Death Penalty

Abolishing the Death Penalty The Abolishing the Death Penalty makes sense, due to the fact that it does not stop crime and is not cost effective. Death penalty statistics, on wrongful convictions from 1992 to 1999 in 64 cases from where DNA testing led to freeing convicted innocent persons. Sighting a study from 1977 to 1999 a total of 80 cases, where innocent death row inmates had to be released. Between 1973 and 1999 an average of 3.5 innocent people were freed each year from death row. 6,000 people were sentenced to death in this country, 1 in 75, of whom been released on account of innocence. If 1 of every 75 airline passengers were killed in crashes in America we would not see as this as acceptable. Death penalty costs, economic cutbacks and have caused in our criminal justice system an overload, layoffs of police and prisoners being released early and the courts have been clogged, slowing down the justice process. The budget crisis in Florida resulted in the early release of 3,000 prisoners. In Texas, prisoners were serving only 20% of their time and re-arrests had been common. Yet a few states have poured millions of dollars into the death penalty with no resulting reduction in crime. The huge costs of capital punishment had actually made America less safe, because needed financial and legal resources were being diverted from effective crime fighting strategies. California had little money for innovations like community policing, but was managing to spend $90 million per year on capital punishment. Texas, with over 300 people on death row, was spending an estimated $2.3 million per case, but the murder rate had remained, highest in the country. Politicians have used the death penalty as a tool to distinguish themselves by the toughness of their position rather than its effectiveness. Many of persons have spent 15 years wrongly imprisoned, and a few came within days of being executed. Rarely have Guilty pleas been entered when the punishment is death. Many of these trials resulted in a life sentence rather than the death penalty. The state paid the cost of life imprisonment, plus the expensive trial. California capital trials are 6 times more costly than other murder trials. Kansas indicated that a capital trial costs $116,700 more than a regular murder trial. The true costs of the death penalty include, all the added expenses of the unsuccessful trials in which the death penalty is sought but not achieved. If a defendant is convicted, but not given the death penalty, the state still incurs the cost of life imprisonment. In Texas, an average of $2.3 million per death penalty case costs taxpayers, costing about three times of imprisoning someone in a single cell for 40 years. Florida spent on each execution $3.2 million. California could save $90 million each year by abolishing capital punishment. In Illinois, in a 12-year period, there were 12 executions and 13 freed death row inmates; resulting in more innocent persons were released from death row than the number of persons put to death. New York abolished the death penalty. New Yorkers have consistently re-elected a governor whom they know will veto any death penalty legislation. It now appears that New York may be reaping the benefit of that choice. Significantly, no city in New York State, without the death penalty, is among the nation's top twenty-five cities in homicide rates with murders decreasing by over 11 percent according to statistics recently released by the FBI. Community policing is a strategy for cutting down on crime by making police officers, not just as people who react to crime, but also as people who solve problems by becoming an integral part of the neighborhoods they serve. New York had 750 foot officers on the streets a few years ago. Today that number is 3,000. There is also the idea of the immortality of the soul or spirit most believe in, where the soul of the executed one goes and what happens ought to be of concern to issue of the death penalty. It makes sense to rehabilitate prisoners, than just sending them off to some god or the unknown darkness. I believe in reincarnation, why not start now to evolve the soul in a rehabilitation center before they die if they are guilty, and if not they would at least have the opportunity to prove their innocence while they are alive, in a rehabilitation center that treats people with some dignity; that can mold a different personality of which may have also been a victim, turned victimizer due to set of circumstances beyond their control or knowledge. It is time for politicians and the public to give this costly punishment a hard look. Death penalty cases are much more expensive than other criminal cases and cost more than imprisonment for life with no possibility of parole. Ronald Lee Vaught 10/08/009