Death Penalty: Is it worth having?
**Since I am redesigning VASS due to technical difficulties, I have not been able to present recent thoughts that would appear on that blog. I hope you will bear with me as I present posts that belong on that blog on this one. This is a temporary situation.**
I received an interesting notice from the NAACP today in reference to Gov. Bill Richardson and New Mexico. I had not heard about this before, but it seems that tonight Gov. Richardson will either repeal or allow the death penalty for his State. The NAACP is against the death penalty.
This is an interesting question. Is the death penalty worth having?
Well the first question for me is one that the NAACP emphasizes in its hope to repeal the law. It is disproportionately used against African Americans and Hispanics across the nation. Some 43% of those sentenced to the death penalty are people of color. That is virtually double the percentage of people of color in America.
When you consider, as I discussed in the post and comments of The most Dangerous people in America, that the single largest group of violent criminals in America are White males 18 – 25 years of age, you would expect the death penalty percentages to be different. But the fact that, as I recall, a jury is some 6x more likely to convict a person of color in a death penalty case (and higher when the victim of the crime is White) shines through and explains it all.
Even if you chose to ignore that, there is no question that people of color – especially African Americans – are more likely to be tried and convicted of any crime and sentenced more harshly. The Department of Justice figured that out. Not that any African American didn’t know it already.
So I understand the NAACP’s position. Since the legal system is skewed against people of color, and we are more likely to be victims of incarceration and death – even if innocent – it should not be allowed. And I can’t argue that feeling. It’s perfectly reasonable logic.
But I still believe in the death penalty.
Given the fact that people of color are most likely to be given this punishment. Given that the legal system is broken. Given even the thought that some have moral or religious convictions that are antithetical to this action.
But here is my problem. I do not believe that men like Jeffrey Dahmer (given a life sentence – killed in prison), Timothy McVeigh (executed in 2001), Johannes Mehserle (finally awaiting trial) should live out their lives on my dime. This is also true of crack, heroin, and meth dealers, repeat child molesters, and/or gang bangers that kill innocents in the spreading of their warped views.
Were it up to me, they all would be stuck in rooms half their size when they weren’t busy breaking boulders into tiny pebbles. Were it up to me they would be lucky to hear a radio, never mind a television.
But I am a harsh individual when it comes to those that prey upon society. Many would find my forms of punishment far too brutal, perhaps even torturous. Thus my option is to have them killed. DNA and other absolute proof provided beforehand as a requirement, never on the sole evidence of an eyewitness. But then once there is no longer reasonable doubt, death.
Given the choice of spending $30,000 a year (more than the average American makes in a year) to imprison one of these men for life or killing them I choose the death penalty. If it takes 10 years for all doubt to be removed it cost $300,000 plus another $300 or so in electricity cost (less if you use a firing squad – which can be automated). If you take the average serial killer, a White male about 30 – 40 years old, a life sentence equates to some $900,000 before they die. Possibly more.
So the cost is cheaper to kill them.
Morally is a tougher thought. Though I find it reprehensible that a repeat child molester or a crack dealer, as examples, who can cause irreparable harm to (and possibly lead to the death of) tens if not hundreds of people should come to the end of their lives relatively peacefully in prison – while watching a rerun of Seinfeld. That’s atrocious to me.
So yes the problem is the manner in which the death penalty is applied, and moreso the need to fix the biased and unjust legal system. But those are problems separate of the people that mandated the existence of the death penalty in the first place.
I would not spare the life of a mass murderer because some are squeamish. I would not spare a crack dealer that actively poisoned hundreds just to get a ghettofabulous set of clothes because some are uncomfortable. Think of how uncomfortable the victims of these types of criminals must feel. Think of how squeamish the families felt at seeing loved ones dead body.
Is the death penalty a perfect punishment? No. But there is neither perfect justice nor legal system. Yet when applied properly it is an eye for an eye, and that is the basis of all laws and justice when you think about it.
The argument I think the NAACP and others against the death penalty should be making is one where the ultimate punishment is applied appropriately. Evenhanded in the manner and type of people that receive it. If there is to be a change in the death penalty in New Mexico, or anywhere in the U.S., that is the direction that energy and time should be dedicated to.
But that is my opinion. Let me know what you think. And if you wish, pass this on to Gov. Richardson. I would love to know his position to my thoughts.
