Recently I started binge watching Prison Break on Netflix. I highly recommend this series and since I find it addicting I won't give away any spoilers, but I will say one of the main characters is a death row inmate. I don't know about other people, but the death penalty is not something I think about too often, unless it's brought up in a class discussion or something of that nature. Naturally, while watching an episode with a roommate, the topic of whether the death penalty is right or wrong came up. Especially with the sentencing to death row for Charleston church shooter, Dylann Roof, being released just in the past two weeks,it got me thinking.
So I pose the question, is the death penalty right or wrong? Let me give you some data. According to the NY Times, it costs an average of $31,286 per year, per inmate in most states. That number is even higher in some places, like in the state of New York where is costs nearly $60,000 per year, per inmate. That is a staggering number. As a taxpaying citizen, that astounds me that our money is paying for criminals to sit in jail. So knowing it costs so much for one inmate, imagine the costs for a single prison in one state that has hundreds of inmates. That is millions of dollars per year spent on criminals. That is a disgusting number. But with the death penalty given as a sentence, this eliminates some of these criminals and therefore this cost, right
On the other hand here's another statistic: an article from the Huffington Post revealed a research study that showed from 1973 to 2004, there were a total of 7,482 defendants who were sentenced to death. Of those 7,482, 117 or 1.6% of those convicts were exonerated for their crime and more investigating proved that at least 4.1% of those given the death penalty were actually innocent. So with that in mind, should the death penalty be given when there's even the slightest chance the defendant is wrongly convicted? This adds to the possibly of taking the life of an innocent being. So this brings up the question of whether the death penalty is a good idea simply because it takes away the cost?
Looking at this from a Christian point of view, I have to ask myself, "Do we as humans have the right to take someone's life, even if they have committed a heinous crime?" Or, "Is taking someone's life because they took someone else's a good way to show that murder is wrong?" There are many questions to be asked when formulating an opinion on whether the death penalty is right or wrong. Do we leave these convicts in prison and cost tax payers tens of thousands of dollars for one inmate to live for a year? Or do we take the life of a potentially innocent person? Do we execute and bring closure to a victim's family?
I don't think a single conclusion will ever be reached. Like with most things these days, someone, somewhere is always going to be upset or offended by whatever an individual decides. So, I encourage you to take a moment to think about this, maybe it's something you've never thought about, maybe it's something you've discussed pretty in depth. But take a minute and formulate your own opinion and see where you stand on one of the most controversial topics out there.
