Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Death penalty is not an effective deterrence. tormented with the thought. According to a former
According to Amnesty International, the murder executioner, there are many people who have
rate in non-Death Penalty states has remained
consistently lower than the rate in States with participated in executions whose lives were later
the Death Penalty. The threat of execution at destroyed. Some turned to drugs and alcohol to feel
some future date is unlikely to enter the minds of
those acting under the influence of drugs and/or better.
alcohol, those who are in the grip of fear or rage, 5. It is not humane and cannot be undone.
those who are panicking while committing
another crime (such as a robbery), or those who There was an incident where a person who
suffer from mental illness or mental retardation underwent lethal injection did not die right away and it
and do not fully understand the gravity of their
crime. took more than 30 minutes for him to die from a heart
attack. This was traumatic not only for the person
being executed but also for the people who witnessed penalty is much more expensive than life in
prison. The high costs of the death penalty are
the incident since they saw the man gasping for air
for the complicated legal process, with the largest
and trying to stand up. For people who are against costs at the pre-trial and trial stages. The point is
death penalty, this is not a humane thing to do. to avoid executing innocent people. The
Moreover, they say that if a criminal is executed and tremendous expenses in a death penalty case
after the execution, a new piece of evidence comes apply whether or not the defendant is convicted,
let alone sentenced to death.
out that would have proven the person’s innocence,
he or she can never be brought back to life anymore.
Crime reduction (deterrence):
The death penalty doesn't keep us safer.
For the worst crimes, life without parole is better, Homicide rates for states that use the death
for many reasons. We’re against the death penalty are consistently higher than for those that
penalty but not because of sympathy for don’t. The most recent FBI data confirms this.
criminals. It doesn’t prevent or reduce crime, For people who lack a conscience, fear of being
costs a whole lot more than life in prison, and, caught is the best deterrent.
worst of all, risks executions of innocent people.
Who gets it:
The worst thing about it. Errors: Contrary to popular belief, the death penalty isn't
The system can make tragic mistakes. In 2004, reserved for the worst crimes, but for defendants
the state of Texas executed Cameron Todd with the worst lawyers. It doesn't apply to people
Willingham for starting the fire that killed his with money. Practically everyone sentenced to
children. The Texas Forensic Science death had to rely on an overworked public
Commission determined that the arson testimony defender. How many people with money have
that led to his conviction was based on flawed been executed??
science. As of today, 139 wrongly convicted
people on death row have been exonerated. Victims:
DNA is rarely available in homicides, often People assume that families of murder victims
irrelevant (as in Willingham’s case) and can’t want the death penalty imposed. It isn't
guarantee we won’t execute innocent people. necessarily so. Some are against it on moral
Capital juries are dominated by people who favor grounds. But even families who have supported
the death penalty and are more likely to vote to the death penalty in principle have testified to the
convict. damage that the death penalty process does to
families like theirs and that life without parole is
Keeping killers off the streets for good: an appropriate alternative.
Life without parole, on the books in 49 states (all
except Alaska), also prevents reoffending. It It comes down to whether we should keep a
means what it says, and spending the rest of system for the sake of retribution or revenge
your life locked up, knowing you’ll never be free, even though it isn’t effective in reducing violent
is no picnic. Two big advantages: crime, costs much more than alternatives and,
-an innocent person serving life can be released worst of all, can lead to the nightmare of
from prison executing someone for a crime he didn’t commit.
-life without parole costs less than the death
penalty
Philippines on the ground that It offends the diligently But Figure 1 shows that from 1978 to 2008 there
of human person and human rights. The abolition of the had been a general decline in the incidence of
death penalty by the 1987 Constitution was a very big “index crimes”. These are crimes that occur with
step towards a practical recognition of the dignity of “sufficient regularity” and have “socioeconomic
significance”, including some “heinous” ones like
every human being created to the image and likeness of
murder and rape.
God, and of the value of human life from its conception
to its natural end. Every human being has the inherent
right to life and this right must be protected by law.
However, this right is not as sacrosanct and Inviolable as
it sounds.
2) Studies abroad could also not find strong 3) Previous death sentences fell
evidence the death penalty deters crime. disproportionately on the poor.
Many other countries also fail to see compelling The death penalty, as applied in the Philippines
evidence the death penalty deters crime. before, was not only unnecessary in reducing crime
but also largely anti-poor: poor inmates were more
In the US, for example, the death penalty alone likely to be sentenced to death than rich inmates.
could not explain the great decline in homicide rates
observed in the 1990s. Figure 2 shows that the Back in 2004 the Free Legal Assistance Group
homicide rates in Texas, California, and New York (FLAG) did a survey of 890 death row inmates.
had fallen at roughly the same pace throughout the Among other things, FLAG found that 79% of
1990s. This is despite the fact that these 3 states death row inmates did not reach college and 63%
used the death penalty very differently: Whereas were previously employed in blue-collar work in
Texas executed 447 people over that period, sectors like agriculture, transport, and construction.
California executed just 13 people, and New York
executed no one. Most tellingly, two-thirds of death row inmates had
a monthly wage on or below the minimum wage
(see Figure 3). Meanwhile, less than 1% of death
row inmates earned a monthly wage of more than
P50,000.One main reason behind this disparity is
that rich inmates have much more resources to
aggressively defend themselves in court (e.g., hiring
a battery of lawyers) compared to poor inmates.
Unless this imbalance is addressed,the death penalty
will only continue to be a vehicle for “selective
justice”.
4) Previous death sentences were also error- The death penalty can be assailed on many grounds,
whether moral, philosophical, or legal. But just by
prone.
focusing on the available data, it is apparent that the
death penalty, as used in the past, was largely
Too many Filipinos were also wrongly sentenced to unnecessary and ineffective in reducing crime.
death before.
Even assuming for a moment that it was a deterrent,
In the case of People of the Philippines vs. the death penalty tended to discriminate against the
Mateo (2004), the Supreme Court admitted that a poor and was subject to alarmingly high error rates.
vast majority of trial courts had wrongfully imposed
the death penalty during the time it was available as
It is no wonder that so many countries around the
a sentencing option from 1993 to 2004.
world today have abolished the death penalty rather
than retained it. As of 2015, 140 countries have
Figure 4 shows that of the 907 death convictions abolished the death penalty in law or in practice.
that went to the Supreme Court for review, as many
as 72% were erroneously decided upon. These cases
Crime is a more complex and nuanced issue than
were returned to lower courts for further
many of our politicians will care to admit.
proceedings, reduced to life imprisonment, or even
Reinstating the death penalty – and equating death
reversed to acquittal. By detecting these errors, a
with justice – is a patently naïve and simplistic way
total of 651 out of 907 lives were saved from lethal
injection. of going about it. – Rappler.com