Financial Costs

The death penalty is not now, nor has it ever been, a more economical alternative to life imprisonment. A murder trial normally takes much longer when the death penalty is at issue than when it is not. Litigation costs — including the time of judges, prosecutors, public defenders, and court reporters, and the high costs of briefs — are all borne by the taxpayer.

Inevitability of Error

In 1975, only a year before the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of capital punishment, two African-American men in Florida were released from prison after twelve years awaiting execution for the murder of two white men. Their convictions were the result of coerced confessions, erroneous testimony of an alleged eyewitness, and incompetent defense counsel. Though a white man eventually admitted his guilt, a nine-year legal battle was required before the governor would grant them a pardon. Had their execution not been stayed while the constitutional status of the death penalty was argued in the courts, these two innocent men probably would not be alive today.

Barbarity

The latest mode of inflicting the death penalty, enacted into law by nearly two dozen American states, is lethal injection, first used in Texas in 1982. It is easy to overstate the humaneness and efficacy of this method. There is no way of knowing that it is really painless. As the U.S. Court of Appeals observed, there is "substantial and uncontroverted evidence ... that execution by lethal injection poses a serious risk of cruel, protracted death.... Even a slight error in dosage or administration can leave a prisoner conscious but paralyzed while dying, a sentient witness of his or her own asphyxiation."

Deterrence

Gangland killings, air piracy, drive-by shootings, and kidnapping for ransom are among the graver felonies that continue to be committed because some individuals think they are too clever to get caught. Political terrorism is usually committed in the name of an ideology that honors its martyrs; trying to cope with it by threatening terrorists with death penalty is futile.

Exercise 7: “Pros” and “Cons” for capital punishment

Cons (against)	Pros (for)
It’s useless. Statistics demonstrates that its retention or suppression has no effect on the number of crimes committed. Furthermore, the death of the offender neither benefits anyone nor restores anything. For example, if a 40-year-old man, who has no family, no money and no home kills a 20-year-old student who has parents, who is young, happy and has all his life ahead, would the capital punishment be fair or would it compensate anything?	The murderer is a threat to society and society must protect itself
It’s immoral. The criminal may be a pervert, mentally sick or be not adequate in some other ways. Furthermore there’s always the possibility of an error of judgment which is totally uncorrectable.	The death of one offender should be the frightening example for another one.
It’s unnecessary. For the defense of society it is enough to shut the offender away.	That very offender who was sentenced will never escape or repeat his offence again. Furthermore, the murderer is able to manipulate other people from inside the prison and make them commit murders or other offences.
It’s pessimistic. Death penalty means that we deny all the possibilities of redemption that we refuse to admit that we may change or improve.	Society has the right to kill in defense of its members, just as individual may kill in self-defense.
It’s unjust. A competitive and consumer society makes its weak members scapegoats for sins which belong largely to society as a whole.	Because taking an offenders life is a more severe punishment than any prison term, it must be the better deterrent.
It’s antichristian. The general orientation of the Bible is clearly in favour of life, forgiveness and hope. And it is to be applied not only to the conduct of the individual but also to the whole society. Revenge and murder are not Christian notions.	No adequate deterrent in life imprisonment is effective for those already serving a life term who commit murder while being in prison, and for revolutionaries, terrorists, traitors, and spies.
We shouldn’t be blinded over emotional arguments: glorification of criminal on screen, etc., irrelevant.
Those in favour of capital punishment are motivated only by desire for revenge and retaliation.
Hanging, electric chairs, garroting, etc., are barbaric practices, unworthy of human beings.
Capital punishment creates, it does not solve, problems. Solution lies elsewhere: society is to blame. Overcrowding, slums, poverty, broken homes: these are the factors that lead to crime. Crime can only be drastically reduced by the elimination of social injustices – not by creating so-called “deterrents” when the real problems remain unsolved.

Text 4: ABOLITION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

The quantity of countries which submit a plan for abolishing the capital punishment increases quickly. At the end of 1995 capital punishment was abolished in 72 countries (among which are Greece, Italy, the USA, Romania, Hungary, Russia, Spain, the South African Republic) and in 90 countries it is still preserved. At the same time the evolution in this direction is not occurring everywhere. In some countries we can see the opposite tendencies: either to restore capital punishment (as in 2 states of the USA) or to enlarge the sphere it is applied to (Korea, China, Nigeria and some Arabian countries). While examining the question concerning capital punishment, the journalists made inquires and cited statistics (80% are for the implementation of capital punishment, and 12% are for life imprisonment).

The following analysis enables us to differentiate the attitude towards capital punishment among the different social groups. As it turned out the men are more likely to be the defenders of capital punishment, but at the same time 77% of women are usual victims. There are not so many supporters of capital punishment among coloured people (2 times as little as among whites). With the increase of age the quantity of the voters against capital punishment visibly decreases while the great quantity of its supporters is youth. The explanation of such a conformity depends upon the fact that 25% of all the victims are young people at the age of 18-24. The inhabitants of rural districts and suburbs vote for capital punishment.

The most interesting is the statistics which reflects the connection between the attitude to the capital punishment and religious convictions. Among the supporters of capital punishment there are 27% of Christians and 10% of the representatives of Moslems.

The most important reason for the implementation of capital punishment is enormous expenditures on maintenance of the offenders in jails. The second one is insecurity of citizens, disbelief in the legal system.

The reasons against capital punishment are: there is always the fear of the jury error and also the psychologists made the research work and proved that neither the implementation nor the abolishment of capital punishment influence the dynamics of felonies.

There was another point for discussion – for whom the discounts should be made. The world community decided to abate pregnant women, mentally deficient people, juveniles, elderly people. They voted for the change of capital punishment into life imprisonment. In accordance with our legislation capital punishment is not implemented to pregnant women as the lawyers make a discount to their emotional and physical state, but statistics shows that they commit crimes driven to the despair by their husbands for the sake of children. As far as juveniles are concerned, some countries increased the age of implementation up to 20 or 22, but again statistics shows that the most brutal, cruel crimes are committed in adolescence. Every case concerning juveniles is supposed to be examined individually. But here the jury must take into account the juveniles’ emotional state, they just act according to emotions, outbursts while committing crimes.