Bobby Scott once said, "the death penalty is discriminatory and does not do anything about crime."
I agree with this statement wholeheartedly.
It wasn't always this way though. The 17-year-old me would have argued for the death penalty until my face turned blue — because back then I pretty much knew everything.
In recent times, I have tackled the death penalty and tried to make sense of it. I tried telling myself that the death penalty was a good thing and it should stick around. Then I tried to come up with reasons why it was a good thing to back that argument. I couldn't do it. Here's why:
1. Cost
This may come as a shock to you, but the death penalty is more expensive to taxpayers than to just lock someone up for the rest of their life. I'm not kidding. Look it up.
Death penalty cases are more expensive because lawyers, judges, etc will be putting a significant more amount of time into the case being that there is a life at stake. And even if the judge sentences a person to death it will not just take place the next day. You can expect the inmate to go through a series of appeals over the next several years before he/she is finally put to death. That's paying lawyers and judges every single time.
Due to the fact death row inmates are housed under administrative segregation, it costs more per year to house them than it does a general population inmate. On average, it costs about $45,000 per year to house a death row inmate and about $23,000 to house a general population inmate. A pretty large difference.
Dr. Ernest Goss, a Creighton University economics professor, says it costs pro-death penalty states about $23.2 million more per year than alternative sentences.
That's $23.2 million that could've gone to schools, roads, community programs, etc.
2. It's Not Accurate
The death penalty is not fair because it's not precise. Plain and simple.
A study released by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences believes that the number of innocent people on death row is one in 25. Way too many. There is no telling how many people that have been executed already that were probably innocent. When you're dealing with human life you cannot afford to have a 99.9 percent success rate, because even one innocent death is too many.
3. Faith
I didn't plan on discussing this at first, but I realized it was necessary since I am based out of The Bible Belt.
Most people that are pro death penalty are Christian Conservatives (something I identify as). But, isn't being a Christian and supporting the death penalty kind of counterintuitive? I'm not judging. Believe what you want. This is just my opinion.
The Old Testament spoke on capital punishment several times. It says that it was appropriate to sentence someone to death if they had murdered, worked on the sabbath day, prostituted, and the list goes on.
But if you remember correctly, Jesus taught us to recant what we had learned in the Old Testament on many occasions.
Here's an example:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." -Matthew 5:38-39
Here's another one:
"You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven." -Matthew 5:43-45
So I am definitely not a supporter of the death penalty, but I'm not going to act all high and mighty about it and I definitely won't act like I've been there before. I've never had someone that I love taken from me by the hands of another human being. Maybe if I had experienced something like that I would be singing a different tune, but from my perspective, it's just not a logical thing to do anymore.
"Thou shalt not kill...... unless......" - Tyler Ladner
