I have never been a fan of the death penalty. Something about intentionally ending another person’s life seems inhumane – even for people who themselves have taken the lives of others.
And what exactly does the death penalty prove? How does it discipline a person?
True punishment is making a person spend the rest of their life in jail. Day in and day out that person has time to think about their actions and deal with the consequences of their behavior. Every day that person has to face the harsh reality that they will never be able to live their life like most of us in the free world: no walks in the park, no one-tank trips to neighboring states, no tucking their child into bed at night, no Thanksgiving dinners at mom’s house, no graduations, no weddings, nothing. All the simple joys of life would be stripped from them – forever. Eternity. That’s real punishment to me…not letting someone off easy by ending their life.
There’s also another reason I oppose the death penalty: there is always the possibility that a person on death row is innocent.
While we will never know for sure exactly how many people currently incarcerated are innocent, data (and history) show that there are people doing time for crimes they did not commit. According to The Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to assisting individuals who can be proven innocent through DNA testing, between 2.3 and 5 percent of all prisoners in the U.S. are innocent. To put things in context, the project’s website notes “if just 1 percent of all prisoners are innocent, that would mean that more than 20,000 innocent people are in prison.” So theoretically there can be more than 100,000 innocent people currently doing time.
Experts note that there are multiple reasons a person is wrongfully convicted, including eyewitness misidentification, invalidated or improper forensic science, false confessions or admissions, and unreliable informants. While instances of “prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective defense, police misconduct and racism” are harder to determine and quantify, they are also factors in many wrongful convictions.
Of the 273 people that The Innocence Project worked to exonerate, the majority were African-Americans: 166 to be exact. Eighty-one were Caucasian, 20 were Latinos, two were Asian Americans and four individuals’ race was unknown.
As with health disparities, education gaps, and unemployment; Blacks top the list of people wrongfully convicted. Consequentially, 17 of the 273 inmates freed through The Innocence Project served time on death row. Clearly stated, if it weren’t for the efforts of The Innocence Project, 17 people would have been killed for nothing…crimes they didn’t even commit.
By the time you read these words, another man many people presume innocent has probably been executed by the state of Georgia.
Troy Davis was convicted of killing an off duty officer in 1989. However since then, seven of the nine key witnesses who testified against Davis have since disputed or recanted their statements. The pope, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and several celebrities have called for clemency and more than 1 million people signed a petition requesting Davis’ life be spared.
At Recorder press time, those efforts weren’t enough to stop the execution. Nor was the fact that Davis’ guilt was proved beyond a reasonable doubt (there was a lack of physical evidence, no gun and no DNA connecting Davis to the slain officer).
To some of you reading this editorial, you may think that Davis and the other potentially innocent people currently serving time represent only a small number of people in the penal system. You are right. There are far more guilty people in jail than there are innocent. But who are we to say that just because innocent inmates aren’t the majority in America’s prisons, they don’t deserve a fair chance at life. When innocent people are killed by government entities, their blood is on the hands of every person who supports the death penalty.
We have become a society of radicalization. Last week the candidates vying for the Republican nomination for president participated in a debate. When Texas Gov. Rick Perry was asked if he struggled to sleep at night wondering if any of the state’s 234 executed inmates were innocent, the crowd erupted into applause and Perry clearly stated that he never loses sleep at night regarding the executions.
So now we have Americans cheering because people have been put to death and politicians with no conscience. What a horrid monster the United States has become. Oh, by the way, less than a week after Perry’s comment, Duane Buck was granted a stay of execution by the Texas Supreme Court because there is question of whether the jury’s decision was influenced by racial statements. Buck’s execution is now halted.
While Buck and Davis are both Black, my views on the death penalty have nothing to do with race. As a matter of fact, there is a white supremacist in Texas who is set to be executed on the same day as Davis. Lawrence Russell Brewer is one of two men convicted of killing James Byrd Jr. The white supremacist chained Byrd to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him to death.
Despite a hate-spewed attack and ultimate death of Byrd, I don’t think Brewer should be executed.
By the time this week’s edition hits newsstands, two men on death row will more than likely be dead. That weighs heavily on my conscience. How does it make you feel? Share your thoughts with us on Facebook or email me at Shannonw@IndyRecorder.com.
