.


Right: Daniel Lewis Lee became the first federal prisoner to be executed in the USA in 17 years. Lee helped to murder a family of three. Relatives of his victims pleaded to the last that Lee's sentence not be carried out

Found a word you're not familiar with? Double-click that word to bring up a dictionary reference to it. The dictionary page includes an audio sound file with which to actually hear the word said.



Arguments in favour of abolishing the death penalty

1. The death penalty undermines respect for life
Opponents of the death penalty argue that it is morally unacceptable for the state to take the life of someone convicted of murder.
Those who condemn capital punishment maintain that it is a grievous offence to take the life of another human being and that this remains the case whether that person dies at the hands of a random fellow citizen or a state-appointed executioner. Deliberately taking the life of another is claimed to be the grossest violation of that person's rights as a human being; their existence has been stripped from them without their consent. It is claimed that when the state does this respect for life is diminished and society is brutalized. This position has been put by members of all religious persuasions and by agnostics, humanists, and atheists.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argues, 'An execution is a violent public spectacle of official homicide, and one that endorses killing to solve social problems - the worst possible example to set for the citizenry, and especially children. Governments worldwide have often attempted to justify their lethal fury by extolling the purported benefits that such killing would bring to the rest of society. The benefits of capital punishment are illusory, but the bloodshed and the resulting destruction of community decency are real.' https://www.aclu.org/other/case-against-death-penalty
The ACLU has further stated, 'When the government metes out vengeance disguised as justice, it becomes complicit with killers in devaluing human life and human dignity. In civilized society, we reject the principle of literally doing to criminals what they do to their victims: The penalty for rape cannot be rape, or for arson, the burning down of the arsonist's house. We should not, therefore, punish the murderer with death.' https://www.aclu.org/other/death-penalty-questions-and-answers
On September 20, 2020, the newspaper This is Reno published a comment by Rabbi Benjamin Zober in response to the United States recent resumption of the death penalty at the federal level. Rabbi Zober stated, '"Thou shalt not murder." (Ex. 20:13) It is so simple, and yet is misinterpreted, misunderstood, and misapplied. Murder is calculated, unjustified and intentional taking of life. When we, under the supposed color of law, deliberate, decide, and plan the purposeful extinguishing of human life, we commit murder. The death penalty is murder.
The federal government's recent rush to executions is a grim and heart-wrenching example. Despite the outcry of over 1,000 faith leaders, with blatant disregard for the rule of law and shameful indifference to the calls of victims' family members and loved ones opposing the execution, the administration charged forward claiming "justice."' https://thisisreno.com/2020/09/the-death-penalty-is-immoral-it-is-murder-opinion/
Rabbi Zober concluded, 'Every life is sacred and deserves dignity. When one life is devalued, all are devalued. There is a world in every person, every life - perhaps the world of someone who committed a crime, but nonetheless the world of a father or a son, a mother or daughter, sister or brother, or friend. "Anyone who destroys a life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world; and anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world." (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5)' https://thisisreno.com/2020/09/the-death-penalty-is-immoral-it-is-murder-opinion/
On October 4, 2020, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, published a new encyclical 'Fratelli Tutti' which declares the Church's opposition to the death penalty. The Pope stated, '"There can be no stepping back from this position. Today we state clearly that "the death penalty is inadmissible" and the Church is firmly committed to calling for its abolition worldwide...'
In "Fratelli Tutti," the Pope grounds his opposition to capital punishment in mercy and in opposition to revenge. The Pope states, 'Fear and resentment can easily lead to viewing punishment in a vindictive and even cruel way, rather than as part of a process of healing and reintegration into society... Let us keep in mind that 'not even a murderer loses his personal dignity. The firm rejection of the death penalty shows to what extent it is possible to recognize the inalienable dignity of every human being and to accept that he or she has a place in this universe.' https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/10/04/pope-francis-closes-door-death-penalty-fratelli-tutti

