Death Penalty: A Fresh Look

Fluctuating support of the death penalty has been a trend throughout our history.  At the turn of the century, six states had abolished the death penalty.  However, during World War I and the Russian Revolution, the abolition movement began to lose support, leaving the 1930’s with a massive increase in executions.  This began to change during the 1960’s due to the civil rights movement, which brought the support of the death penalty to an all time low.  Years later, in 1972, the death penalty was put under major scrutiny and suspended on the grounds of cruel and unusual punishment.  However, suspension was short lived, lasting only until 1976 when the Supreme Court ruled in its favor in Gregg v. Georgia.  As of today, only Washington D.C. and twelve states do not support the use of the death penalty.  This long-standing debate of whether or not to legalize capital punishment has been largely influenced by the moral and social attitudes of society.  In general, voters’ views about public safety vary.  Voters’ choices to support or oppose the death penalty have also been found to be directly related to social issues such as homicide rate, large influxes of narcotics, terrorist policies, national tragedies, and a flawed criminal justice system.  However, in a 2001 poll taken by the Washington Post and ABC News, 75% of the people participating felt that the use of the death penalty is “fair” because it ensures that murderers will not be able to murder again.  With such a high percentage of individuals in support of death as punishment, it makes you wonder why the remaining 15% have continued to argue against its use.

Of the popular protests against the death penalty, none are more noted that the idea that it violates every human’s basic Eighth Amendment right: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted”.  Included in this argument is the idea that the death penalty shows unfair favoritism towards those of color.  It is true that the United States’ criminal justice system falls heavily on African American males.  Many death penalty opponents claim that most death row inmates consist of African American males whom have murdered white individuals.  However, data shows that many more inter-racial rather than outer-racial slayings account for the majority of individuals who are placed on death row.  Furthermore, 57% of the criminals actually executed are white.  Along with the death penalty being considered by some as racist, the legal process for which it is distributed has come under fire recently for the killing of innocent people, largely due to advancements in DNA technology.  Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 113 people have been released from death row after being re-tried and found innocent.  Regardless of all the safeguards in place, at least one innocent victim of justice will fall through the crack.  Is it humane, in the face of justice, to take the chance of sacrificing innocent people in order to kill those that may deserve it?  This notion, though concerning, is not a question of the constitutionality of the death penalty, but rather a question for the legal process leading up to it.