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There are many reasons that the government should not introduce the death penalty.Perhaps we should hear from an expert in law enforcement:LAW ENFORCEMENT VIEWS“I ... know that in practice, [the death penalty] does more harm than good. So while I hang on to my theoretical views, as I’m sure many of you will, I stand before you to say that society is better off without capital punishment… Life in prison without parole in a maximum-security detention facility is a better alternative.”-Police Chief James Abbott of West Orange, New Jersey (2010)Studies indicate that the death penalty DOES NOT DETER CRIME:National Research Council of the National Academies Deterrence ReportA report, released on April 18, 2012, by the prestigious National Research Council of the National Academies and based on a review of more than three decades of research, concluded that studies claiming a deterrent effect on murder rates from the death penalty are fundamentally flawed. The report concluded: “The committee concludes 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. Therefore, the committee recommends that these studies not be used to inform deliberations requiring judgments about the effect of the death penalty on homicide.Consequently, claims that research demonstrates that capital punishment decreases or increases the homicide rate by a specified amount or has no effect on the homicide rate should not influence policy judgments about capital punishment." (emphasis added). Criminologist Daniel Nagin of Carnegie Mellon, who chaired the panel of experts, said, “We recognize this conclusion will be controversial to some, but nobody is well served by unfounded claims about the death penalty. Nothing is known about how potential murderers actually perceive their risk of punishment."The report found three fundamental flaws with existing studies on deterrence:The studies do not factor in the effects of noncapital punishments that may also be imposed.The studies use incomplete or implausible models of potential murderers’ perceptions of and response to the use of capital punishment.Estimates of the effect of capital punishment are based on statistical models that make assumptions that are not credible.READ MORE ON THE REPORT HERE: DETERRENCE: National Research Council Concludes Deterrence Studies Should Not Influence Death Penalty PolicyBeyond one police chief or one study, here’s a group of CRIMINOLOGISTS on the subject: Criminologists' Views on Deterrence and the Death PenaltyA 2009 survey of the most leading criminologists in the country from found that the overwhelming majority did not believe that the death penalty is a proven deterrent to homicide.Eighty-eight percent of the country’s top criminologists do not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide, according to a new study published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology and authored by Professor Michael Radelet, Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and Traci Lacock, also at Boulder.Similarly, 87% of the expert criminologists believe that abolition of the death penalty would not have any significant effect on murder rates. In addition, 75% of the respondents agree that “debates about the death penalty distract Congress and state legislatures from focusing on real solutions to crime problems.”The survey relied on questionnaires completed by the most pre-eminent criminologists in the country, including Fellows in the American Society of Criminology; winners of the American Society of Criminology’s prestigious Southerland Award; and recent presidents of the American Society of Criminology. Respondents were not asked for their personal opinion about the death penalty, but instead to answer on the basis of their understandings of the empirical research.(M. Radelet and T. Lacock, DO EXECUTIONS LOWER HOMICIDE RATES?: THE VIEWS OF LEADING CRIMINOLOGISTS, 99 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology489 2009)To read the study, click here: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/files/DeterrenceStudy2009.pdfFor a more recent and comprehensive study we turn here:Brennan Center for Justice Report: What Caused the Crime Decline?In February 2015, the Brennan Center for Justice released a report examining potential explanations for the dramatic drop in crime in the U.S. in the 1990s and 2000s. The death penalty was one of the possible contributing causes the researchers evaluated. The report's conclusion: the death penalty had no effect on the decline in crime. The authors explained: "Empirically, capital punishment is too infrequent to have a measureable effect on the crime drop. Criminologically, the existence and use of the death penalty may not even create the deterrent effect on potential offenders that lawmakers hoped when enacting such laws." The authors noted criminals do not consider the consequences of their actions, particularly when the consequence is rarely applied, as in the case of the death penalty. "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."They concluded, "In line with the past research, the Brennan Center’s empirical analysis finds that there is no evidence that executions had an effect on crime in the 1990s or 2000s." Ultimately, the report attributed the drop in crime to various social changes and