Gallup has new results showing that 34% of Americans believe an innocent person has been executed and still support the death penalty.
This under cuts the hopes of many that the Willingham case would be a turning point in the death penalty debate.
For my money, I find the death penalty unacceptable because I find it unacceptable that the state is able to silence dissent. I don’t thinks its particular cruel, unusual or barbaric. I certainly think that there are a lot of people who “deserve” to die, in the sense that I would like to see them dead. Most of these people haven’t committed a crime per se. I just don’t like them.
However, this is different than the state putting someone to death. The state ultimately has no accountability. If Joe finally drives me over the edge and I stick an ice pick in his eye then I have to suffer the consequences. If the state wrongly executes Joe then that’s just too bad. No one working for the state has to put their own life at risk for the privilege of taking another.
Moreover, as long as Joe is in prison he has the ability to argue that he was wrongly convicted. I think this is a fundamental right people have. When we entrust the state with such power over people’s lives then their must be the opportunity for some counterbalance. In the case of criminal conviction that counterbalance is the convicted’s right to advocate for him or herself.
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Wednesday ~ October 14th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
dWj
I think that George Will has commented that a conservative, with his views of the flaws inherent in government enterprises, should at least be skeptical of giving government the power of life and death.
I’m part of that 34%, incidentally, but I do think the death penalty should be rare, and engaged with extreme circumspection.
Wednesday ~ October 14th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Apex
I agree it is a bit dangerous to trust the govt with that much power.
I am also part of the 34%.
I would be fine with no death penalty if:
1. Life in prison always meant you die in prison, no exceptions, no early parole, no you paid your debt, no we are running low on funds need to clear out some prison cells, etc.
In addition the life of the accussed is not the only life to consider. The potential for further loss of life due to people being let out, due to people performing crimes from the inside (it happens), due to the loss of the deterrent effect (there is proof in studies that the death penalty does have some deterrent effect in some cases).
A lot of people doubt deterrence by arguing that these kinds of crimes are not comitted by people in situations where they are considering the effects of the law. I agree that in many cases that is true. But almost nothing is true in all cases and it seems very reasonable that there are those who do not go all the way to murder knowing that the death penalty might await them if they do.
A good way to test your own true feelings on that issue is to ask yourself if they passed a law that said only murders committed on monday, wednesday, and friday are elligible for the death penalty do you honestly believe the murder rate would be the same on those days as it is on the other 4 days of the week? If not then some murderers at least are giving thought to the law and the potential to get caught and sentenced to death.