THEDEATHPENALTY

ByJulianHeicklen
PresentedattheAbolitionistRallyinStateCollege,PA
July8,2000
Why should we abolish the death penalty? If someone kills another person,
doesnt justice demand that the killer lose his life? It is argued the death penalty
acts as a deterrent to homicide. Let us examine these arguments.
The Bible says a life for a life, a hand for a hand, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth. This is biblical justice. But justice should be tempered with mercy. The
Biblical injunctions were often interpreted to mean the equivalent of a life for a
life, a hand for a hand, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It became clear that
because one person lost a hand, it did not do any good to anyone for another
person to lose his hand. It would be better for the criminal to recompense the
victim.
One reason against the death penalty is that taking an additional life does not
resolve the problem. Why should society behave like its worst elements? The
point of civilization is to rise above the worst in us.
What about the argument that the death penalty is a deterrent? The 1990s was
the only decade in this century when the increasing number of executions was
accompanied by a decrease in the homicide rate. In the 1920s the reverse was
true; an increasing number of executions was accompanied by an increase in the
homicide rate. Both were fueled by the prohibition of alcohol. In the 1930s, both
reached their peaks; 200 executions in 1935 and about 9 homicides per 100,000
people in 1933. After 1933, the number of executions per year dropped to zero in
1969; the homicide rate dropped to 5 per 100,000 population in 1951 and
remained fairly constant until 1964. From 1966 to 1980, there were almost no
executions in the U. S.; the homicide rate increased dramatically from 5 in 1963
to almost 10 in 1973. About this time, the death penalty was outlawed; the
homicide rates decreased until about 1978. The death penalty was reinstated in

1978 and executions were resumed in the early 1980s; the homicide rates stayed
nearly constant at record highs near 10 per 100,000 people until 1991.
There were two periods in this country when there was a sustained increase in
homicide rate for an extended period of time. The first was from 1903 to 1933.
This corresponds to the first prohibition. First alcohol was prohibited in several
of the states in the early 20th century. The federal government made hard
narcotics illegal in 1914 and alcohol illegal in 1918. The increase in homicide
rates stopped the year that the prohibition of alcohol ended.
The second period of sustained increase in homicide rates was from 1964 to 1973.
This period corresponded to great civil turmoil in this country, first from the civil
rights movement and then from the anti-Vietnam war movement.
The practical reason, as opposed to philosophical reasons, for ending the death
penalty is in the way it has been applied. A recent study from the Columbia
University Law School has shown that 68% of death penalty sentences have been
overturned, either because of judicial error or because DNA tests and other
evidence have shown the convicts to be innocent. There is no doubt that innocent
men have been executed.
Finally I point out that the United States is one of the few democracies that still
executes people. It is one of only 5 or 6 countries in the world that executes
people who committed their crimes as juveniles. The death penalty should be
abolished.

Here are five reasons why:

1. You can't take it back
The death penalty is irreversible. Absolute judgments may lead to people paying for crimes they did not commit.
Texas man Cameron Todd Willingham, for example, was found innocent after his 2004 execution.

2. It doesn't deter criminals

In fact, evidence startlingly reveals the opposite! Twenty seven years after abolishing the death penalty, Canada saw
a 44 per cent drop in murders across the country. And it wasn't alone.

3. There's no 'humane' way to kill

The 2006 execution of Angel Nieves Diaz, by a so-called 'humane' lethal injection, took 34 minutes and required two
doses. Other methods of execution used around the world include hanging, shooting and beheading. The nature of
these deaths only continues toperpetuate the cycle of violence and does not alleviate the pain already suffered by
the victims family.

4. It makes a public spectacle of an individual's death

Executions are often undertaken in an extremely public manner, with public hangings in Iran or live broadcasts of
lethal injections in the US.

5. The death penalty is disappearing

Out of 198 countries around the world only 21 continue to use capital punishment. And while countries that carried
out executions in 2011 did so at an alarming rate, those employing capital punishment have decreased by more than
a third in the last decade. With this clear downward trend, public pressure may help persuade the world's biggest
executors China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the USA to stop.
There are countless arguments for and against the death penalty. In an imperfect world where we can never be sure
we have ever got the "worst of the worst" is it ever justified to take a life?