13 Reasons to Oppose the Death Penalty

There is a better alternative: life without parole.

In Oregon, we have the option of sentencing convicted murderers to life in prison
without the possibility of parole. There are currently over 121 people in Oregon who
have received this sentence.

The death penalty puts innocent lives at risk.

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, 138
innocent men and women have been released from death row, including some who
came within minutes of execution. In Missouri, Texas and Virginia investigations
have been opened to determine if those states executed innocent men. To execute
an innocent person is morally reprehensible; this is a risk we cannot take.

Race and place determine who lives and who dies.

Those who kill whites are more likely to be sentenced to die than those who kill
African-Americans. In Oregon, prosecutors from some counties are more likely to
pursue the death penalty than others are.

We pay many millions for the death penalty system.

According to the Oregonian, in 1995 the trials for three Washington County murder
cases cost more than $1.5 million. One was sentenced to death. The two others,
one of whom was found guilty of four murders, are not on death row. In 2000 a fiscal
impact summary from the Oregon Department of Administrative Services stated
that the Oregon Judicial Department alone would save $2.3 million annually if the
death penalty were eliminated. It is estimated that total prosecution and defense
costs to the state and counties equal $9 million per year.

Poor quality defense leaves many sentenced to death.

One of the most frequent causes of reversals in death penalty cases is ineffective
assistance of counsel. A study at Columbia University found that 68% of all death
penalty cases were reversed on appeal, with inadequate defense as one of the main
reasons requiring reversal.

Capital punishment does not deter crime.

Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter
people from committing crime. Around our country, states without the death
penalty have a lower murder rate than neighboring states with the death penalty.

There is a better way to help the families of murder victims.

Families of murder victims undergo severe trauma and loss which no one should
minimize. However, executions do not help these people heal nor do they end their
pain; the extended process prior to executions prolongs the agony of the family.
Families of murder victims would benefit far more if the funds now being used for
the costly process of executions were diverted to counseling and other assistance.

The death penalty is applied at random.

The death penalty is a lethal lottery: of the 15,000 to 17,000 homicides committed
every year in the United States, approximately 120 people are sentenced to death,
less than 1%.

Capital punishment goes against almost every religion.

Although isolated passages of the Bible have been quoted in support of the death
penalty, almost all religious groups in the United States regard executions as
immoral.

Mentally ill people are executed.

One out of every ten who has been executed in the United States since 1977 is
mentally ill, according to Amnesty International and the National Association on
Mental Illness. Many mentally ill defendants are unable to participate in their trials
in any meaningful way and appear unengaged, cold, and unfeeling before the jury.
Some have been forcibly medicated in order to make them competent to be
executed. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has decreed that people with mental
retardation may not be executed, Oregon has not yet passed a law banning the
execution of the mentally ill.

The USA is keeping company with notorious human rights abusers.

The vast majority of countries in Western Europe, North America and South America
more than 117 nations worldwide have abandoned capital punishment in law
or in practice. The United States remains in the same company as Iraq, Iran and
China as one of the major advocates and users of capital punishment.

We are the State. When the State kills, we are participants.

Would you choose to be the person that pulls the switch that snuffs out a human
life?

No civilians job description should include killing another person.

Corrections personnel involved in executions, like our military, frequently suffer
PTSD from having to kill. Perhaps there is a reason to have a defensive military, but
prisoners pose no threat to the well-being of our citizens. There is no reason to
place the mental health of our corrections workers at risk simply to pursue
vengeance.

Six Reasons to Oppose the Death Penalty

1. The death penalty is racist.
2. The death penalty punishes the poor.
3. The death penalty condemns the innocent to die.
4. The death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime.
5. The death penalty is "cruel and unusual punishment."
6. The death penalty fails to recognize that guilty people have the potential to change, denying them the
opportunity to ever rejoin society.

Number 3: The death penalty condemns the innocent to die.

Since 1973, 123 people in 25 states have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence.

Given the way in which the justice system herds the poor through its gates, it is no wonder that it often ensnares
innocent people. The use of plea bargains and leniency in exchange for snitch testimony often results in the least
guilty serving the most time. Often, police and prosecutors-whether under pressure or in the effort to further their
careers-make quick arrests and ignore evidence that might point in another direction.

In January 2003, Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted the sentences of all the states death row prisoners on the
grounds that the system was so flawed that it could not ensure that the innocent were spared.

There can be no doubt that some people who were innocent have been executed. Criminologist Michael Radlet notes
that between 1900 and 1992, there were 416 documented cases of innocent persons who have been convicted of
murder or capital rapea third of whom were given a death sentence. He discovered that in 23 of these cases, the
person was executed.

Number 6: The death penalty fails to recognize that guilty people have the potential to change, denying them
the opportunity to ever rejoin society.

The death sentence says some people are beyond redemption, beyond second chances, beyond being allowed to live
in society. We disagree. We believe people deserve second chances. We actually think many people are on death
row and in our prisons because they never got any first chances. Poverty, racism, neglect, violence and mental illness
are all issues impacting who becomes a criminal.

Countless prisoners have also transformed their lives, in spite of the horrific conditions behind prison bars that they
are forced to endure. Executing those individuals or condemning them to die in prison denies their ability to fully
participate and contribute in society.

You should be thankful - the "against" side is WAY easier to argue, since the facts are on your side. Here are some
points you'll want to make, and the website below has tons of backup info:

- Mistakes happen. Since 1973 in the U.S., 138 people have been released from death row with evidence of their
innocence. These are ALL people who were found guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt." A life sentence is reversible.
An execution is not.

