Issue date: 2/21/05 Section: News

Try to imagine for one second a loved one being bludgeoned to death. Would you want the culprit to die a quick and solemn death by lethal injection, or to rot in a dank prison cell for the rest of his days, regretting his actions? Personally, I prefer the latter. There are countless fallacies associated with capital punishment, one of the largest being the cost to taxpayers or that it promotes deterrence. We can't forget that mistakes have been made. Innocent lives have been executed and to me, one innocent life is one too many.

Many believe the abolishment of Capital Punishment would be unjust to the tax payer. Surprisingly, that is not the case. A trial with Capital Punishment at stake is reported to be more expensive than trial without it. In 1982 a study proved how uneconomical the death penalty can be. It stated "if the death penalty is to be reintroduced in New York, the cost of the capital trial alone would be more than double the cost of a life term in prison." Similar results can be found in Florida, where the estimated cost of execution is approximately $3.2 million, approximately six times the cost of a life-imprisonment sentence

Fear of death does not stop people from committing crimes, a common misconception held by proponents of Capital Punishment. Over the years, statistics show that threat of being put to death has not affected the crime rate. Death penalty states do not have lower crime rates than non-death penalty states. For instance, during the 1980's, states with the death penalty and those without had an average difference in homicides of just .1 murders.

The Stanford Law Review reported that "23 innocent prisoners had been executed in this century." Furthermore, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, since 1973, 70 prisoners have been liberated from death row due to DNA or other evidence proving their innocence.

Mistakes have been made. Anthony Porter is one of the lucky ones. After serving 16 years, he was released on February 5, 1999. At one point during his sentence, he had come within 48 hours of being executed.

In this day and age, one can never be completely positive that justice will not mislead. The past proves that all too well. Innocent lives have been wrongly taken or put at risk due to faulty police effort, coerced confessions, incompetent defense, fervent prosecution or even pressure from the community. I believe that life without parole could be a more beneficial alternative to Capital Punishment. It's not only cost-efficient, but there would also be reassurance that an innocent life will never be mistakenly taken by the state again.



Information provided by: http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~critcrim/dp/dppapers/aclu.antidp

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