Essay on Prison Reform and the Death Penalty

Introduction to the death penalty

There has been a total of 1,533 executions including lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, and the firing squad since 1976 in the United States. Berry III, W. W. (2019) found that since 1976 twenty-two of the convicted have been executed for offenses committed as juveniles. The death penalty also called as capital punishment.  Capital punishment is currently authorized in 27 states and 19 states do not authorize the death penalty. Capital crimes and offenses that are eligible to receive the death penalty include murder, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and treason.  Most defendants will sit on death row for several years awaiting on the appeals process. The longest known to sit on death row is 52 years. The death penalty should be banned in the United States due to the wrongfully convicted, moral and ethical issues, and it is an unnecessary expense.

Wrongfully Convicted Defendants

One reason why the death penalty should be banned is because of the wrongfully convicted defendants sentenced to the death in the United States. Beety, V. E. (2020) found that the National Academy of Sciences reports that at least 4.1 percent of defendants sentenced to death in the United States have been innocent.  More than 180 people have been released from death row with evidence that they did not have at the time to prove their innocence.  However, they sat on death row for most of their lives. Defendants that were not able to gain proper legal counsel had a poorer outcome.  Federal courts started investigating the errors and mistakes, requiring retrials and more experienced counsel with selected juries, and were granted scientific testing.  It is said that there is no systematic method to determine the accuracy of criminal conviction.  If there were, the errors would be discovered. It has been found that it is not ethical to execute based on possible errors or mistakes due to lack of evidence.  

Moral and Ethical issues

It is important to protect the safety and welfare of all citizens from actual criminals not the convicted innocent defendants.  There have been many mistakes such as no DNA analysis, false confessions due to hours of interrogations, and poor investigations.  The criminal justice system has an obligation to serve and protect. The death penalty should be banned due to unethical issues.  Liptak (2011) found that racial issues are on the arise. It has been found that lower income defendants and African and native Americans are more likely to receive the death penalty than white and middle-class defendants. It is an ethical issue for the co-victims of the executed from the defendants and victim’s family.  It has been known to be unfair for them to suffer the trauma of the execution according to the New York Times (2011). Defendant’s spend years on death row in uncertainty, waiting on appeals and retrials. Their life has been completely taken away from them for no reason. The time and money wasted on appeals and retrials is an issue in our criminal justice system.  It cost millions of dollars to have a defendant on death row.

Unnecessary Expense

It cost less money to have a defendant spend the rest of their life in prison than on death row. It costs millions of dollars in appeals, petitions, and retrials.  The cost in each state varies.  An example is in Texas it costs 2.3 million, about three times more than life imprisonment. Williams, R. (2011) found that New Hampshire, Colorado, and Virginia have banned the death penalty, replacing it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.  Most defendants who are sentenced to death spend their entire life in prison, but at a high cost because the death penalty was involved in the process. There are a lot of fallacies that need to be addressed in the criminal justice system before making a decision on a human being’s life.

Conclusion

With prison reform of the death penalty lives of the innocent could be saved, criminal justice system will investigate violation of human rights, and save money. The number of wrongful convictions is over a thousand and may have more that justice system is not aware of.  African Americans and low-income defendants are at higher risk for an unfair punishment due to lack of evidence and poor counsel.  It is not cost-effective for defendants to sit on death row for years before execution. There are several proven issues within our justice system that needs to be addressed and revised before any execution.  A lot of people are for the death penalty as they feel it is safer for society and the treatment the victim received should be the same as the suspected guilty criminal.  Due to the non-absolute verdicts, misleading evidence, and lack of educated counsel for the low-income defendants, Defendants should be held in prison and life without the chance of parole if without a shadow of doubt they are guilty.

References

Beety, V. E. (2020). Changed Science Writs and State Habeas Relief. Houston Law Review, 57(3), 483–531.

Berry III, W. W. (2019). Individualized Sentencing. Washington & Lee Law Review, 76(1), 13-92.

Co-victims against the death penalty. (2011, April 30). The New York Times.

Fisher, C. B. (2013). Human Rights and Psychologists’ Involvement in Assessments Related to 

Death Penalty Cases. Ethics & Behavior, 23(1), 58–61. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/10508422.2013.749761

Gudorf, C. E. (2013). Christianity and Opposition to the Death Penalty: Late Modern Shifts. Dialog: A Journal of Theology, 52(2), 99–109. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/dial.12024

Klentz, B. A., Winters, G. M., & Chapman, J. E. (2020). The CSI Effect and the impact of DNA evidence on mock jurors and jury deliberations. Psychology, Crime & Law, 26(6), 552570.https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/1068316X.2019.1708353

Williams, R. (2011). The cost of punishment: the expense of the death penalty has lawmakers reconsidering an old debate. State Legislatures, 37(7), 55.