RECONSIDER CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

The run-up to the January 20 swearing in of our new administration appears to have included a determined effort by the outgoing administration to expedite the execution of federal death row inmates. 5 Death row inmates were executed during Mr. Trump's final weeks in office, 13 between July 2020 and January 2021. The most since 1896. Some cynics believe that the rush to execute was prompted by then President-Elect Biden signaling his opposition to capital punishment. The U.S. is the only remaining westernized democracy, and one of the few democracies world-wide, that still supports the death penalty. All European countries, except Belarus and Russia, abolished the practice on moral grounds. Abolition of capital punishment is a precondition for membership in the E.U. Twenty-eight U.S. states, the federal government and the military continue to authorize death sentences for extreme crimes. The twenty-two states that have abolished the practice thus far will soon be joined by Virginia, which is scheduled to be the first southern state to do so. A 2017 Gallup poll indicated that 55% of U.S. citizens still favor the death penalty. Although significant, this is a substantial decrease from 1994 when 80% declared favoring capital punishment. Since 1976. we have executed almost 1,500 people - 569 in Texas alone. Since 2017, we executed 87 inmates. Currently, 52 people are incarcerated on federal death row, and 2,500 nation wide. Conceptually, arguments in favor or against the application of the death penalty have probably changed very little. However, the emphasis has shifted over time. At the top of the list of arguments sits the question of morality. Proponents believe that in cases of the most heinous murders, to do less than death would fail to do justice and would be grossly disproportionate to the heinousness of the crime. They suggest that it promotes belief in and respect for "the majesty of the moral order." Opponents counter that "life is either hallowed or it is not." "We should no longer accept that capital punishment plays any constructive role in our criminal justice system." Apparently, most of the developed world agrees with that viewpoint. The recurring constitutional argument focuses on the 8th Amendment of our Constitution's provision of "cruel and unusual punishment." Former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia refused to apply that provision to the death penalty, advising: "I would not presume to tell parents whose life has been forever altered by the brutal murderer of a child that life imprisonment is punishment enough." Justice Steven Breyer retorted that today's administration of the death penalty involves three fundamental defects: (1) Serious unreliability; (2) Arbitrariness in application, and (3) Unconsciously long delays, undermining the death penalty's penological purpose. The last defect Justice Breyer identifies relates to the argument that capital punishment deters or reduces the rate of homicide. Many would agree that it does not. Back in 1990 the average time between sentencing and execution was 95 months - 8 years. Since then. this time span has grown to an average of 238 months or 19 years. Nearly one quarter of inmates on death row in the U.S. die of natural causes while awaiting execution. The likelihood is incredibly remote that some small chance of execution many years after committing a crime will influence the behavior of a sociopathic deviant who would otherwise be willing to kill if his only punishment was life imprisonment. (John Donohue, JD, Phd, Stanford). Proponents tend to dismiss the suggestion that sometimes reversible but often irrevocable mistakes show up after judicial decisions have been rendered. Nevertheless, during the last few years, DNA analyses have resulted in more that 150 inmates being removed from death row because they were declared innocent. And, since 1973, more that 170 people who had been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death were exonerated. However, sadly, 18 executions of people who were strongly believed to have been innocent actually did take place. ("Death Penalty Information Center", 2021). There does seem to be some agreement that intellectually disabled inmates should not be executed. In fact, in "Atkins v Virginia," the U.S. Supreme Court, in June of 2002, held that doing so violated the 8th Amendment's cruel and unusual punishment clause. Nevertheless, the issue remains problematic because of definitional issues. Some states insist on simply using a hard IQ of 70 and below as the cut-off point. "Mental Health America," a community based non-profit, estimates that 5-10% of all death row inmates suffer from a severe mental illness. Other arguments focus on retribution, the cost of death vs. life, closure for victims' families and the quality of representation provided by the state to those unable to afford attorneys themselves. Ultimately, we need to question the purpose of continuing to embrace capital punishment. Is it: To remove from society someone who would cause more harm? To remove someone who is incapable of rehabilitation? To deter others from committing murder? To punish the criminal? To take retribution on behalf of the victim? Most of the answers to these questions ought to make us want to join the rest of the civilized world, and abolish it all together. Theo Wierdsma