Death Penalty

Capital punishment, or death penalty, is the execution to a prisoner for a serious crime. Some of the main serious crimes that a prisoner can go to death row are: treason and murder. The different types of methods used to punish the prisoners are: strangulation, burning, boiling, crushing, gassing, hanging, poisoning, and the famous electric chair. In the United States of America, thirty-eight states out of the fifty use the death penalty. Since 1976, there have been nine hundred and eighty executions in America, with Texas having the most executions out of any state.

In the state of Texas, a man by the name of Cameron Todd Willingham was executed on February 17, 2004 at age thirty-six. Willingham was punished with lethal injection because he was sentenced to death for killing his three children in Corsicana in December of 1991. The court said that Willingham intentionally set his house on fire and let his three children die. A witness said that an accelerant was poured onto the floor and was lit to set the whole house on fire. Neighbors also complained that Willingham had no remorse. After Willingham's death, people started asking themselves if the state of Texas killed an innocent man. There were four arson experts that examined the evidence and concluded that it was possible that the fire was an accident. A former Louisiana State University fire instructor Kendall Ryland said, "[It] made me sick to think this guy was executed based on this investigation.... They executed this guy and they've just got no idea - at least not scientifically - if he set the fire, or if the fire was even intentionally set." (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org).

Was Willingham innocent? If he was, it would still be too late because of the death penalty. With all of the information, facts, and evidence that people can discover it will not be able to bring back a human's life. Assumptions are always being made about capital punishment. Not many people actually take the time to research and find the true facts about it. Statistical evidence of capital punishment has found that assumptions really should not be made. Individuals should not believe in the death penalty because they assume the costs, there is not much fairness in its application, and it is not a deterrent.

It is assumed that the cost of the death penalty is much higher than that of life imprisonment without parole, or LWOP. Individuals believe that it would be cheaper to execute a prisoner. The cost of LWOP is very high. The costs include the construction, financing, and operation of a maximum-security cell, as well as maintaining a maximum-security prisoner. The average total cost of LWOP ranges from $750,000 to $1.1 million per prisoner. The cost of LWOP may be great, but the cost of capital punishment is far greater. The per-execution cost averages at $3.2 million in Texas. It is estimated that taxpayers in California could save $90 million annually by abolishing the death penalty. From 1977 to 1996, California spent well over $1 billion on capital punishment but only managed to execute five men. Money is not the only thing spent on capital punishment cases; time is also spent. California and Florida spend about half of their time reviewing capital punishment cases, when that time could be better spent resolving civil and criminal law issues (Costanzo 59-69). So much could be saved and better spent if the death penalty did not exist.

History shows that there has not always been fairness in the application of the death penalty. First, those who lack the money to provide a good defense are sent to death row. Money can buy a defendant a good investigation, and a skillful and experienced lawyer. O.J. Simpson would have never been innocent if he did not have all of that money. Rich individuals can afford to select the best lawyers and poor individuals get appointed lawyers. Second, statistics show that colored people were more likely than white people to be put to death. A sophisticated statistical study in Philadelphia found that for similar crimes committed by similar defendants, blacks received the death penalty at a 38% higher rate than all others (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org). Racial bias is a big issue in America. David Bruck, a graduate from Harvard College and received his law degree from the University of South Carolina said,

"Louisiana executed a man named Ernest Knighton. Knighton had killed a gas station owner during a robbery. Like any murder, this was a terrible crime. But it was not premeditated, and is the sort of crime that very rarely results in a death sentence. Why was Knighton electrocuted when almost everyone else who committed the same offense was not? Was it because he was black? Was it because his victim and all twelve members of the jury that sentenced him were white?" (Barnet 583).

Last, there have been many accounts where a man was wrongly accused and executed. There are many errors that can occur during trials. Errors such as prosecutor errors, police errors, witness errors, DNA errors, and people who get paid off to make the prisoner look guilty effects the trial and can lead to putting an innocent person to death. It seems that America's legal system will always be somewhat unjust and biased.

Capital punishment is not a deterrent. Crimes do not stop because the felon is thinking of the consequences that are going to happened. John Bloom, a writer for the United Press International, says, "...the argument is also made that the death penalty doesn't deter crime because the kind of person who wants to hold up a liquor store is not going to be thinking 'But what if I kill somebody?' He's already a desperate man, and he's not considering consequences." (Williams