Capital Punishment - Where do you stand?

The entrance to death row - San Quentin, California State

Today, capital punishment continues and is permitted or rather is carried out in 58 countries.  That said between the years 1848 and 2009 the death penalty was outlawed in 98 countries worldwide.

Is there such a thing as a fair trial? is there scope for error? Can we ever be beyond reasonable doubt? Pro capital punishment lobbyists would have us believe so, and that countries with the death penalty experience lower crime rates. Can one ever truly compare countries with different demographics and social problems?  Is their argument valid or is the death penalty a thing of the past - something soon to be resigned to the history books?

 I set about researching a plethora of opinions on three blogs whose written word backed up with facts and figures could not be further from each other;  each blog supporting their stance with suitable biblical quotes and statistics.  Below is a synopsis of the content of each blog followed by my own conclusion based on the arguments presented.

Pro Capital Punishment Blog - Criminal Justice degree.com.  A blog scribed by Wesley Lowe, a staunch supporter of the death penalty.  In his blog, Wesley Lowe opens with the following quote:-

Viewing room for the relatives of the deceased, the relatives of the Condemned and the Press.

"In a world as dangerous and as imperfect as this one, we will always be putting innocent lives at risk no matter what we do, or don't do.  The death penalty is a choice that is least dangerous and the most sensitive to those put at risk"

Lowe backs his rigid opinion by hiding behind old testament quotes, case in point:

Mathew 26:52 "All who take the sword will perish by the sword"

Exodus 21:12 " He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death"

Whilst the author quotes the scriptures in abundance as a means to substantiate his point of view, at no point does he refer to the new testament, or the 6th commandment "Thou shall not kill".

Furthermore the author refers to article 3 & 5 of the American Constitution "Everyone has a right to life, liberty and security of person",  "...... no one shall be subjected to cruel or degrading punishment".  Lowe continues by discounting life without parole (LWP) instead of the death penalty. We are told the cost of LWP is $1.2 million more expensive than the death penalty.  I ask, can one put a price on life?  And his reference to article 3 is a contradiction in terms;  if everyone has a right to life, then why not the condemned?  why not he who committed the crime?

Modus Operandi

The undecided among you will always raise the question of "what of the innocents"?  what of the wrongful execution of innocents.  Lowe addresses this concern by quoting a US Senate report 2012:

"All that can be expected of (human atrocities) is that they take every reasonable precaution against the danger of error ......... if errors are made, this is the necessary price that must be paid within a society which is made up of human beings"

Let me sum up - the end justifies the means, so what if there's collateral damage along the way?  Oregon District Attorney Josh Marquis said the following about the effectiveness of the justice system:

"The number of inmates taken off death row specifically because DNA cleared them is 5"

A figure low enough to make errors acceptable it would seem!  The low number that bears no name nor physicality.

Lowe goes on to tell us "No murderer put to death will ever commit a crime again". 

 I ask are things really that simple?  is life and death that black and white?

I sought out a neutral opinon on line.  Tricky as people are either for or against no middle ground, however an anonymous blogger and member of the Pew Research Centre sourced an article from BBC news30 September 2016 that highlighted that Capital Punishment was "..... at its lowest for over four decades".  Research carried out by the Pew Centre found  "...a sizeable slump in public approval for state executions"

Moving on from neutral my question is, Is crime on the increase, or is more a case that media today is quicker and better at covering incidents nation and worldwide? Do we really need Capital Punishment?  or is it simply a knee jerk reaction to what we hear is happening on our door steps and further afield?   Perhaps today's educated audience may offer a more balanced view, aware that not everything is always as it seems, all that glitters is not gold.

Brian Evans , Director of Amnesty Internation  certainly thinks so. In an easy to navigate and well written Blog, Evans arms the reader with quick links to stone cold indisputable facts, hyper links that read as follows:

1.  Death Penalty and trends

2. Death Penalty and Innocence

3. Death Penalty cost

4. Death Penalty and race

5. Death Penalty and Arbitrariness

6. Death Penalty and Deterrence

7. Death Penalty and Mental Illness

Reading and injesting the content of each subheading immediately casts doubt on the the justification of the death penalty.

Erams states "The death penalty, both in the States and around the world is discriminatory and is used disproportionately against the poor, minorities and members of racial, ethic and religious communities"

I find no figure in any Blog that proves that the death penalty is a deterrent. A US Supreme Court Justice Harry A  Blackburn February 22, 1994 said " 20 years have passed since the court declared that the death penalty must be imposed fairly and with reasonable consistency, or not at all, and, despite the effort of the States and the  courts to devise legal formulas and procedural rules to meet this daunting challenge, the death penalty remains fraught with arbitrariness, discrimination, caprice and mistakes"

What is clear, having read the Blogs, the varying opinions, the cliched arguments for example " why kill people to show that killing is wrong" or the reference to the 1948 UN introduction of The Universal of Human Rights.  The declaration states that "one is permitted life and freedom".  If this were taken verbatim then not only would Capital Punishment be abolished but also all forms of incaceration.

An interesting study in the Death Penalty News Blog found that being younger and spending longer in formal education (sadly not an option for all)made respondants less likely to support the death penalty.

Could education therefore be the key?  Not only to educating the populus but also the criminal so that he may see the error of his way.  Education for all from grass roots, all backgrounds and minorities thus affording individuals a platform to prepare for the future and the next generation.   Should governments be investing in education rather than in Capital Punishment procedures?

Have we failed those on death row?  Had they been given a better start in life, an equal footing would they have walked the same path to the gallows?  You decide..........