2. The death penalty is inherently cruel.
Opponents of the death penalty argue that irrespective of the method used, the death penalty inflicts unacceptable levels of pain and suffering upon those who are killed in this manner.
A study of autopsy reports from prisoners executed via lethal injection (the form of execution being used by the federal government until November 2020) have found disturbing results. A report published in The Intercept on February 7, 2019, found, 'A majority showed signs of pulmonary edema, an accumulation of fluid in the lungs. Several showed bloody froth that oozed from the lungs during the autopsy - evidence that the buildup had been sudden, severe, and harrowing... the autopsies showed the executed men felt the panic and terror of asphyxiation before they died.' https://theintercept.com/2019/02/07/death-penalty-lethal-injection-midazolam-ohio/
The report continued, 'midazolam...[the drug] used to provide anesthesia [is] a sedative, not a barbiturate. Anesthesiologists had warned for years that even at extremely high doses, midazolam did not have the properties to render a person insensate - immune to pain - for the purpose of lethal injection. The second and third drugs in Ohio's protocol - a paralytic that stops respiration and potassium chloride to stop the heart - were known be excruciating if injected without a proper anesthetic. Experts likened the effect to being buried alive while feeling fire in one's veins.' https://theintercept.com/2019/02/07/death-penalty-lethal-injection-midazolam-ohio/ Sodium thiopental, the drug previously used as an anesthetic, is no longer being produced, in part in response to protests over its use in executions. https://theintercept.com/2019/02/07/death-penalty-lethal-injection-midazolam-ohio/https://www.csg.org/pubs/capitolideas/enews/issue65_4.aspx
Given the objections that have now been lodged about lethal injection as a means of execution and the shortage of some of the drugs formally used for this purpose, the Trump administration has expanded the modes of execution available to it. On November 27, 2020, it stated, 'Federal executions are to be carried out by lethal injection or by any other manner prescribed by the law of the State in which the sentence was imposed.' What this allows is the federal government to use a range of methods of execution which have themselves been challenged based on their cruelty - hanging, the electric chair, the gas chamber and firing squads. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/trump-approves-hanging-firing-squads-executions.html
In an opinion piece published in Slate magazine on November 30, 2020, Austin Sarat stated, 'While lethal injection is by no means an execution panacea, Trump and his minions have embraced outdated ways of carrying out death sentences.' https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/trump-approves-hanging-firing-squads-executions.html
Sarat then outlined some of the cruelties involved in other forms of execution. He states, 'Throughout most of our history, hanging was the primary method of execution. The first instance occurred in 1622...and from then until now several different hanging methods have been tried. None of them has proven foolproof, and many have been botched, with a slow death frequently caused by strangulation, accompanied by convulsions, defecation, and protruding eyes and tongue.' https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/trump-approves-hanging-firing-squads-executions.html
Describing the operation of the electric chair, Sarat writes, 'The condemned is strapped to a wooden chair, and a metal cap connected to electrodes is placed on his/her head. Thirty-second jolts of between 500 and 2,000 volts are then applied multiple times, with executioners checking for a heartbeat in between. The process repeats until the prisoner is dead. But, like hanging, electrocution has proved to be far from reliable. Even when the process is done correctly, it is brutal, with the prisoner convulsing, swelling, and defecating.'
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/trump-approves-hanging-firing-squads-executions.html
Sarat has also described the deficiencies of the gas chamber, 'The condemned is seated in an airtight room, and hydrogen cyanide gas is pumped into the room. He is supposed to lose consciousness and die painlessly; however, witnesses have often reported evidence of extreme pain, with eyes popping and skin turning purple.' https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/trump-approves-hanging-firing-squads-executions.html
Critics further note that note only are all forms of execution cruel in their operation their cause great emotional distress to the person awaiting execution, distress that is heightened by the conditions within which they are detained. https://repository.gchumanrights.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11825/174/Hempel.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

