Death Penalty: The Final Decision

By
Stephanie Park

An Innocent victim should never be a victim in the first place, if our justice department
would prevented a murderer from being released, more lives would be saved. On December 29,
1991 Colleen Reed was abducted from a car wash, in Austin Texas. Reed had withdrawn cash
from her bank earlier that morning before ending up at the car wash alone. Kenneth Allen
McDuff forced Colleen into the back of a tan Ford Thunderbird car while she screamed Not me,
not me. While his accomplice Alva Worley, drove them to a remote location McDuff raped and
tortured Reed. Puffing on his cigarette making the cherry glowing red, then inserting it into
Reeds vagina numerous times while she pleaded for her life. McDuff killed her by crushing her
neck. His comment after this tragedy was Killing a women is like killing a chicken. They both
Squawk. This was not the first time McDuff committed such a horrendous crime. In August of
1966 McDuff was convicted of killing two teenage boys and a teenage girl. Some pressure by
abolitionist of the death penalty all death penalties in 1972 were invalidated and as a result
McDuff was release by Texas authorities. (Cassell, 183-186)
The death penalty should never be a moral issue, when the courts find sufficient evidence
to hand down the verdict of Capital punishment, the system should execute the convicted instead
of giving them a chance. If somebody kills another person they should pay with their life. An eye
for an eye is what it comes down to (Palmer, Personal Interview 5 Aug 2015). The person that
was murder did not have a choice in their life ending. Having the death penalty verdict enforced
brings closure to the victims surviving family members.
Long-term imprisonment is more expensive than the death penalty in the end. According
to Gary Syphus of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst's Office in Utah, seeking the death penalty costs
the state an additional $1.6 million per inmate from trial to execution compared to life-withoutparole cases. Gil Garcetti the former district attorney of Los Angeles County, which is

responsible for roughly one-third of California's 727 death-row inmates, recently remarked, I
was a supporter and believer in the death penalty, but I've begun to see that this system doesn't
work and it isn't functional. It costs an obscene amount of money." A study of the death penalty
in California in 2011 showed that the cost of housing a death-row inmate was $100,000 per year
more than the cost of housing someone sentenced to life without parole. The same study
concluded that just picking a jury in death penalty cases costs $200,000 more than the amount
for non-capital cases. During this time, they are generally isolated from other prisoners, excluded
from prison educational and employment programs, and sharply restricted in terms of visitation
and exercise, spending as much as 23 hours a day alone in their cell (DPIC).
When it comes to executing a murderer that killed an innocent individual the cost of life
should be considered when convicting. Save all the court and legal fees of a long and drugged
out trial and let verdict stand for itself. For the crimes that they were convicted for they should
get one shot at and appeal and thats it. They should be executed after that appeal is done.
Knowing these individuals are sitting in prison for 20+ years or multiple life sentences is not
justice for the life they took (Palmer, Personal Interview 5 Aug 2015).
In trials leading to the death sentence, with the evidence convicting an innocent person.
The Death penalty receives more oversight than any other government program. Execution is
such a serious and permanent punishment, capital cases receive intense scrutiny and are reviewed
multiple times (Dudley Sharp, 104). Having a verdict of death is not something that comes down
easy. Cases have been heavily reviewed, so there should be little doubt when a person is on death
row with good evidence of their crime. Innocent of any wrong doing are ruled out to the best of
the knowledge of the reviewing committee.

In 2001, the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern Law School analyzed the
cases of 86 death row exonerates. They found a number of reasons why innocent people are
wrongly convicted in capital cases. The reasons included:

Eyewitness error - from confusion or faulty memory.

Government misconduct - by both the police and the prosecution

Junk science - mishandled evidence or use of unqualified "experts"

Snitch testimony - often given in exchange for a reduction in sentence

False confessions - resulting from mental illness or retardation, as well as from

police torture

Other - hearsay, questionable circumstantial evidence, etc. Cases where the guilty

verdict was the wrong one handed down and the defendant was innocent (DPIC).
This raises the question of whether death row prisoners are receiving two distinct
punishments: the death sentence itself, and the years of living in conditions tantamount to
solitary confinement a severe form of punishment that may be used only for very limited
periods for general-population prisoners. Moreover, unlike general-population prisoners, even in
solitary confinement, death-row inmates live in a state of constant uncertainty over when they
will be executed. For some death row inmates, this isolation and anxiety results in a sharp
deterioration in their mental status.
The United States has been using the death penalty since the early 1800s. Not all
executed in the time period were males; the first woman was executed by hanging in 1823.
Thirty-two states out of fifty still have the death penalty active on their books. Since 1976 there

