Julianne Fournier

Hugh Goodheart

April 3, 2017

Capital Punishment Final

Capital Punishment in the United States

In todays society we want to limit the amount of crimes committed in the world and in

particular, the United States. Throughout the years people have tried to come up with different

types of punishment to help try and solve this problem. These solutions include volunteering,

imprisonment, and the death penalty. Many people consider the death penalty a quick and easy

fix. The death penalty is also known as Capital Punishment. This is a legal process where the

government sends a person on death row to be executed or lethally injected as a result of a

serious crime.

The history of the death penalty goes as far back as the Eighteenth Century BC

in the Code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon. In the Fourteenth Century BC the death penalty

was also involved in the Hittite Code. In the Seventh Century it was involved in the Draconian

Code of Athens. The Draconian Code of Athens made it so death was the answer to all crimes

committed. Lastly, in the Fifth Century BC, the death penalty is in the Roman Law of the Twelve

Tablets. In this time people were either crucified, drowned, beaten to death, burned at the stake,

or executed.

America was significantly influenced by Britain. When North America was first settled,

the people brought the death penalty along with them. The first case of the death penalty we
know of in the United States was in the colony of Virginia in 1608. It was the execution of

Captain George Kendall for being a spy for Spain.

Laws regarding Capital Punishment varied throughout the colonies. In 1612 the governor

of Virginia, Sir Thomas Dale made the Divine, Moral, and Martial Laws official. These laws

made it so people got the death penalty for minor offenses as well as significant ones. People

would get the death penalty for stealing food, killing chickens, trading with Indians, etc.

Throughout the 1600s capital punishment was very popular. Although it was very popular

during this time, capital punishment was at its peak in the 1990s. For example, in 1994, 80

percent of Americans were in favor of the death penalty and 16 percent of people opposed it.

In the United States today, each State can put in its own criminal law. According to the

Constitution the federal government is barred from requiring the services of the States in

applying the federal criminal law (Cornell Law School). Currently 19 states have gotten rid of

the death penalty and 31 states still allow it. Even though most of the states have the death

penalty many of them do not use it. In 2014 only 7 of the states used the death penalty and in the

last 10 years 26 states have used it.

People have very strong opinions on both the pro-death penalty side and the anti-death

penalty side. This has been a huge controversy over the past 15 or 20 years. The amount of

Americans who support the death penalty today is at its lowest amount of support in four

decades. Today, 49 percent of Americans are in favor of capital punishment. 42 percent of people

oppose it. The amount of people who oppose the death penalty is the highest it has been since

1972.
 Many people are opposed to the death penalty. A big reason people are against the death

penalty is because of moral reasons. Catholics especially, believe that everyone has the right to

life. Another reason is because there have been many instances when innocent lives were taken

or almost taken for not committing the crime. People are also opposed to the death penalty

because it costs a significant amount of money. For example, in 2011 a study was done by the

Ninth Circuit Judge Arthur L. Alarcon and Paula M. Mitchell from Loyola Law School. They

discovered that taxpayers in California have spent more than 4 billion dollars since capital

punishment was reestablished in 1978. They estimated that the annual cost of continuing on with

capital punishment would cost 184 million dollars more than life in prison without parole. Since

this study has been done the expenses have only gone up and is estimated to have gone up 5

billion dollars since 1978.

If there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand

for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise (Exodus 21:2325).

To this day the main reason that people support capital punishment is because of this Biblical

verse from Exodus 21: 24. This means that the punishment given to the criminal has to reflect

back on the crime committed. For example, if someone kills someone, then they have to be killed

in return. The second top reason people are for the death penalty is because the Constitution of

the United States permits it through the 5th, 8th, and the 14th Amendments. Because of this

people think that it should be legal when the crime is significant enough. People are also for the

death penalty because people believe that the death penalty acts as a deterrent for crime. This

means that by having the death penalty people think that it will make people less likely to

commit murder. It is the idea that if a murderer is sentenced to death, people in the future
considering committing murder will think twice before killing because they will be afraid for

their own life. According to Michigan State University in 1973 Isaac Ehrlich did a study to see if

this was true. The study showed that for every person executed, 7 people lived because others

were deterred from committing murder.

Although there are many people for the death penalty I am against it. When you look

through history you find many cases when innocent lives where taken to capital punishment. As

of October 2015 there have been 156 cases of exonerations in 26 different States. To be

exonerated means that people are freed from blame. From 1973 to 1999, there was an average of

3.03 exonerations every year and from 2000 to 2013, there was an average of 4.29. In 2001,

Northwestern Law School did a study that analyzed 86 different cases of death row exonerees.

Exonerees are people that can get a re-trial, charges dropped, or are given pardon by the

governor because of new evidence of innocence; according to DPIC's Executive Director

Richard Dieter. In this study there were numerous reasons found out why innocent people are

wrongly convicted. This study concluded that 45 out of the 86 cases were wrongly convicted

because of eyewitness error! For example, in 1971 a Florida a man was on death row for

murdering an off duty deputy sheriff during a robbery. This man, David Keaton had his charges

dropped in 1973. The State Supreme Court reversed the conviction and granted Keaton a new

trial because of newly discovered evidence. Charges were dropped and he was released after the

actual killer was identified and convicted. (Keaton v. State, 273 So.2d 385 (1973). In a recent

case, a man by the name of Derral Wayne Hodgkins was convicted in 2013 for the murder of his

girlfriend. In 2015 he was taken off death row because the Florida Supreme Court realized that

the evidence in his case was not enough to have proof that he murdered his girlfriend. These are
just a few examples of people being wrongly accused. So why would we have the death penalty

if that means a chance of a wrongful conviction? This puts people at risk, for their life for no

reason!