policing tactics, with increased incarceration having no effect in the 2000s and only minimal effect on property crime in the 1990s.What Caused the Crime Decline? examines one of the nation’s least understood recent phenomena – the dramatic decline in crime nationwide over the past two decades – and analyzes various theories for why it occurred, by reviewing more than 40 years of data from all 50 states and the 50 largest cities. It concludes that overly-harsh criminal justice policies, particularly increased incarceration, which rose even more dramatically over the same period, were not the main drivers of the crime decline. In fact, the report finds that increased incarceration has been declining in its effectiveness as a crime control tactic for more than 30 years. Its effect on crime rates since 1990 has been limited, and has been non-existent since 2000.More important were various social, economic, and environmental factors, such as growth in income and an aging population. The introduction of CompStat, a data-driven policing technique, also played a significant role in reducing crime in cities that introduced it.The report concludes that considering the immense social, fiscal, and economic costs of mass incarceration, programs that improve economic opportunities, modernize policing practices, and expand treatment and rehabilitation programs, all could be a better public safety investment.Read the report, O. Roeder, L. Eisen, and J. Bowling, What Caused the Crime Decline?, Brennan Center for Justice (Feb. 12, 2015), here.What Caused the Crime Decline?Four Misconceptions About CrimeVicente Benavides was released from prison on April 19, 2018.Vicente Benavides Freed After 25 Years on California's Death RowVicente Benavides, 68, spent nearly 25 years on California’s death row for the 1991 sexual assault and murder of 21-month-old Consuelo Verdugo before the California Supreme Court overturned his conviction on March 12, 2018. Benavides is represented by Cristina Borde of the Habeas Corpus Resource Center.Let’s start with INNOCENCE. Here is one organization that has begun to track men and women who are wrongfully convicted, in some cases, after DECADES in prison/on death row. The Exonerees - Exoneration ProjectThere are MANY OTHER ORGANIZATIONS working to do the same thing, and which have their OWN tallies: The Cases & Exoneree Profiles - Innocence ProjectThe Innocence Project has achieved 350 DNA exonerations to date. https://25years.innocenceproject.org/impact/“You can release an innocent man from prison, but you can’t release him from the grave.” — Freddie Lee Pitts, who was exonerated from Florida’sdeath row for a crime he did not commit 1Exonerations of Innocent Men and WomenAs of October 2015, we have executed over 1,414 individuals in this country since 1976.2156 individuals have been exonerated from death row--that is, found to be innocent and released - since 1973.3In other words, for every 10 people who have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S., one person has been set free.These 156 exonerees bear witness to the fact that we have made grave mistakes in the application of the death penalty. Many of them are powerful advocates against the death penalty:Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown were exonerated in 2014. Under coercion, the mentally disabled half-brothers confessed to the 1983 rape and murder of an 11 year old girl in North Carolina and were sentenced to death. While Brown’s sentence had later been commuted to life imprisonment, McCollum spent three decades on death row before DNA evidence proved their innocence.Read MorenavigaterightKirk Bloodsworth, who was sent to death row in Maryland in 1984, was convicted of the rape and murder of a young girl based on false eye witness identification. He was released in 1993, after DNA testing confirmed his innocence.4Read MorenavigaterightAnthony Graves was sent to death row in 1994 for allegedly assisting Robert Carter in the heinous killing of Bobbie Davis; her daughter, Nicole; and Davis’s four grandchildren. His conviction was largely based on Carter’s testimony, despite the fact that there was no physical evidence linking him to the murders.Read MorenavigaterightJuan Roberto Meléndez-Colón spent nearly 18 years on death row in Florida for a crime to which another man confessed to 16 people.Read MorenavigaterightRandy Steidl was convicted in 1986 for the murder of newlyweds Dyke and Karen Rhoads. He spent 17 years in prison, 12 of those on death row. In 2004, he was finally freed after the Illinois State police found that Steidl had been wrongfully imprisoned.Read MorenavigaterightDelbert Tibbs was traveling through Florida when police stopped him to question him about the rape of 16-year old Cynthia Nadeau and the murder of her friend Terry Milroy. Although he physically did not match the description of the suspect whom Nadeau had originally described, she changed her mind after seeing his photo and erroneously identified him as the perpetrator.To learn more about exonerated men and women, visit the Death Penalty Information Center’s Innocence DatabWrongful ExecutionsToday, due to the work of advocacy organizations, investigative journalists, attorneys, and academics, we know that people have been executed despite serious doubts about their guilt. Here are a few of their stories:Troy