I received an interesting notice from the NAACP today in reference to Gov. Bill Richardson and New Mexico. I had not heard about this before, but it seems that tonight Gov. Richardson will either repeal or allow the death penalty for his State. The NAACP is against the death penalty.
This is an interesting question. Is the death penalty worth having?
Well the first question for me is one that the NAACP emphasizes in its hope to repeal the law. It is disproportionately used against African Americans and Hispanics across the nation. Some 43% of those sentenced to the death penalty are people of color. That is virtually double the percentage of people of color in America.
When you consider, as I discussed in the post and comments of The most Dangerous people in America, that the single largest group of violent criminals in America are White males 18 – 25 years of age, you would expect the death penalty percentages to be different. But the fact that, as I recall, a jury is some 6x more likely to convict a person of color in a death penalty case (and higher when the victim of the crime is White) shines through and explains it all.
Even if you chose to ignore that, there is no question that people of color – especially African Americans – are more likely to be tried and convicted of any crime and sentenced more harshly. The Department of Justice figured that out. Not that any African American didn’t know it already.
So I understand the NAACP’s position. Since the legal system is skewed against people of color, and we are more likely to be victims of incarceration and death – even if innocent – it should not be allowed. And I can’t argue that feeling. It’s perfectly reasonable logic.
But I still believe in the death penalty.
Given the fact that people of color are most likely to be given this punishment. Given that the legal system is broken. Given even the thought that some have moral or religious convictions that are antithetical to this action.
But here is my problem. I do not believe that men like Jeffrey Dahmer (given a life sentence – killed in prison), Timothy McVeigh (executed in 2001), Johannes Mehserle (finally awaiting trial) should live out their lives on my dime. This is also true of crack, heroin, and meth dealers, repeat child molesters, and/or gang bangers that kill innocents in the spreading of their warped views.
Were it up to me, they all would be stuck in rooms half their size when they weren’t busy breaking boulders into tiny pebbles. Were it up to me they would be lucky to hear a radio, never mind a television.
But I am a harsh individual when it comes to those that prey upon society. Many would find my forms of punishment far too brutal, perhaps even torturous. Thus my option is to have them killed. DNA and other absolute proof provided beforehand as a requirement, never on the sole evidence of an eyewitness. But then once there is no longer reasonable doubt, death.
Given the choice of spending $30,000 a year (more than the average American makes in a year) to imprison one of these men for life or killing them I choose the death penalty. If it takes 10 years for all doubt to be removed it cost $300,000 plus another $300 or so in electricity cost (less if you use a firing squad – which can be automated). If you take the average serial killer, a White male about 30 – 40 years old, a life sentence equates to some $900,000 before they die. Possibly more.
So the cost is cheaper to kill them.
Morally is a tougher thought. Though I find it reprehensible that a repeat child molester or a crack dealer, as examples, who can cause irreparable harm to (and possibly lead to the death of) tens if not hundreds of people should come to the end of their lives relatively peacefully in prison – while watching a rerun of Seinfeld. That’s atrocious to me.
So yes the problem is the manner in which the death penalty is applied, and moreso the need to fix the biased and unjust legal system. But those are problems separate of the people that mandated the existence of the death penalty in the first place.
I would not spare the life of a mass murderer because some are squeamish. I would not spare a crack dealer that actively poisoned hundreds just to get a ghettofabulous set of clothes because some are uncomfortable. Think of how uncomfortable the victims of these types of criminals must feel. Think of how squeamish the families felt at seeing loved ones dead body.
Is the death penalty a perfect punishment? No. But there is neither perfect justice nor legal system. Yet when applied properly it is an eye for an eye, and that is the basis of all laws and justice when you think about it.
The argument I think the NAACP and others against the death penalty should be making is one where the ultimate punishment is applied appropriately. Evenhanded in the manner and type of people that receive it. If there is to be a change in the death penalty in New Mexico, or anywhere in the U.S., that is the direction that energy and time should be dedicated to.
But that is my opinion. Let me know what you think. And if you wish, pass this on to Gov. Richardson. I would love to know his position to my thoughts.
Labels: death penalty, Gov. Richardson, legal system, NAACP, New Mexico, Oscar Grant, people of color
posted by M. Vass | 4:50 PM
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