3. The death penalty risks executing innocent people.
Among the principal objections to the death penalty is that it creates the possibility that innocent people will be convicted and executed.
The United States president-elect, Joe Biden, was, earlier in his political career, a supporter of the death penalty. He has now become an opponent, primarily on the basis that there is the ongoing risk of executing an innocent person.
On December 17, 2019, the Death Penalty Information Center outlined the number of people on death row in the United States whose convictions had been overturned that year and others who despite concerns regarding their convictions were executed.
The Center stated, 'Three more former death-row prisoners were exonerated in 2019, increasing the number of documented U.S. death-row exonerations [since 1973] to 167. Two exonerations came in cases from the 1970s, highlighting the failure of the normal judicial review process to meaningfully protect the innocent...
In addition to those who have been exonerated after having been originally sentenced to death, there are significant numbers of people whose convictions have been called into doubt too late. The Death Penalty Information Center lists some twenty people who have been executed since 1989 and whose convictions have been called into serious doubt. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence/executed-but-possibly-innocent These include: Carlos DeLuna (Texas, convicted 1983, executed 1989); Ruben Cantu (Texas, convicted 1985, executed 1993); Larry Griffin (Missouri, convicted 1981, executed 1995);Joseph O'Dell (Virginia, convicted 1986, executed 1997); David Spence (Texas, convicted 1984, executed 1997); Leo Jones (Florida, convicted 1981, executed 1998)
Gary Graham (Texas, convicted 1981, executed 2000); Claude Jones (Texas, convicted 1989, executed 2000); Cameron Todd Willingham (Texas, convicted 1992, executed 2004); Sedley Alley (Tennessee, convicted 1987, executed 2006); Troy Davis (Georgia, convicted 1991, executed 2011); Lester Bower (Texas, convicted 1984, executed 2015); Brian Terrell (Georgia, convicted 1995, executed 2015); Richard Masterson (Texas, convicted 2002, executed 2016); Robert Pruett (Texas, convicted 2002, executed 2017); Carlton Michael Gary (Georgia, convicted 1986, executed 2018); Dominique Ray (Alabama - Convicted: 1999; Executed 2019); and Larry Swearingen (Texas, convicted 2000, executed 2019).
Recently, the risk of wrongful executions drew public attention and outcry in the cases of James Dailey and Rodney Reed, who faced execution dates despite powerful evidence of innocence. But in less highly publicized cases, two other prisoners with evidence of probable innocence were executed. As new evidence pointing to a different killer emerged, Tennessee refused to conduct available DNA testing that had the potential to exonerate a man it may have wrongfully executed in 2006.' https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/dpic-reports/dpic-year-end-reports/the-death-penalty-in-2019-year-end-report
On December 20, 2020, Lauren Pickett, in-depth editor of The Messenger, highlighted the unreliability of the American criminal justice system, noting that one tenth of those people sentenced to death in the United States subsequently have their convictions overturned. Pickett states, 'For every nine people executed in this country, one person has been exonerated, and this does not include those who were executed despite compelling evidence of innocence or who were found to be innocent after their execution.' Studies have also been undertaken as to the number of people who are likely to have been executed following false convictions. In April 2014, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences released a report which estimated that one in every 25 have been sentenced to death for a crime they did not commit. https://www.newsweek.com/one-25-executed-us-innocent-study-claims-248889
Critics of capital punishment cannot accept that the system allows innocent people to be sentenced to death and executed.

4. The death penalty is not a likely deterrent
Opponents of the death penalty argue it has no proven deterrent value and ignores the possibility of prisoner rehabilitation.
Researchers have argued that it is impossible to demonstrate conclusively from a study of data that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to potential criminals. They have noted that there is no reliable way of demonstrating empirically that capital punishment influences crime. This is because it is not possible to determine conclusively the link between employing capital punishment and the rate of crime in a particular jurisdiction. Rises or falls in the offence rate can be caused by a wide range of factors and the exact influence of anyone cannot be demonstrated.
A comprehensive review of the research in this area over 34 years was conducted in 2012 by a committee of the American National Academy of Sciences National Review Council. The committee concluded, 'The committee concluded that "research to date on the effect of capital punishment on homicide is not informative about whether capital punishment decreases, increases, or has no effect on homicide rates... The data alone cannot reveal what the homicide rate in a state without...a capital punishment regime would have been had the state...had such a regime.' https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-26/fact-check3a-does-the-death-penalty-deter3f/6116030?nw=0#:~:text=%22In%20short%2C%20the%20consensus%20among,imprisonment%2C%22%20the%20study%20said.&text=%22The%20number%20of%20homicide%20studies,deterrent%20effect%2C%22%20he%20said.It argued that the same was true for any state that employed the death penalty.
A February 2015 review of the research by the Brennan Center for Justice found no evidence that the death penalty had an impact on crime in the 1990s and 2000s, and it concluded that the studies that suggested there was a deterrent effect were methodologically weak. https://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8861727/antonin-scalia-death-penalty
Some opponents of capital punishment have used the views of law enforcement specialists to support claims it is ineffective. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has stated, 'The death penalty...has no public safety benefit. The vast majority of law enforcement professionals surveyed agree that capital punishment does not deter violent crime; a survey of police chiefs nationwide found they rank the death penalty lowest among ways to reduce violent crime. They ranked increasing the number of police officers, reducing drug abuse, and creating a better economy with more jobs higher than the death penalty as the best ways to reduce violence. The FBI has found the states with the death penalty have the highest murder rates.' https://www.aclu.org/other/case-against-death-penalty
Critics have also used an analysis of murderers behaviour patterns and motivations to demonstrate why the death penalty is likely to deter them from committing the crime. The ACLU states, 'Most capital crimes are committed during moments of great emotional stress or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, when logical thinking has been suspended. Many capital crimes are committed by the badly emotionally damaged or mentally ill. In such cases, violence is inflicted by persons unable to appreciate the consequences to themselves as well as to others.' https://www.aclu.org/other/case-against-death-penalty Similar claims have been made by the Brennan Center, '[I]t is debatable whether an individual even engages in such objective calculations before committing a crime. Much psychological and sociological research suggests that many criminal acts are crimes of passion or committed in a heated moment based only on immediate circumstances, and thus potential offenders may not consider or weigh longer-term possibilities of punishment and capture, including the possibility of capital punishment.' https://www.aclu.org/other/case-against-death-penaltyhttps://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8861727/antonin-scalia-death-penalty
It is also argued that capital punishment does not serve to deter because when murder is more deliberately planned the perpetrators do not believe they will be caught and punished. The ACLU notes, 'Even when crime is planned, the criminal ordinarily concentrates on escaping detection, arrest, and conviction. The threat of even the severest punishment will not discourage those who expect to escape detection and arrest...Furthermore, the death penalty is a futile threat for political terrorists, like Timothy McVeigh, because they usually act in the name of an ideology that honors its martyrs.' https://www.aclu.org/other/case-against-death-penalty

