Dating back to before Christ, the death penalty has always been a way to express capital punishment in the justice system. With what first started off as burning, drowning, and impalement in Britain, the death penalty soon followed to the United States when settlers came over to the Americas from Britain. While hanging was the traditional form of punishment at the time, the death penalty has evolved over time to what most would consider “more human”. The ultimate question is, at what point does killing people become justifiable? Capital punishment is still used in a total of 31 states today. While most of these states are only allowed to preform lethal injection or gas, some states are still allowed to participate in electrocution, a firing squad, with one state (New Hampshire) still allowed to hang people. Most American citizens choose to ignore this topic and this question because they believe it does not affect them in any way.  Most Americans believe that because they are law abiding citizens, the death penalty as well as all capital punishment is irreverent. However, this is not the case; abolishing the death penalty effects every American citizen because it effects tax dollars and states funding, it goes against the 8th amendment, it weighs on everyone involved in the case, it is irreversible, and racism plays a huge part in convicting prisoners to death row.

In the state of California, the average case without the death penalty costs around $750,000 while cases that involve the death penalty cost about $1.25 million, not to mention how maintaining each death row prisoner can cost the average tax payers $90,000 more each year (Mitchell).It is estimated that California alone could save $170 million per year if they abolished the death penalty. Particularly in the state of Oregon, studies have found that “maintaining the death penalty incurs a significant financial burden on the state of Oregon’s taxpayers” (Kaplan). Most people would think that funding an inmate for life would cost heavily on the state, which would obviously come out of the tax payer’s pockets. However, because most people are so unaware of the death penalty, little do they know that funding a life in prison inmate is about half the cost of funding a death row inmate. By abolishing the death penalty, people who live in states that still maintain the death penalty would save money on taxes

An alternative route to take with inmates who receive life in prison would be to have them pay while they are in prison. This might be a weird concept to some but by having the inmate pay while they are in jail, it is an incentive to either stay out of jail in the first place, or to act on good behavior and work hard so that they can get out faster. This would not only increase the work ethic of those in jail (because if they can’t afford to pay to be in jail they will have to work in prison to pay off their sentencing), it would also lower the tax payers amount they have to pay each year that goes to their state penitentiary. 

A death row case does not just appear in court and right after the trial does the inmate be executed. In fact, most death row inmates are in solitary condiment for years before their case returns for them to be executed. Over this long period of time, it not only weighs on the inmate, but also the victim’s family, as well as taxpayers and their dollar. Not only does this put a deep hole in the states pocket, it also raises the question as to if this is human or not. Cutting a human off from any and all contact for around 6 to 10 years before they are executed can be an extreme measure. Not only does keeping the death penalty cost more for the American people, it also raises the question as to if capital punishment is human and if it follows the 8th amendment of the bill of rights.

The 8th amendment of the Bill of Rights was created in 1791. This law states that “excessive bail shall not be required, no excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted”. In 1972, in a supreme court cases, Furman V. Georgia, they attempted to decide if the death penalty was inhumane or not. The outcome was 5 said it was cruel and unusual while 4 said that it was not. Because of this case, they banned capital punishment until the states that still participated in the death penalty could fix their laws and create 4 principals that would help states decide if a punishment was cruel and unusual, going against the 8th amendment. These four questions that were to be asked in every death row case was; Is it degrading to human dignity? Is it arbitrary? Is it rejected throughout society? And is it unnecessary? Because these “rules” were established, four years later the death penalty was fully operating again. In fact, this issue was then brought up to the supreme court again in 1976; this time only two people said the death penalty was a form of cruel and unusual punishment, while 7 people now said that it was not. While they did put certain restrictions on who can receive the death penalty (ie, they ruled out that the death penalty cannot apply to the crime of raping an adult women), they still allowed the gas, electrocution, lethal injection, firing squad, and even hanging of inmates on death row. Since 1976, 1,382 people have been executed with the death penalty. While some people might say that over the course of 41 years, this is not a lot of people, others would think that even though these are people who committed heinous crimes, it is in human to have someone suffer through a lethal injection or be shot at by a firing squad.

