On April 3, 2015, Anthony Ray Hinton was freed from prison after being wrongfully convicted for murders he did not commit. After unjustly losing 30 years of his life to death row because of racial discrimination and irrationality, it is time for reform and justice in America. 156 inmates have been found innocent and released, or exonerated, from death row since 1973. Basically, one person has been exonerated for every ten executed inmates. Additionally, 96% of states show patterns of racial discrimination when sentencing inmates to death row. With statistics and studies constantly showing the discrimination and inequity behind the death penalty, it is time for Americans to realize the irrationality behind the death penalty. Although 49% of Americans still favor it, capital punishment has also been proven to have no effect on the deterrence of crime, and it costs taxpayers $90,000 more per year for each inmate on death row than one with life in prison. The death penalty is outdated, unfair, and extremely flawed as it thrives off racial bias, is costly, and it has become impossible to constitutionally determine who deserves to die and who does not.

The death penalty is “the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime” (Oxford Dictionary). The United States adopted the death penalty from the United Kingdom in the 1600’s. The first reported execution was in 1608 when Virginia killed George Kendall when he was caught spying for Spain. In the 1600’s, crimes such as denying a true God and killing chickens were punishable by death. Then, in 1794, Pennsylvania was the first state to outlaw the death penalty being used for any crime except for first degree murder. After that, many states followed Pennsylvania’s new law, but every state still had varying laws regarding capital punishment. In 1966, only 42% of Americans supported capital punishment. So, in 1972, the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty entirely. However, in 1976, the death penalty was reinstated. Currently, it is abolished in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Where it is legal, the most common method of killing is by lethal injection, which is a mix of drugs that sedate and paralyze the inmate, and then stop the inmates heart. As of October 1, 2017, there are 2,831 inmates on death row, and since 1976, there have been 1,463 executions.

The United States practice of the death penalty is an outdated method that the majority of prosperous countries no longer use. In 2013, only 21 countries used the death penalty as a form of punishment. This makes the United States one of the very few western nations to still implement the death penalty. In turn, other countries such as Canada, England, and Mexico look down upon us. Not surprisingly, the United States ranked as number five in a list of countries with the most executions. The U.S. is only one of nine nations to regularly execute people, which means the U.S. is grouped with countries like North Korea and China. Why have most prosperous countries across the globe realized the infectivity of the death penalty, but the United States has failed to realize it? In 2016, the United Nations called for a worldwide “moratorium on the use of the death penalty” (Caplan), and the United States was one of forty countries to vote against it.

Although the most common viewpoint used against the death penalty questions the constitutionality of it because it is cruel and unusual, I believe the death penalty is simply an irrational and outdated method of punishment. A common misconception of the death penalty is that it costs less money to execute someone than for an inmate to spend life in prison. However, it costs tax payers significantly less money to keep an inmate in prison for life, rather than executing them. People fail to consider the large costs of a lengthy trial, which on average lasts fifteen years. The typical cost for a death penalty trial is $3.5 million, but the average trial without the death penalty is just $150,000. Likewise, studies done in California have revealed that is costs 18 times as much to carry out a trial and execution than to sentence an inmate to life without parole. Why would tax payers want large amounts of their tax dollars put towards lengthy trials and executions, when an inmate could spend a life in prison without parole for far less money?

In addition to the death penalty being extremely costly, the thought of a long, hard life in prison without parole is worse than being killed to many inmates. In 1998, a man named Michael Passaro was put on death row for killing his 2-year-old daughter by lighting his car on fire with her inside. Instead of accepting his attorneys help and fighting for his life, Passaro requested the death penalty. Passaro believed dying was a better option than living the rest of his life in prison. Likewise, a convicted murderer named David Zink stated just before his execution that "For those who remain on death row, understand that everyone is going to die. ... Statistically speaking, we have a much easier death than most, so I encourage you to embrace it and celebrate our true liberation before society figures it out and condemns us to life without parole and we too will die a lingering death" (Holloway). Many inmates see the death penalty as the easy way out, which in turn is just a legal form of assisted suicide. Since 1976, 141 inmates who have been executed were volunteers who waive their rights and agree to die. If assisted suicide is illegal, then why is it legal for inmates to take what they believe is the easy way out and simply die?

Another common misconception is that the death penalty deters crime. Psychologists have stated that a criminal’s mind-set does not think about the consequences or think logically when committing a crime. Many death penalty supporters also believe that the murder rate is closely associated with the death penalty rate, so that when the number of executions increases, the rate of crime and murders decreases. However, the number of murders is actually closely related to the social and economic health of the country at the time. For example, murder rates were at its peak during the Great Depression. To further prove that the death penalty does not deter crime, a study conducted at the University of Colorado found that 88% of expert criminologists deny the idea that the death penalty deters crime.

Since 1976, 156 inmates who sat on death row have been released based on evidence of innocence. Additionally, a study found that 4% of prisoners on death row, or 113 people, are innocent. Many people are thrown into the judicial system and assumed guilty before they were even given a chance to fight. A 4% chance of an innocent person being murdered is high enough for society to see a need to push for a change in the judicial system. Nobody who is innocent deserves to be in prison, let alone be executed for a crime they did not commit.