Anthony Davis was convicted of the shooting-death of off-duty police officer Mark McPhail. His conviction was based on the testimony of nine witnesses, seven of whom later recanted their testimony or admitted it was false.5Read MorenavigaterightCarlos DeLuna was executed in Texas in 1989 for the stabbing death of Wanda Lopez.6DeLuna maintained his innocence throughout his imprisonment and insisted another individual by the name of Carlos Hernandez was really the killer.Read MorenavigaterightGary Graham (A.K.A. Shaka Sankofa) was sentenced to death at the age of 18 in 1981 in Texas for the robbery and murder of Bobby Lambert. His conviction was based largely on the testimony of one witness who said she saw him through a windshield from over 30 feet away.Read MorenavigaterightCameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 for the death of his three young daughters in a house fire. Willingham’s conviction was based on faulty forensic science which erroneously concluded that the fire was arson.Read MorenavigaterightShouting from the RooftopsWrongful convictions and executions happen because of factors such as:7Mistaken eye witness testimonyFaulty forensic scienceFabricated testimony or testimony from jailhouse informantsGrossly incompetent lawyersFalse confessionsPolice or prosecutorial misconductRacial biasIn 2006, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia famously said that if any person was executed in the U.S. for a crime that he did not commit, “the innocent’s name would be shouted from the rooftops.”Now is the time to gather our voices and let it be “shouted from the rooftops” that innocent people have been put to death.Citations1Florida's Timely Justice Act Is Neither Timely Nor Justice2http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions-year3http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-and-death-penalty4http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Kirk_Bloodsworth.php5http://www.naacp.org/pages/troy-davis-a-case-for-clemency6http://www3.law.columbia.edu/hrlr/ltc/Numerous studies conducted in various states have concluded again and again that the death penalty is more expensive than alternative sentences.For example, a 2015 study showed that in Washington death penalty cases cost an average of $1 million more to prosecute than comparable cases where the death penalty is not sought. A 2012 study showed that death penalty has cost California more than $4 billion since 1978, and suggested that commuting all the state's death sentences to life imprisonment would immediately result in $170 million in savings per year. In Kansas, death penalty cases studied between 2004-2011 cost around four times more than cases where the death penalty was not sought. States could save millions of dollars a year by eliminating the death penalty.1And although the majority of the United States' death penalty cases are in 2% of the country's counties, the costs of those cases are shifted on to the majority of our taxpayers. For more information on the disproportionate costs of the death penalty, read hereBeyond the dollars and cents, however, there are other costs to choosing the death penalty — costs to society — which must be considered when analyzing the true price of capital punishment.The Death Penalty Diverts Resources from Proven Solutions to Crime and ViolenceState programs that successfully address the underlying, contributing factors to crime and violence already exist, but they do not receive sufficient resources. By redirecting death penalty dollars in a careful and targeted way, we can reduce crime, improve our communities and save money.Photo creditEarly Childhood EducationEvidence-based research suggests that children who receive early education are less likely to become criminals, which not only benefits society, but also saves the state money.Increasing High School Graduation RatesPrograms that target at-risk youth and expand the numbers of high school graduates help to reduce crime.Gang PreventionEducation-related and community-based programs help prevent at-risk youth from joining gangs.2Mental Health ServicesStudies of programs that provide mental health services for juveniles in Texas, Utah, and Colorado have all proven that “individuals who receive mental health treatment have a much lower probability of being arrested” and have a lower rate of recidivism.3Drug and Alcohol Treatment ServicesBy increasing the number of people sent to substance abuse treatment programs, states have successfully reduced violent crime, incarceration, and recidivism.4The Death Penalty Prohibits States from Providing Adequate Support to Victims and Their FamiliesFunding for the death penalty could be redirected to support expanded services for victims and their families, including grief counseling, funeral costs, school tuition scholarships or grants for children of murdered parents, paid leave from work to attend court proceedings, crime scene cleanup5, emergency funds6, and medical treatment.7Read more about victims and the death penalty.The Death Penalty Harms OthersRon McAndrew, a former warden on Florida’s death row, has said, “Many colleagues turned to drugs and alcohol from the pain of knowing a man died at their hands.” Some have even committed suicide.8Read more about the harm to prison workers.Of course the death penalty also harms the