Botched execution is a term used for when there is an unsuccessful attempt to execute a death row inmate. In fact, lethal injections are one of the highest rate of botched execution with a rate of 7.12% (Sarat). There are numerous cases where an inmate either did not receive enough jolts in an execution or enough of the lethal injection, causing a very painful last minute, even hour of life. For example, in August 1991, Derick Lynn Peterson was sentenced to death by electrocution. After two unsuccessful rounds of shock, on the third round Peterson was finally pronounced dead. Another example is in May of 2006 with Joseph L. Clark who was ordered to receive lethal injection. After almost a half an hour to find a vein in Clark, Clark’s vain collapsed and his arm began to swell when the medicine was injected. Witness stated that Clark was moaning and crying for 30 minutes while technicians worked to find another vein. After 90 excruciating minutes, Clark was finally pronounced dead. 

While most people who do receive the death penalty did commit an act of terror, by living in this “eye for an eye” retaliation type of judicial system, it does not lower the crime rates. By keeping the death penalty, we are creating a violent society where our children can first hand learn that if someone does something bad to you, you should counter attack with something equally or worse. By still having the death penalty, not only does the 8th amendment come into question, but it also questions the well-being of everyone involved in the case.

When people think of a death row case, they think of the inmate on trial, the victim, maybe the victim’s family, and possibly the judge. Little do people think about the jury, the prosecutors, the doctors who have to inject the serum into the inmate if they were to be convicted, and the family of the inmate. Most people do not put themselves in the position to think “what if I were on the jury?”. Its natural instinct to want to put the bad guy in jail but once he’s already in jail, how do you as a human being decide the fate of another human being? That’s a hard thing to have on your conscience. The person it effects the most however, are the people who are involved in the killing, most of the time doctors (due to the fact that lethal injection is the most popular form of capital punishment).

Most physicians take the Hippocratic Oath, one that states that they must uphold ethical standards in their line of work. This oath dates back to Greek medical texts, so while there have been minor tweaks to the Oath, the bottom line message that still stands is to do no harm. When most doctors attend multiple years of schooling and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, they graduate med school with the intent of saving lives, not taking them. While most lethal injections are done by the same physician’s time after time, this plays a heavy toll on their hearts. Lethal injections involve two doctors; each doctor connects their IV to a vein in the arms of the inmate. One doctor is given a sugar water mixture that does not do anything to the inmate. The other doctor is given the lethal injection that looks the exact same at the sugar water mixture. However, each doctor does not know which one they received; an effort to release stress from their lives. The theory in this is that because they don’t know exactly if they had the serum or not, they can’t be upset and feel as if they personally killed the inmate. 

Capital punishment, while it has been around for decades, is an outdated form of punishment that does not get anyone anywhere. The death penalty not only costs more for the American people, questions the 8th amendment, but it also plays a major roll on the people involved in the case. However, the largest component to as why we should abolish the death penalty, is due to the fact that it is irreversible.

“Twenty-one condemned inmates have been released since 1993, including seven from the state of Illinois alone” (deathplenaltyinfo.org). In today’s capital punishment society, states emphasize quick convictions and executions and minimal resources involved. This has led to an increase number of executions and convictions of innocent people. During 1993, a member of the judiciary subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights requested a list of people wrongful convicted and was sentenced the death penalty. This list reported 48 innocent people who have been released in the previous 20 years due to the fact that the evidence was found to be proven not guilty. The subcommittee searched to find how and why these mistakes were happening and how they could prevent them in the future. However, it was a little too late for Joseph Burrows, a man who in 1989 was convicted wrongfully of murder.

