Abolish the Death Penalty

Visualize, a man eats his favorite meal for supper. Cheeseburger and French fries, just like mom used to make. Too bad he’ll never see his mother again. Now they tell him it’s time to go. He walks down the long, dark hallway to sit in the chair at the end. He knows in his heart that he shouldn’t be there. He didn’t kill those people. The judge knew it, the prosecutor knew it, but they convicted him anyway. They gave him the death penalty on circumstantial evidence for a crime he didn’t commit. He regrets that he will never have a chance to clear his name and achieve his freedom just as he feels the electricity pulsing through his body. There is a moral to this story. Despite what some politicians may say, the death penalty is wrong:; Making up for death with more death is unacceptable.

These supporters of the death penalty would have you believe that it is the only way for justice to be served.. On a pro-death penalty website (www.prodeathpenalty.com), they openly admit that over 87 people have been found innocent while on death row and were released. My question is, what about the innocent people who weren’t released? What about the innocent people who died for the crimes of others? Also on this site, I found a quote from John McAdams, who works in the Department of Political Sciences at Marquette University. Mr. McAdams says, “If we execute murders and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This to me is not a tough call.” My only question for Mr. McAdams is, “What about people who were falsely convicted and put to death for crimes they didn’t commit?” Wouldn’t they fall under, “the killing of a bunch of innocent victims”?

Another problem with the death penalty is that not enough attention is given to the families of the victims. I believe Sister Helen Prejean states it best in a quote taken from Congregation of the Condemned by Shirley Dicks. “(Families of the victims) are made to sit through the whole trial, reliving the entire experience…Finally…the murderer is executed and the family gets to elect a family representative to watch him die. When, in this process, does the healing begin?” It is a common fact that when a prosecutor is going for life in prison that the victims family doesn’t have to be present. But when the death penalty is an option, he usually wants the family there so he can use them to win. Reliving the death of a loved one most likely opens new wounds in the family, and who’s there to console them? Not the prosecutor, not the judge, the answer is none. The government would force these innocent people to experience so much pain just to save space in prison. In another quote from the same book, Coretta Scott King says, “Allowing the state to kill it’s own citizens diminishes our humanity and sets a dangerous and sadistic precedent which is unworthy of a civilized society.” This is a woman whose own husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was murdered. She has every right to want his murderer to die, but she decides to speak out about the injustices of the death penalty. That is example enough that the death penalty should be abolished.

How would you like to spend a decade in a cell knowing that one day soon you are going to die? The fear alone would be enough to drive a man mad. Yet this is what men on death row face every day. They are kept in small cells with very little contact with the outside world. They are often subjected to the cruelty of the guards, like in the Stephen King movie “The Green Mile”. Basically, the guards can do anything they want to the inmates and get away with it. Some would say that men on death row deserve this treatment because of the crimes they committed, but once again, what about the innocent people? Imagine not doing anything wrong and still being subjected to this life. Someone without the hardened heart of a criminal would most likely be broken by this treatment. For example, Juan Roberto Menendez spent 18 years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit (www.nodeathpenalty.org). Luckily for him, he was acquitted and set free. The fact still remains that he had to go through hell for 18 years of his life. Also, among the 3,500 people currently on death row (www.prodeathpenalty.com), the numbers by race are pretty evenly spread out. Through every chart I saw, about 40% of death row prisoners were African-American, just over 50% were white, and the rest were scattered among other minorities. The death penalty may be a brutal killing machine, but at least it’s not racist.

Believe it or not, many people in our country are against the death penalty. Not just normal, everyday people, but also powerful politicians and celebrities. The following quote from Mario M. Cuomo, the former governor of New York, was taken from Congregation of the Condemned by Shirley Dicks. “…I have concluded that the death penalty is wrong, that it lowers us all, that it is a surrender to the worst that is in us, that it uses a power, the power to kill by execution, which has never elevated a society, never brought back life never inspired anything but hate.” That’s what murder is, isn’t it? A crime of hate. It doesn’t matter who is being killed, it is still a crime of hate. 80’s rock musician Peter Gabriel also speaks out against the death penalty as it relates to deterrence. In another quote from Congregation of the Condemned by Shirley Dicks he says, “Killing solves nothing. It does not work as a deterrent. Show me the drop in violent crime since the death penalty was brought back. It does not work as a deterrent.” This quote blasts the belief that the only way to stop murders is to kill the murderers. If we kill the murderers, don’t we become murderers ourselves? By far, the best quote supporting the anti-death penalty cause is one from Rev. Jesse Jackson (www.nodeathpenalty.org). “You couldn’t really fix slavery. You couldn’t modify it…we had to abolish the slavery system. Let’s abolish the death penalty.” I believe in the works of Mr. Jackson and agree that the death penalty should be abolished at once.

Through the course of this paper, you have been exposed to a wide variety of information from a number of sources. You have seen the injustices of the death penalty and have been provided with concrete reasons as to why it has to be abolished. You have heard the views of many people regarding the subject. If your views on the death penalty have changed because of this information, then great. If you are still against abolishing the death penalty, then more power to you. Either way, you should back up your views with passion and continue to pursue the truth.