Death Penalty Is Inhumane Essays - , Term Papers

Death Penalty Is Inhumane December 12, 1984. Georgia. After the first jolt failed to kill Alpha Otis Stephens, he struggled for eight minutes before a second jolt finished the job. The first electrical charge took two minutes. Then there was a six minute pause so his body could cool down before physicians could examine him and declare that another jolt was needed. During that six minute interval, Stephens took 23 breaths. (Radelet,1998) Countless studies have shown that the murder rate per capita has not gone down since capital punishment was legalized in 1976, but it has actually gone up. We also need to consider the fact that it costs taxpayers less to give a prisoner a life sentence without parole than it does to keep them on death row. There is no doubt that the death penalty is an expensive, inhumane, and an ineffective deterrent to crime. In 1972, the Supreme court decides that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment according to the eighth amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Furman v. Georgia decision stopped the death penalty in America. Capital punishment in America went on a four year break. In 1976 it made a comeback. Two of the same justices that were in the supreme court for the Furman decision were still in the court. The case was Gregg v. Georgia, and it turned the nation around. The court now held that the death penalty does not invariably violate the Constitution. They went back on their word from four years ago. They pointed out that even the first congress of the US had enacted legislation providing the death penalty for certain crimes. So they put the enforcement of the death penalty into the hands of the states. Currently there are 36 states that practice the death penalty. Twenty-seven states use lethal injection, twelve use the electric chair, seven use the gas chamber, four still use the classic noose-and-rope technique of hanging, and Utah still uses the firing squad (though only once). (Bedau, 1997) The people that aren't being executed are spending more time on death row each and every year. The average stay in 1983 was just over four years. that number has nearly tripled since then, with the average stay being 125 months. (Tushner, 1994) Many people seem to think that by killing a person we are saving the taxpayer's money. But in reality, holding a prisoner on death row is more expensive than holding them in prison without the possibility of parole. It costs up to three times the amount to keep a prisoner on death row than it would be to keep them in prison for the rest of their lives. Capital cases cost at least $2.6 million more per execution in some states. The most extensive study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2 million per execution over the costs of a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence imprisonment for life. On a national basis, these figures come out to an extra cost of half a billion dollars since 1976 for having the death penalty. In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. (Justice For All Network,1997) A lot of the expenses come from the long drawn out appeals process that we are giving our criminals, and the court appointed attorneys that they are receiving. Speaking of which, the poor and mentally ill are being sent to death row much quicker than the rich. Why? Because they cannot afford a good lawyer. They are sent to the court and usually end up with a court appointed attorney, who could usually care less what happens in the case. Most of them also have very little experience in capital cases. Richard Lacayo's article shows that. He says that some cities are trying to change things so that the court appointed attorneys have a little help by setting up public-defender offices. But there are still so many places that rely on the list of local lawyers to draw from for their capital case attorney. (Lacayo, 1992) However, it is very hard to blame attorneys in general. According to the article, an Atlanta private attorney may be being paid $75 an hour, while a court appointed lawyer will make about $30. States like Alabama make it even worse by placing a limit on how much a court appointed