5. The death penalty is racially and socially discriminatory
Opponents of capital punishment argue that it is not applied in a fair and non-discriminatory manner. They argue that poor and non-white defendants are regularly executed for crimes which for wealthy, white defendants would result in imprisonment.
The American Civil Liberties Union has stated, 'The death penalty system in the US is applied in an unfair and unjust manner against people, largely dependent on how much money they have, the skill of their attorneys, race of the victim and where the crime took place. People of color are far more likely to be executed than white people, especially if the victim is white.' https://www.aclu.org/other/case-against-death-penalty
Referring to the impact of social position and wealth on the death penalty, the United Nations has stated, 'People living in poverty are disproportionately affected by the death penalty for many reasons. They are an easy target for the police, they cannot afford a lawyer, the free legal assistance they might receive is of low quality, procuring expert evidence is beyond their means, tracing witnesses is too costly, and access to appeals often depends on being able to afford extra counsel. Many cannot afford bail and therefore remain in custody before their trials, further hindering their efforts to prepare an effective defence.' https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22208&LangID=E#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIf%20you%20are%20poor%2C%20the,from%20lower%20socio%2Deconomic%20groups.
Referring specifically to the impact of race on the likelihood of a convicted person receiving the death penalty, the Death Penalty Information Center has noted, 'Today there is growing evidence that racial bias continues in society, particularly within the criminal justice system. The existence of implicit racial bias among some law enforcement officers, witnesses, jurors, and others allows harsher punishment of minorities, even without legal sanction or intention. Although these prejudices are hard to uproot, the unfair application of the death penalty could be halted by eliminating that sentencing option altogether.' https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/race
The Death Penalty Information Center released a report in September 2020 titled 'Enduring Justice - The Persistence of Racial Discrimination in the US Death Penalty'. The report notes, 'Throughout the modern era of capital punishment, people of color have been overrepresented on death row. In 1980, 45.6 percent of death row prisoners were people of color, and this percentage has increased every decade. By 2019, this percentage had risen to 57.8 percent. Currently, white and African-American prisoners each comprise 42 percent of those on death row and Latinx prisoners make up 13 percent, with 3 percent of death row comprised of other races/ethnicities. These figures can be contrasted with the racial and ethnic makeup of the population as a whole. Approximately 60.4 percent of the population is white.' https://files.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/reports/Enduring-Injustice-Race-and-the-Death-Penalty-2020.pdf
This grossly disproportionate representation of non-white prisoners facing the death penalty is seen as evidence of a prejudiced criminal justice system. As further evidence of this the report noted that juries are more than four times as likely to vote for a mandatory death sentence in cases whether the murder victim is white than when the victim is of another ethnicity. https://files.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/reports/Enduring-Injustice-Race-and-the-Death-Penalty-2020.pdf
The report suggests that this bias operates at all levels of the system - among juries, defence counsel, prosecutors, and judges - and that it is founded in prejudices and behaviours that date back to slavery. It states, 'Virginia provides an illustration of how much race determined who was executed for non-murder crimes. Before the Civil War, Virginia explicitly provided different penalties for white people and its enslaved population. By 1848, white people could be sentenced to death only for first-degree murder while enslaved Black people could be executed for a number of non-homicide offenses. Although this formal distinction was gone by the twentieth century, the state's executions showed that in practice different rules were being applied to white and Black defendants.' https://files.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/reports/Enduring-Injustice-Race-and-the-Death-Penalty-2020.pdf
Opponents of the death penalty argue that a convicted person's life should never be taken when their social situation or race may be the decisive factor in determining their sentence.