The American Civil Liberties Union says that the death penalty inherently violates the

constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment and the guarantee of due process of law

and the equal protection of the laws. When looking at the eighth Amendment of the United

States Constitution it says that it is against cruel and unusual punishment.

There have been many studies done that have PROVED that the death penalty does NOT

deter murder. The study from Michigan State University I mentioned earlier is the only study that

has shown results of capital punishment deterring murder. According to the death penalty

information center, murder rates in states without the death penalty have remained consistently

lower over the years than the rate in states with the death penalty. It shows that from 2010 to

2015 there has been about a 25 percent difference in murder rates; the non death penalty states

having less murders. For example, in 2014, 28 percent less people committed murder in states

without the death penalty than in states with it. In another study done, a man named Michael

Radelet and a woman named Traci Lacock of the University of Colorado did a study called Do

Executions Lower Homicide Rates? The Views of Leading Criminologists. According to the

study, There is overwhelming consensus among Americas top criminologists that the empirical

research conducted on the deterrence question fails to support the threat or use of the death

penalty.

It is proved that the death penalty costs more money than someone sentenced to life in

prison. According to Donald McCartin it is about 10 times cheaper! Since every state is different
when it comes to whether they have the death penalty or not each state also has differences in the

basic appeals. In California, the average wait time for someone sentenced to death is 20 years

between them being convicted and executed. But for all the states the average wait time is about

nine years. Throughout these years of waiting the case doesnt just come to a halt. It continues on

throughout those years of waiting. The estimated cost United States taxpayers pay are fifty and

ninety million dollars every year. Unlike regular life sentences, in the death penalty the defendant

usually needs a more experienced, higher paid lawyers. Security also costs higher than a life

sentence for both in the courtroom and in the prison. This is because people on death row are

separated everyone except other people on death row. In a study done by Seattle University, 147

different murder cases that started in 1997 were studied. These cases were in Washington State.

They separated the study into two categories; people on death row and people not. This study

showed that for ONE death penalty case it cost about 3.07 million dollars. But, to have someone

sentenced to life in prison costs about 2.01 million dollars. This means they are a 1.o6 million

dollar difference. Huge! Because of inflation in 2015, they figured out that the death penalty

would cost Americans an extra 1.15 million dollars for every case! This is a huge difference in

price!

On April 15, 2013 I was at the mall with my aunt when all of a sudden we heard people

screaming and running in the mall There was a bombing at the marathon! This was the day that

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlin Tsarnaev made two homemade bombs and blew up

the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street; a street I have gone to since I was little. Almost every

year I have gone to the marathon. This year my parents went to Florida for their 25th anniversary

and left my siblings and I home with my aunt. As a result we did not go. Those next four days
were some of the scariest days of my life. My parents were on a plane, in a different state, I had

some family members running the marathon, some of my friends family and friends got seriously

injured, and there were two suspects out there. All of Boston and a couple of surrounding towns

were on lockdown.

On this day April 15, 2013 these bombings injured about 264 people and killed three, not

including the MIT police officer, Sean Collier a couple days later in a shoot out. I happen to have

a small connection to one of the people that died this day; the 8 year old boy, Martin Richard.

Martin was my brothers long time girlfriends nanny. In a statement given by Martins father,

Bill, he urges the government to stay away from the death penalty even in such a horrible event.

He says We understand all too well the heinousness and brutality of the crimes committed. We

were there. We lived it. The defendant murdered our 8-year-old son, maimed our 7-year-old

daughter, and stole part of our soul. We know that the government has its reasons for seeking the

death penalty, but the continued pursuit of that punishment could bring years of appeals and

prolong reliving the most painful day of our lives. We hope our two remaining children do not

have to grow up with the lingering, painful reminder of what the defendant took from them,

which years of appeals would undoubtedly bring. What Bill said has inspired me and gotten me

to realize that the death penalty is not just morally wrong but it can hurt people emotionally both

the innocent and the guilty.

For me, I grew up in a Catholic household and I always learned that everyone has the

right to life from the moment of conception. We first get this proof through the Ten

Commandments that Moses gave us through God at The Sermon On The Mount. The death

penalty goes against the 5th Commandment, you shall not kill. The Ten Commandments were
laws given to us by God that we are called to follow and obey. In the Bible verse Jeremiah 1:5

we are also told this message but in a different way. This verse says, before I formed you in the

womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the

nations. This means that God has a plan for each and every one of us and we all deserve to find

out what that plan is before we have eternal life with him in heaven.

The death penalty has been debated for years and in particular the past 15 or 20 years in

particular. It should be illegal and we get this proof through studies done over the years. Capital

punishment costs a lot of money and it does not deterr murder. The death penalty is also not

morally right and we learn this through the Ten Commandments. Everyone has a right to life.