Opinion

Face-off: Death Penalty, while not perfect, is viable

By Paul Giuliano ’19

Capital punishment isn’t perfect but it’s lawful and appropriate in select cases. The death penalty and its decades of ongoing debate of moral and legal implications are not without their fair share of controversy and deliberation. I cannot, and will not, stand before you and dictate that the death penalty is a perfectly executed (no pun intended) responsibility of the Justice Department. However, capital punishment is a viable, legal solution to the most egregious crimes that occur in our home country.

There have been more than dozen studies since 2001 concluding that capital punishment has a deterrent effect. The death penalty acts as an inhibitor to committing gruesome crimes since criminals know the consequences to their actions and are unwilling to face the possibility of death. They therefore forego those crimes such as murder (the crimes punishable by death vary by state). According to a study by professors at Emory University, each execution deters an average of 18 murders. Others studies have put this number at five and 14. Regardless, the implementation and continued usage of the death penalty undoubtedly saves lives nationwide. When Illinois took a hiatus from executions in 2000, 150 additional murders occurred over the subsequent four years. Certainly, this significant increase cannot all be accounted for due to the suspension

of executions, however at an average of 18 murders a year, almost half of these lives could have been saved.

Capital punishment does have its fair share of inefficiencies. At least 47 executions have been botched since 1977. No one deserves an inhumane death even though most of these criminals themselves delivered just that. There is a simple solution to this problem and it is rooted in the method of death. Lethal injection is riddled with issues of missmeasured barbiturates and elongated deaths sometimes up to 2 hours. The solution may be an unseen, aged method of execution: firing squad. Although it is considered primeval, it is certainly the most efficient method. A quick, efficient death is a humane death, and firing squad best provides that while being vastly cheaper than lethal injection. Utah recently reinstated firing squad as a secondary method in 2015.

Some may consider the costs associated with the death penalty when debating. The cost of imprisonment is roughly $34,000 a year. Prisoners with life sentences without parole spend an average of 50 years in penitentiaries. The cost of trial and appeals for this type of imprisonment is $75,000 on average. Assuming a conservative 2 percent increase in costs per year, the costs equate to over $3 million for 50 years of detention. If costs increase by a modest four percent then criminals with life without parole cost taxpayers $5.5 million dollars. Members of death row cost about $60,000, but they are incarcerated for an average of just six years with litigation costs of about $1.5 million due to the extensive appeal process. The cost of a death row inmate equates to $1.88 million assuming a 2 percent cost increase. Why should we spend millions of taxpayer dollars on housing and feeding heinous criminals? Our national debt is a debate for another time, but we should not expand it by paying for the world’s most atrocious, monstrous people to live.

Capital punishment saves lives and if we can clean up the minor inefficiencies then this policy can be implemented successfully. The legality of  capital punishment has been established by Gregg v. Georgia (1972) and isn’t even a topic of debate. On a personal level, when I examine the controversy of capital punishment, I look at those who have been put to death in the past. This isn’t a place to describe their sickening, crimes, but these disgusting monstrosities shouldn’t be given the right to be called humans. I searched through certain cases while researching for this article and for the cases I saw, there is a clear case for why these criminals should no longer walk this earth. If you disagree, I suggest you go through a series of famous death row cases and reference them when decide for yourself whether these “people” (I say that with extreme caution) deserve to live out the rest of their lives.

Based on evidence of deterrence, reduced costs, fixing methodology inefficiencies and referencing the actual atrocities that have resulted in the death penalty, I am able to state that Capital punishment is a viable and legal solution to keeping our homes and country safer. It is most certainly not without its issues, but if these concerns are addressed and solved, the death penalty continue to be utilized as a punishment for only the most heinous crimes.

 

To see the other side of the argument, click here

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