Historically, executions from the death penalty and death penalty sentences are at their lowest. In 2015, there were 14,000 murders, but only 49 people were put on death row. Since the death penalty is so low now, many experts have suggested that new death sentences are caused by racial bias, rather than being handed out based on the magnitude of the crime. A study found that 96% of states exhibit a pattern of racial discrimination when assigning the death penalty. Furthermore, a study in Philadelphia found that someone who is black is 3.9 times more likely to receive the death penalty. One explanation for why the death penalty is so racially biased is that 98% of people who play a key role in deciding who gets the death penalty are white, while only 1% are African-American. If only white people are deciding who deserves to live and who deserves to die, it makes one wonder how many minorities have been wrongfully executed? Black defendants who are eligible for the death penalty have a 38% higher chance of being sentenced to death than other races. These are all terrifying statistics that should create a sense of urgency in law makers to push for a change.

The death penalty is uncertain and extremely random when it comes to determining who deserves to die. If one commits a mass murder in Connecticut, all they would receive is life in prison without parole. However, if the same person committed the same murder in Texas, they would most likely die by lethal injection. There have been 1,463 executions in the United States since its reinstatement in 1976. Oklahoma and Texas alone have made up for 656, or 45%, of the executions. In addition, the South has executed 1193, or 82%, inmates. On the other hand, the Midwest, West, and Northeast have only executed 270, or 18%, inmates. How is it fair that states across America are so varied in their decision of determining who deserved to die? How is it fair that someone in the South is way more likely to receive the death penalty that someone who lives in the Midwest? These statistics make one wonder how well legal terms determine what crimes are the worst of the worst and how states decide who deserves to die. 

Another downfall of the death penalty is the unconstitutionality of it. The Eighth Amendment states that “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” (Constitution Center). What exactly does the term “cruel and unusual” mean? Cruel is supposed to protect Americans from forms of punishment such as dismembering or being beaten to death. Many capital punishment supporters believe the death penalty is not cruel because it is done painlessly with lethal injection. However, 7% of executions by lethal injection have been botched, causing immense pain and prolonged suffering to inmates. For example, on March 10, 1992 in Oklahoma, Robyn Lee Parks suffered a botched execution by lethal injection. Parks had a horrible reaction to the drugs that are used in lethal injection. According to the Death Penalty Information center, “two minutes after the drugs were dispensed, the muscles in his jaw, neck, and abdomen began to react spasmodically for approximately 45 seconds. Parks continued to gasp and violently gag until death came, some eleven minutes after the drugs were first administered. Tulsa World reporter Wayne Greene wrote that the execution looked ‘painful,’ ‘scary and ugly.’ ‘It was overwhelming, stunning, disturbing — an intrusion into a moment so personal that reporters, taught for years that intrusion is their business, had trouble looking each other in the eyes after it was over’” (Death Penalty Information Center). More recently, on December 8, 2016 in Alabama, Ronald Bert Smith experienced a similar death. “Smith heaved, gasped and coughed while struggling for breath for 13 minutes after the lethal drugs were administered, and death was pronounced 34 minutes after the execution began.  He also ‘clenched his fists and raised his head during the early part of the procedure’” (Death Penalty Information center). The uncertainty behind if an inmate will experience immense pain and suffering during an execution is enough to prove that it is indeed a cruel punishment. On the other hand, what defines a punishment as unusual? Normally, an unusual punishment is one that is unfair. For example, if a parking ticket cost $125 normally, but one in every 1 in every 100-person received a $2000 ticket for the same crime, that would be an unusual punishment. But, if a person can commit the same crime in different states and get sentenced to death in one state but not in the other, doesn’t that make the death penalty unusual as well? In addition to the death penalty violating the Eighth Amendment, it also violated the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth Amendment states that no person shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or property” (Constitution Center). The death penalty takes away one’s life and liberty, as well as being cruel and unusual punishment.

The only true solution to all the problems the death penalty brings is to completely abolish it. However, if that is not possible, David Dow proposed an economically efficient solution at a corner where supporters and abolitionist can agree. A study has found that 80% of all inmates on death row have had exposure to the juvenile justice system. This means that many of the inmates on death row have grown up in a bad home life, resulting in them making bad decisions and being thrown into the justice system. Since the majority of inmates on death row have been in the juvenile justice system, we should intervene in the life of a murderer before he or she is a murderer. Basically, we should get kids out of dangerous homes earlier. After research, Dow has found that for every $15,000 spent intervening in the lives of disadvantaged kids, it will save $80,000 in crime related costs later. To help troubled and disadvantaged kids, we can provide them with education and resources to help them get out of the juvenile justice system and create a better life, which in turn will create less murders and crimes down the road, and less use for the death penalty.

The use of the death penalty in America is outdated, flawed, expensive, and unconstitutional. Costing tax payers millions of dollars each year, while being an ineffective method of crime deterrence, capital punishment should be abolished. In addition, it thrives off racial bias since someone who is black is 3.9 times more likely to receive a death sentence. It also violates the Fifth and the Eighth Amendments because it is cruel and unusual, while taking away a person’s right to life and liberty. Additionally, since 80% of inmates on death row have been in the juvenile justice system, reforms should be introduced to intervene in the lives of disadvantaged kids to prevent crimes later in life. Due to troubling statistics and facts that prove the death penalty to be ineffective and highly flawed, Americans should wake up and realize the harm the death penalty is causing society before another innocent person spends decades on death row. 