- Cost - because of the legal apparatus designed to minimize wrongful executions (and the enormous expense of
death row incarceration), it costs taxpayers MUCH more to execute someone than to imprison them for life.

- It is not a deterrent - violent crime rates are consistently HIGHER in death penalty jurisdictions.
- It is inconsistently and arbitrarily applied.

- Because the U.S. is one of the last remaining nations with capital punishment, many other countries refuse to
extradite known criminals who should be standing trial here.

- It fosters a culture of violence by asserting that killing is an acceptable solution to a problem.

- Jesus was against it (see Matthew 5:7 & 5:38-39, James 4:12, Romans 12:17-21, John 8:7, and James 1:20).

- Life without parole (LWOP) is on the books in most states now (all except Alaska), and it means what it says. People
who get this sentence are taken off the streets. For good.

- As Voltaire once wrote, "let the punishments of criminals be useful. A hanged man is good for nothing; a man
condemned to public works still serves the country, and is a living lesson."

- Whether youre a hardened criminal or a government representing the people, killing another human being is wrong.
Period. He did it first is not a valid excuse.

Q: Doesn't the Death Penalty deter crime, especially murder?

A: No, there is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than long terms of imprisonment. States
that have death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without such laws. And states that have
abolished capital punishment show no significant changes in either crime or murder rates.

Q: If execution is unacceptable, what is the alternative?

A: INCAPACITATION. Convicted murderers can be sentenced to life imprisonment, as they are in many countries and states that
have abolished the death penalty. Most state laws allow life sentences for murder that severely limit or eliminate the possibility of
parole. Today, 37 states allow juries to sentence defendants to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole instead of the
death penalty.

Q: Isn't the Death Penalty necessary as just retribution for victims' families?
A: No. "Reconciliation means accepting you can't undo the murder; but you can decide how you want to live afterwards" (Murder
Victims' Families for Reconciliation, Inc.)

WHY THE DEATH PENALTY IS WRONG

Its Permanent

Imagine that youve been convicted of murder and thrown in jail for life. Five years later, new evidence surfaces that
proves once and for all that you were innocent. The prison apologizes to you, and even though youve lost five
precious years of your life that youll never get back, you are officially free again and most likely youll be
provided with a pretty decent monetary compensation too. But what if instead you were sentenced to death and
executed? In that case, the new evidence discovered after 5 years wouldve been absolutely and completely useless.
You still wouldve died for a crime you didnt commit. This happens more than youd think there are dozens of
cases where people (while usually not officially acquitted) were proven innocent post-humously. Whats more, 40%
of all polled Americans believe that innocent people are executed frequently, with only 3% believing that this never
happens. So if 97% of people can agree that the system kills innocent people, isnt it time to replace it?
2. Executions Turn Innocents Into Killers

Its easy to take the phrase put to death by the state literally like, the whole state just suddenly appears in a
physical form and obliterates the guilty. Weve put the image of the hooded executioner behind us as a caricature
from the past, but really, the only thing that has changed is the hood. Even in the most automated systems for
execution, a human hand is still needed. Someone has to pull the switch. Someone has to push the button. And that
someone is going to have to spend the rest of his or her life with the knowledge that they killed another human
being, which might be just as terrible as being put to death yourself. The sheer fact that police officers who are
forced to take a life on the job are required by law to visit a psychologist afterwards should tell you that taking a life
is not something that can be done lightly. And lets not forget about the doctors who have given an oath to never hurt
anyone and suddenly find themselves forced to become complicit in what is essentially murder state-sanctioned
murder, but murder nonetheless.

3. The Death Penalty Is Ridiculously Expensive

Try and take a guess how much an execution costs, from the arrest of the eventual death row inmate all the way to
the procedure that puts them to death. No, seriously, guess. $10k? $100k? $1 mil? The truth is that, on average, it
costs about $250 million per prisoner. Yes, the price of putting a single person to death is more than most of us can
ever hope to see in the entirety of our lifetimes. This may sound like a ridiculously inflated number, but keep in
mind that a murder trial with the prosecutor calling for the death penalty costs millions more than one where the
sought verdict is life without parole. Additionally, the accommodation of death row prisoners is several times more
expensive than that of regular prisoners, and the procedure itself also costs a ridiculous amount of money, especially
if the method of execution is lethal injection. The drugs that are used are very specific and cant really be replaced or
substituted without risking horrible side effects (Pancuronium Bromide, the drug used second in the sequence,
relaxes the muscles and paralyses the body, including the diaphragm, causing the prisoner to slowly suffocate to
death unless theyre not given the other two drugs as well, which knock them out and stop the heart). At the end of
the day, even if you hold someone in prison for 50 years, thats still not going to cost nearly as much as an execution
would.

4. It Just Doesnt Work

In the 70s, the death penalty was reinstated in the US after a ban that lasted for decades. It was meant to make
people even more afraid of committing crimes I guess someone somewhere assumed that people would say Hey,
life in prison isnt so bad, I can kinda dig that, but death? Whoa, thatll definitely stop me from killing someone!
Naturally, it didnt work at all. While violent crime has decreased slightly in recent years, none of that can be
connected to the carrying out of executions. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the existence of the
death penalty is acting as a deterrent for violent crimes, so why do we even keep it around? It has absolutely no
purpose, and pointless things need to be removed.