PHIL midterm paper - Info on the Death Penalty PDF

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Ayana Stanton Professor Eric Fleming PHIL 330 October 26, 2020 The Moral Flaws of Capital Punishment

An ethical controversy that sparks much debate among the American people is the moral dilemma of the death penalty, formally known as capital punishment. Our criminal justice system defines the purpose of the death penalty as retribution or recompense for the lives harmed or tampered with. The first ever recorded death sentence dates back to 1608 when Captain George Kendall was killed in Virginia. One of the first laws surrounding the death penalty was the Duke’s Law of 1665, which stated that offenses like a child hitting their parent or denying the religion of the land were punishable by death (Randa, 1997). Fast forwarding to present time, capital punishment is still an active part of our criminal justice system. According to the Marshall Project, two capital punishment executions are scheduled for December of this year. Through analysis of facts and statistics of crime punishable by death, it is known that the death penalty has not been successful at stopping these crimes. Therefore, in terms of moral correctness and effectiveness, I believe the death penalty is inhumane and should no longer be a part of the United States criminal justice system. As previously stated, crimes punishable by death have not been deterred by capital punishment being in place. Let us look at the trends in violent crime over a five-year period. The violent crimes reported and recorded in 2014 was roughly 1.1 million, rising to 1.3 million by the end of 2016. Violent crime rate decreased between 2016 and 2018, decreasing by roughly 3

percent each year (US Department of Justice, 2019). The decrease in violent crime reported has a high correlation with the increase number of police officers in active duty, as well as excessive arrest, rather than deterrence by capital punishment. Murder rates per 100,000 people have also been statistically proven to be higher in states that have the death penalty, compared to states that do not, dating back to 1990 (Death Penalty Information Center). The logic in thinking that heinous crimes would be mitigated or deterred by the threat of the death penalty is flawed. If this logic were true, crime punishable by death would have a more significant decrease than 3 percent between each year. Attempted murder, murder in any degree, and large-scale drug trafficking are crimes punishable by death yet these crimes continue to happen on a day to day basis. This form of punishment has proven itself to be ineffective in this regard. The death penalty is merely a threat to criminals, as all prison sentences are. If the job or purpose of capital punishment is to deter crime, it is missing the mark. Along with the capital punishment not fulfilling its purpose to deter heinous crime, there have been a few wrongful executions over the years. The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty released a four stories of death row inmates who were executed and later found innocent. One story was of Carlos DeLuna, who was executed in 1989. In 2012, Professor James Liebman from Columbia Law School dug deeper into Carlos DeLuna’s case and found several mistakes in the case from police investigations to conflicting eyewitness statements (Kristin, 2012). During DeLuna’s trial, he stated that he ran into a guy by the name of Carlos Hernandez messing with the victim who was murdered. Turns out, after looking through the evidence and finding mistakes, that Carlos Hernandez was the killer and the state of Texas had falsely accused and executed Carlos DeLuna (Kristin, 2012). In Carlos DeLuna’s case, there was no regard for human life. Conflicting eyewitness statements were presented to the jury and, as stated, mistakes

were made during the police investigation of the murder. Instead of opening the investigation on Carlos Hernandez, the criminal justice system took the misinformation and moved forward with the execution of DeLuna, telling him and his team of lawyers that Carlos Hernandez was just a figment of DeLuna’s imagination (Kristin, 2012). There was an overall lack of compassion or regard for DeLuna’s life in this case. Because of this wrongful execution, the state of Texas has since given judges the option of life without possibility of parole to capital cases or sentences. While this option gives inmates a chance to reform behind bars and keep those who are innocent from being executed by the state, there is still a chance for wrongful execution to happen. The only way to completely stop the execution of the innocent would be to stop using the death penalty in our criminal justice system. In addition to capital punishment sometimes wrongfully executing criminals, there is the moral flaw of retribution. Retribution dates back to the days of the Holy Bible and maybe even before then. In the book of Matthew, chapter 5 verse 38, Jesus said “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:”. This verse has been used to back the argument for why the death penalty should continue to be in use. However, in verse 44 Jesus said, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”. When you read the entire passage, it is clear that Jesus is not telling us to hurt people who hurt us. Instead we are to treat them with love and move on. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “to take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, it is not justice”. It is flawed logic to believe that teaching Americans that murder is wrong by killing those who have heinously killed others. Though society has the job titles of judge and executioner, who are we to judge whether someone is redeemable or not? What, or who, was given the ability to deem whether someone should get a second chance at

life? The sixth amendment of the United States constitution allows for all criminals to have the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. Keeping this amendment in mind, the verdict of death penalty trials is decided by the jury. The jury selection process for capital cases typically draws from a pool of citizens who are deemed “death qualified”, meaning they are not wholeheartedly opposed to capital punishment and have the perceived mental capability to put someone to death. Those these jurors go through a particular and specific process, they are still average citizens. The average citizen has committed a crime of some sort and just has not been caught for it. We continue our lives in society, able to be reformed. Who are we, as average people, to say that someone who made a mistake is not redeemable and is no longer worthy of life? It is inhumane to put the power of life and death of an individual in the hands of average citizens. Lastly, the conditions and treatment of death row inmates is inhumane and immoral. Inmates who are given capital punishment sentences are housed in solitary confinement cells. There is a saying that living in solitary confinement death row is the death before death. Living in a concrete and metal box upwards of 22 hours a day for 7 days a week can have serious downsides to a person’s mental state. Inmates are left alone with their own thoughts, the screams of neighboring inmates who are equally suffering, and their only means of communication is through the walls or through the slot in the cell door where food trays are delivered. It has been psychologically proven that solitary confinement and isolation causes symptoms like paranoia, anxiety, depression, and some even experience delusions (Haney, 2018). Being in solitude can make a person lose their grip on reality. It is torture to house these inmates this way. Yes, they have committed heinous crimes but, nonetheless, they are people. We are torturing these people as they await for their death day.

In summation, there are several moral and ethical issues regarding capital punishment. The death penalty is not fulfilling its purpose of deterring violent crime, there have been multiple wrongful executions, there are moral flaws in retribution, and the treatment of death row inmates is inhumane. With these analyses, I would strongly urge our society to rethink the death penalty and its use in the United States criminal justice system.

References

Dance, G., Meagher, T., & Rossback, A. (2020). Who Is The Next to Die? Retrieved 2020, from https://www.themarshallproject.org/next-to-die/fe

Haney, C. (2018). Crime and Justice: The Psychological Effects of Solitary Confinement: A Systematic Critique. (47).

Kristin, K. (2012, May 25). Houston Chronicle Editorial: Death penalty perils. Retrieved 2020, from https://tcadp.org/2012/05/25/houston-chronicle-editorial-death-penalty-perils/

L. Randa, “Society’s Final Solution: A History and Discussion of the Death Penalty,” editor, University Press of America, 1997.

Violent Crime. (2019, September 13). Retrieved from https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-theu.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/topic-pages/violent-crime...