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KevinGlenn.net
issues: the death penalty-2

The issue of Retribution / Revenge

Advocates
•        Disturbed by murder, only the death of the murderer can restore justice.
•        Life should be required for a life taken.

Opponents
•        Does the death of the murderer truly bring a sense of retribution?
•        Is retribution essentially motivated by a need for revenge?

The issue of Deterrence

Advocates
•        Studies cannot prove whether or not the death penalty actually deters criminal
acts.

Opponents
•        Capital punishment may serve as a deterrent to those who calculate the cost of
committing a murder, but “most homicides are impulsive crimes of passion in which
killers do not consider the consequences of their actions”- (Detroit DA John O’Haire.
States without The Death Penalty, A19.)
•        The death penalty actually has a imitative effect on other potential murderers. –
(Stassen Capital Punishment, 2, 5, 13, 62, 100, 128, 130 and Bailie Violence Unveiled.)
o        Murder rates increase in areas where executions have been carried out
o        Murder rates are higher in states that have the death penalty
o        Murder rates increase in nations at war. The message is given by government
that killing enemies is the right thing to do.
o        Returning veterans who have participated in war have a higher murder rate.
•        Deterrence theory serves as a quasi-religious ritual of scapegoating, a Jewish
ritual in which the sins of the people were symbolically transferred to an animal. (Tim
McVeigh, Mousoui, Hussein). According to scriptures, Jesus has provided the final blood
sacrifice for all sins. Humans cannot and should not be made to do this.

The Issue of Race

Opponents
•        The odds of a conviction of death are four times higher if the defendant is black.
•        In states with the death penalty, 96% of death convictions were based on the
race of the victim or the race of the defendant.
•        In states with the death penalty, 98% of the decision making personnel (lawyers
and judges) are white, while only 1% are black.
•        Of those persons executed since 1976, only 11 whites were executed (their
victims were black). 158 blacks, whose victims were white, have been executed in that
same time frame.
•        No affluent person has been given the death penalty in U.S. history.

Advocates
•        The number of executions is simply a reflection of the fact that more African
Americans commit violent crimes than whites.

The Issue of Mistaken Convictions
In 1991, a Senate Judiciary Committee began a study of over 4,600 death convictions
from 1973-1995. Their findings were interesting…
•        The rate of serious reversible error (errors severe enough to call for a retrial) for
death convictions was found to be 68%...almost 7 out of 10.
o        Common errors included incompetent, court-appointed defense lawyers.
o        Failure of defense lawyers to seek important evidence that would have defended
their client’s innocence.
o        Instances of defense lawyers appearing drunk in court, and sleeping through
court appointments.
•        82% of the trials in question from the study found defendants deserving less than
the death penalty.
•        7% of them were actually found to be innocent
•        Only 11% retained the death penalty upon retrial.
•        Among states with the death penalty
o        24 had an error rate of 52% or higher
o        22 had an error rate of 60% or higher
o        15% had an error rate of 70% or higher
o        Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Indiana, Wyoming, Arizona
and California had error rates of 75% or higher.
Can a system riddled with such error be trusted to wield the power of life and death?

The Issue of Innocent Executions
•        Since 1900, there have been 416 documented cases of persons being found
innocent after their execution.
•        In 1999, 12 death row inmates were released in Illinois after new evidence
proved their innocence.

Is there a restorative way to deal with murder?
When asked, most American favored life in prison without the possibility of parole over
the death penalty.

An even greater number favored life in prison with the possibility of parole plus work,
with the income of the inmate’s work going to the families of the victim as a sign of
accountability and restitution.

What do you think?

What would be the advantages and disadvantages to such a sentence?

How should Christians seek to preserve life, even when a life has been taken?

Can a Christian support taking life for life, when we have been commanded to leave
vengeance to God?