… the biggest argument against the death penalty system in the US is that it is applied in an unfair and unjust manner against people, largely dependent on how much money they have, the skill of their attorneys, race of the victim and where the crime took place. People of color are far more likely to be executed than white people, especially if the victim is white.
New technologies are revealing more and more that innocent people are too often sentenced to death, found innocent by DNA etc. Since 1973, over 138 people have been released from death rows in 26 states because of innocence. Nationally, at least one person is exonerated for every 10 that are executed. When the consequences are life and death, we need to demand the same standard for our system of justice as we would for our airlines... It is a central pillar of our criminal justice system that it is better that many guilty people go free than that one innocent should suffer... Let us reflect to ensure that we are being just. Let us pause to be certain we do not kill a single innocent person. This is really not too much to ask for a civilized society? And ultimately, how can we as a society kill another because we believe it is wrong to kill others? It doesn't make sense. We are the only western industrialized nation that engages in capital punishment. The other countries that engage in this barbaric practice are countries like China, Iran, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, etc. What's wrong with that picture?
From an economic standpoint, it is more expensive to put an inmate on death row than it is to put him in prison for his natural life. It is a waste of money, especially since most are never actually executed anyway, and studies also show it doesn't bring any closure to the family and loved ones of the victim(s).
We as a nation need to evolve and aspire beyond such inhumane instincts. One of the Aurora victims pondered that the gunman (who's name I shall not give time to), must have been in great emotional pain to have done what he did and wished that he could have found help, and a more positive outlet for his challenges. Another exclaimed to CNN that he was holding onto the idea and wanted everyone to be reminded that while there is evil in this world, let us not forget that there is amazing grace, goodness and love too. Love, grace and goodness shall always prevail. More than anything, this is a wake up call that each of us needs to focus on being good, kind and caring people and doing what we can to make the world a better place. Who can you help in your neighborhood or world today? What can you do to contribute toward being part of the solution and not part of the problem?
