The Death Penalty
The sentencing trial of admitted al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui raised many issues relating to the death penalty in the United States — from mitigating circumstances and mental condition to zero tolerance for terrorism. Robert Vodde, director of the University’s School of Criminal Justice and former chief of police in Leonia, N.J., explores the most critical issues relating to the death penalty.
| Advances in DNA technology and forensic science have revealed that many defendants have been convicted based on wrong or tainted evidence ... |
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Debates surrounding the death penalty center on religious, ethical, political, legal and utilitarian issues. But perhaps the most argued in America is whether invoking the death penalty violates the U.S. Constitution, specifically the Eighth and 14th Amendments; i.e., is it cruel and unusual punishment? In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Georgia v. Furman, ruled that capital punishment was unconstitutional. Four years later, however, the court reversed itself in Gregg v. Georgia (1976). Since that decision, close to 7,000 criminals have been sent to death row, of which more than 1,000 have been executed.
Since 1976, close to 7,000 criminals have been sent to death row, of which more than 1,000 have been executed. The second issue of controversy addresses whether or not putting another human to death is morally and ethically right. As Cardinal Theodore McCarrick posited, can the death penalty “offer the tragic illusion that we can teach that killing is wrong by killing?”
The third issue calls into question the utility of the death penalty; i.e., is it pragmatic? Does it succeed in deterring others from committing heinous offenses such as murder? According to Katherine Beckett and Theodore Sasson in The Politics of Injustice: Crime and Punishment in America, there is a conspicuous absence of empirical data to suggest that there is any relationship between capital punishment and a reduction in crime. The authors point to states such as Texas and Florida, which have high execution rates and yet also have the highest homicide rates.
And lastly, does capital punishment discriminate against society’s minorities and the disenfranchised, who lack the education, financial resources and influence to provide for a defense comparable to those more fortunate? Beckett and Sasson wrote that in 13 states with death penalty laws, “significant race-of-offender bias” had been documented. Furthermore, advances in DNA technology and forensic science have revealed that many defendants have been convicted based on wrong or tainted evidence or procedural anomalies.
Despite bans on capital punishment by the European Union and Latin America, it appears that most Americans favor the death penalty, although that number seems to be changing. While 75 to 80 percent of Americans polled by Gallop in 1989 favored the death penalty, a similar poll in October 2005 showed that number had dropped to 64 percent.
Putting aside whether the killing of another person is legally, constitutionally, religiously, morally, ethically or politically “right” or “wrong,” the question remains: “What is society looking to achieve by taking the life of a fellow human and why?”
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