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“It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it. Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their kind.” George Bernard Shaw The overwhelming support for capital punishment in our country is puzzling to me. Poll after poll shows that over 80% of America is in favor of the death penalty (Hertzberg 49). We rave about freedom and the virtues of democracy, but then we give our government ultimate power over our lives. Am I missing something? Are we a little confused, or just misinformed? After all, America is unique among other democratic nations in its use of the death penalty. Capital punishment is a useful tool for dictators and tyrannical countries; however, little by little the death penalty has been abolished in most countries except the United States. We stand proudly with countries such as Pakistan, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia on this issue. It wasn’t always this way, however. The United States was once in step with and even ahead of the international community on the issue of the abolition of the death penalty. In fact, from 1968 through 1976 there was not a single execution in America. In 1972, the Supreme Court in Furman vs. Georgia had declared capital punishment – “as then practiced,” which proved to be a fatal loophole phrase – “cruel and unusual punishment” and therefore unconstitutional. Then in 1976, the death penalty was reinstated (Bedau 29). My question is why? What justification can there possibly be for this brutal and horrendous practice? In this paper, I will analyze the flaws in the justifications commonly used in pro-capital punishment arguments, and I will conclude that the death penalty is ineffective, immoral, and inherently unjust. Let us begin in our analysis with one of the most commonly used arguments for capital punishment – deterrence. Pro-death penalty advocates argue that a rational person will avoid criminal behavior if the severity of the punishment outweighs the benefits of the illegal conduct. In other words, their theory suggests that anyone who might kill will be deterred from killing if his/her consequence is death. This seems reasonable. After all, deterrence is usually the purpose of punishment, and in most cases, the outcome. For instance, when I was grounded for coming home past my curfew when I was sixteen, I learned to not do it again. After being caught speeding, I now slow down when approaching that intersection in fear of receiving another ticket. However, applying this theory to the issue of capital punishment is unique and problematic in several ways. The most problematic element of the deterrence theory lies with the killer’s motivation. The deterrence argument requires that the killer has taken the time to consider the consequences of his actions. Although it might be true that in some cases killers have taken the time to plan their attack, most murders occur in the heat of the moment. According to Eugene B. Block, “those who commit violent crimes often do so in moments of passion, rage and fear – times when irrationality reigns” (Block 107). The killer usually has no time to consider the consequences that might deter him or rationally decide that the crime might not be the best path for his future. Killers kill out of emotion, not reason. I should note that I do not mention this to take away any kind of responsibility of the killer. My point is to show that in cases of homicides, the threat of the death penalty is not effective in deterring those who kill. This point is made clear after taking a closer look at the statistics of homicide rates since the death penalty was reinstated. Study after study has shown that capital punishment has shown no significant effect on homicide rates. In Hendrick Hertzberg’s article “Premeditated Execution,” he states that there is no evidence of a deterrence effect in the rate of murders in Texas. His study concluded that the number of executions was unrelated to murder rates in general, and that the number of executions was unrelated to felony rates (Hertzberg 49). In addition, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that the South repeatedly has the highest murder rate and also accounts for 80% of executions. The Northeast, which has less than 1% of all executions in the U.S., has the lowest murder rate (Block 141).
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