loved ones of those people sentenced to death. For more on the experience of losing a family member to the death penalty, watch Herb Donaldson's Tedx Talk, "How to Survive an Execution."As long as the death penalty is on the books, it will continue to siphon scarce public resources from programs that can strengthen our communities and prevent crime in the first place.Citations1http://http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty/#.UR_VCVpATR52Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice Harvard Law School, “Eleven Million Points of Light: How Abolition of the Death Penalty in North Carolina Could Improve Public Safety, Increase Opportunities, and Build Prosperity.” A Policy Brief. April 30, 2010.3Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice Harvard Law School, “Eleven Million Points of Light: How Abolition of the Death Penalty in North Carolina Could Improve Public Safety, Increase Opportunities, and Build Prosperity.” A Policy Brief. April 30, 20104http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/08_01_REP_DrugTx_AC-PS.pdf5Victims’ Families6Victims’ Families7http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?list=class&type=53&class=20&all=18NEW VOICES: Former Warden Calls Executions Traumatic for Prison Staff“Even under the most sophisticated death penalty statutes, race continues to play a major role in determining who shall live and who shall die.”– US Supreme Court Justice Harry BlackmunRace is a Significant Factor in the Death PenaltyAs a society we cannot change the past, but we can act to transform our future. Studies spanning more than 30 years, covering virtually every state that uses capital punishment, have found that race is a significant factor in death penalty cases.As Justice Harry Blackmun explained in his 1994 dissent from the court’s refusal to hear the death penalty case Callins v. Collins,1it should not surprise us that “the biases and prejudices that infect society generally influence the determination of who is sentenced to death, even within the narrower pool of death eligible defendants selected according to objective standards.”The burdens and failures of the United States justice system fall most heavily and unfairly on communities of color.There must be a fundamental change in the system. The lynchpin for that change is ending capital punishment.Do We Have a Criminal Justice System Designed to Keep Us Safe?Our broken justice system begins with an approach to policing that disproportionately targets communities of color. Such focused attention by law enforcement has resulted in 60% of our prison population being comprised of people of color who receive longer sentences than their white counterparts. Finally, it ends with the ultimate and most disturbing of all of its disparities — unequal death penalty sentencing.What is clear is that the current system is broken and the burdens of its failures fall most heavily and unfairly on communities of color.Read more >>Death by DiscriminationRacial prejudice plays a significant role in the application of the death penalty in America, and capital punishment is used disproportionately against people of color. Although this idea is unfathomable to many Americans, the abhorrent practice is explicitly permitted by the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled in the 1987 case McClesky vs. Kemp that a pattern of racial disparities in the death penalty did not violate an individual’s Constitutional right of "equal protection of the law."Jury SelectionWhile the Constitution entitles capital defendants to a fair jury of their peers, too often fair jurors are excluded because of race. In some instances, unfair prosecutors intentionally exclude jurors based on their race because of a false belief that people of color cannot fairly serve as jurors and follow the law. Although the Constitution prohibits such intentional discrimination based on race, the courts have been lax in their enforcement, and procedural barriers too often prevent claims of bias from being heard.In other instances, seemingly neutral practices that permit prosecutors to exclude people who have concerns about the death penalty but who, in actuality can still be fair jurors, results in the over-selection of racially biased jurors. People of color, women and people of faith tend to have concerns about the death penalty and the jury selection process known as “death qualification” has a disproportionate racial impact—excluding qualified people from serving as jurors.2Read more >>Race of the VictimTime and again, studies have shown that the death penalty is sought more often against people who kill white victims than African American or Hispanic victims.Read more >>Race and InnocenceA variety of racial issues combine to dramatically increase the risk of sentencing innocent people to death. For example, eyewitness identification, the leading cause of wrongful convictions, is even less reliable when the witness is identifying someone of a different race.3In 2000, A Broken System, a landmark study on the capital justice system by researchers at Columbia University, found that “when whites and other influential citizens feel threatened by homicide, they put pressure on officials to punish as many criminals as severely as possible, with the result that mistakes are made, and a lot of people are initially