have been 1,390 executions in the United States. There are five states that have the largest
improvements in executing the death penalty and they are Georgia, South Carolina, Florida,
Delaware, and Texas. There has been a decline in the states though using or following through
with the death penalty, for example a governor in Illinois commuted four death row inmates and
their sentence were set to a life of imprisonment. With an estimated 52,000 inmates serving time
in prison for murder and 810 have been previously convicted of murder before. Out of those 810
convicted murders they killed 821 people after they were release. If they were executed more
than 800 lives would have been saved.
Being on death row is not about what race the convicted is white, black, Hispanic. As of
right now there are more whites on death row waiting execution than any other race. Killing a
person of white race no matter what race you are your more likely to be to be sentence to the
death penalty then if you killed a Hispanic or a black. Issue for the Hispanics or Blacks is the
poverty levels are higher for their races. The lawyers that are given to them by that states arent
as good. Verdict that is given to those two races is harsher (Palmer, Personal Interview 5 Aug
2015). A study in California found those that killed whites where over 3 times more likely to be
sentenced to death then those that killed blacks and 4 times more likely than those that killed
Latinos (DPIC).
If criminals are thought of as aliens, as not fully member of human community, we have
little to worry about the state of their souls. (Banner, 22). Religion is kind a funny because you
always see how it comes up when death is getting close. For those that think religion is going to
save them. Religious views are very controversial. You have some religions that are for the death
penalty and others that are not. A passage from the bible is But if there is harm, then you shall
pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound

for wound, stripe for stripe (Exodus 21:23-25). Turning to religion will not help the convicted.
Even religion does not really give a clear answer on what to do with these guilty individuals.
We as tax payers regardless what state you reside in, giving convicted felonies a chance
to educate themselves through the books the department of correction allows them to read is
wrong. These murderers attempt to get degrees while they spend out there prison term. For the
reasons theyre in jail I do not know but I feel we should not be letting them get any kind of a
free education. They lost their chance by committing a crime and ending up in prison. Society
has to pay a big price to be educated and become an actual meaningful part of this world.
Criminals should only be educated if the verdict is for short term. Long term conviction such as
the death penalty, should limit all actives for the severity of the crimes they committed including
no educating (Palmer, Personal Interview 5 Aug 2015).
The National Coalition advocates opposes the death penalty, they thinks we should let
convicted criminals live out their life in prison. Executing them for the crime they committed is
inhumane. Claiming life in prison is much more severe punishment than death. (Bedau, 35)
Imprisonment serves the crime just has well as the death penalty. Statistical research is what
these opposing views are based on, showing the death penalty did little on deterrence of
committing murder. Some reasons for wanting to abolish the death penalty are, executions are
carried out at a high cost to tax payer, capital punishment does not deter crime, states cannot
prevent execution of innocent people, race plays a role in who lives and dies, capital punishment
is applied arbitrarily, The United States keeps company with the top human rights abusers as a
country that employs executions, poor legal representation is a persistent problem, life without
parole is an appropriate alternative to capital punishment, capital punishment goes against almost

every major religion, millions Of dollars could be diverted to helping the families of murder
victims.(OPDA)
Should we give a second thought about whether the death penalty should be
abolished? Certainly not, when in the heat of a crime or an adrenal rush from drug or alcohol a
person choose to commit a crime or not, not considering the outcome. We need to listen to the
voices of the victims families; they have to live without their loved one for the rest of their life.
There is always going to be controversies whether or not the death penalty is humane or not.
When choosing to commit a crime by taking anothers life that is when that person decides their
freedom is worth giving up, an eye for an eye. The death penalty saves taxpayers money in the
long run, less mouths to feed and relieves overcrowded prisons. When a Murderer gets a life
sentence it doesnt always mean life in prison. There is also no guarantee that a criminal will not
commit the crime again if being rehabilitated and released, it will guarantee them from repeating
the crime twice. We couldnt put a price on the victims life but we can choose to limit the
amount of repeated murders committed.

Works Cited
Banner, Stuart. The Death Penalty: An American History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 2002.
Print.
Bedau, Hugo Adam, Paul G. Cassell. Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital
Punishment? : The Experts on Both Sides Make Their Best Case. New York: Oxford UP,
2004. Print
"DPIC." DEALTH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.
Friedman, Lauri S., Dudley Sharp. The Death Penalty: Opposing Viewpoints. Detroit, MI:
Greenhaven, 2011. Print.
"OADP. Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Tait Marketing, 4 Mar. 2015. Web. 8
Aug. 2015.
Palmer, Brandon. Personal Interview 5 Aug. 2015