On November 8th, 1988, the body of dead 88-year older farmer William Dulin was found at his home in Kankakee, Illinois. Shortly after his body was found, a man attempted to cash a check in Dulin’s name. Unfortunately for this man, the people at the bank had already found out about William’s death and called the police. The man said that he was not alone, in fact, one of the guys he was with, Joseph Burrows, killed Dulin. Even during the trial, Burrows had four eye witnesses saying he was at least 50 miles away from the murder cite, as well as there was no physical evidence at the crime scene that linked Burrow to Dulin’s death. Unfortunately for Burrow, the two men that he was with decided to take a plea bargain. The bargain was that in exchange for admitting their guilt, they would testify against Joseph Burrows. While one man was sentenced to 23 years in prison, and the other 30 years, Burrow was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Many years later, at hearing the two other men testify, Burrow was granted a new trial where the jury approved an unsuccessful appeal, which then led to the charges being dropped from Burrow. In September of 1994, Burrows left the death row in Illinois state penitentiary with only $100,000 for compensation.

While death row cases should not be taken with a grain of salt, the damages that will occur to one person if they are wrongfully convicted, are irreversible. Obviously an execution is the worst penalty of a wrongful execution, however there are many other social and mental effects. If an inmate is on death row for 10 years before they are released on wrongful conviction, they have not been a contributing member to society for that amount of time. While these people are not in contact with anyone for the amount of time that they are locked up, they cannot also participate in everyday activates people who are not in jail do. For example, they cannot eat when they feel like it, shower when they want to, go for a walk along the river, even vote when during election years. They are stripped of all of their rights, even though they haven’t done anything wrong. While some people could say that it’s better to be safe and lock people up then put dangerous people back on the streets, others would argue that being convicted of something that will put oneself on death row and a chance of possible execution, it’s not to be taken lightly. 

Another problem with capital punishment and the death penalty that goes along with the idea that the death penalty is irreversible is that fact that juries are discriminative. Whether people like to admit to it or not, everyone has some sort of prejudice in them. This has been another problem for wrongful convictions of death row inmates. For example, let’s say most of the jury is full of successful white adults who have children who stay out of trouble; living a fairly easy/ normal life. If they are deciding the fate of a black male, one who lives in the projects with constant struggle, who shot a man trying to get his son to join a gang, the situation becomes very difficult. While jurists are sworn to take an oath that they will only speak the truth and look at the situation with an unbiased decision, it is hard to eliminate all misconceptions about the person on trial. 

The most common opposing argument that one would make as to why we should not abolish the death penalty is because many people believe that what death row inmates have done are horrific things so they deserve to die. For example, it makes sence to kill someone after they have killed someone, right? Except that the logic behind that is not clearly thought out. Inmates who have been in solidary confinement wish they were executed instead, including William Blake. After being convicted of drug charges as well as the murder of a police officer, the judge on Blake’s case wanted him receive the electric chair. However, the jury disagreed and decided to sentence Blake to “77 years in life. 25 of those years were spent in solidary confinement” (Blake). In an essay Blake wrote, he goes on to talk about how he lived in a SHU housing unit which is where he was on lockdown for 23 out of the 24 hours every day. “I haven’t seen a tree or blade of grass in all that time [of four years]” (Blake). He later talks about how he wished the jury just agreed with the judge because this was the worst way to live… even worse than dying. Locking someone up and throwing away the key is an even worse punishment; one where every day they have to remember what they did and how their lives were before they were cut off from the entire world.

Capital punishment dates back to before America was even a country. The death penalty is a controversial topic in which not that may people are aware of. However, people should think to abolish the death penalty because American citizens would pay less for taxes because they wouldn’t have to fund it, the death penalty goes against the 8th amendment of fair and unusual punishment, it weighs on not just the defendant but the jury, the judge, and everyone else involved in the case, it’s irreversible so if someone is wrongfully convicted, they are basically out of  luck, as well as the death penalty deals with racism, something that people can’t overlook. The death penalty is a practice of the past and with times constantly changing, so should our judicial system.