sentenced to death who are later found to have committed a lesser crime, or no crime at all… It is disturbing that race plays a role in the outcome of death penalty cases, whatever the reasons.”4The death penalty is an arbitrary and discriminatory punishment that has no place in a country which prides itself on equal protection for all citizens under the law.CITATIONS1http://www.laweekly.com/1999-03-18/news/last-wishes/full/2http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-black-and-white-who-lives-who-dies-who-decides#Racial Bias Permeates the System3http://www.capitalpunishmentincontext.org/issues/innocence4http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/046/2003/en/bd8584ef-d712-11dd-b0cc-1f0860013475/amr510462003en.pdfThe death penalty takes a heavy toll on those directly involved in executions— prison wardens, chaplains, executioners, and corrections officers.Many of those involved in executions have reported suffering PTSD-like symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares and other forms of distress. These symptoms are reported by multiple witnesses such as journalists, executioners, and wardens alike.“At night I would awaken to visions of executed inmates sitting on the edge of my bed,”--Ron McAndrew, Retired Warden, Florida State Prison“If you care about human life, it isn’t just the fetus you care about. You care about all human life. [An execution] is the most premeditated murder you have ever seen. A lot of people were complicit in [the execution]—the governor, the parole boards, the courts. But they call on a very few to commit the actual murder with the sanction of the state. Let me tell you that the first one shook me to the core…And after the fifth [execution] I could not do it anymore. I couldn’t rationalize it anymore.”--Dr. Allen Ault, former Warden,Georgia Diagnostic and Classifications PrisonIn addition to all the FACTUAL arguments, we begin turning to moral arguments, such as those from Sister Helen Prejean and her Ministry against the Death Penalty: https://www.sisterhelen.org/Sister Helen also makes an excellent case that the way the death penalty is administered is CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT. While the US SUPREME COURT has acted in some cases while not in others, Sister Helen lays out the facts of how American state and federal governments treat the euthanasia of animals significantly more humanely than the execution of prisoners. https://www.sisterhelen.org/tortured-to-death/Then there exists the politically CONSERVATIVE argument against the death penalty, being put forth by HomeThe arguments are QUITE similar to the topics I’ve previously presented, so I won’t go through them extensively:https://conservativesconcerned.org/why-were-concerned/We’ve learned a lot about the death penalty in the last 40 yearsFor three decades, we have tinkered with the death penalty in an effort to make it fair, accurate, and effective. Yet the system continues to fail.The risk of executing an innocent person is realThe DNA era has given us irrefutable proof that our criminal justice system sentences innocent people to die. Evidence we once thought reliable like eyewitness identification is not always accurate. DNA evidence has led to hundreds of exonerations, but it isn’t available in most cases. Despite our best intentions, human beings simply can’t be right 100% of the time. And when a life is on the line, one mistake is one too many.Read MoreThe complicated process has drained our resourcesThe death penalty is longer and more complicated because a life is on the line – shortcuts could mean an irreversible mistake. For this reason, the death penalty costs millions more dollars than a system of life without parole – before a single appeal is even filed.Read MoreThe death penalty has failed victims’ familiesThe longer process prolongs the pain of victims’ families, who must relive their trauma as courts repeat trials and hearings trying to get it right. Most cases result in a life sentence in the end anyway – but only after the family has suffered years of uncertainty. To be meaningful, justice should be swift and sure – but the death penalty is just the opposite.Read MoreThe death penalty doesn't keep us safe.In the name of helping law enforcement, the death penalty concentrates enormous state resources on chasing a small handful of executions while thousands of cases go unsolved. It’s hardly surprising, then, that police chiefs rank the death penalty last among public safety tools..Read MoreFairness in the death penalty is a moving target.We expect justice to be blind. Otherwise it’s not justice at all. Yet poor defendants sentenced to die have been represented by attorneys who were drunk, asleep, or completely inexperienced. Geography often determines who lives and dies, and after 30 years we have not found a way to make the system less arbitrary. Every effort to fix the system just makes it more complex – not more fair.Read MoreConservatives are readyThe mounting evidence of waste, inaccuracy, and bias has shattered public confidence in the criminal justice system. Death sentences are at an all-time low and public support for the death penalty has dropped in favor of life without parole. More and more of us are questioning the death penalty and realizing that it does not square up with Conservative ideology.