Could the Death Penalty Be Dying Out?

Death sentences are on the decline, a new report says

The death penalty may not have long to live.

Only nine states carried out executions this year, the fewest to do so in 20 years. Seventy-eight people were sentenced to death in 2012, a 75 percent decline since 1996, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Some states with a history of high death penalty use -- North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia -- had no new death sentences or executions in 2012. Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Arizona, accounted for more than three-quarters of the executions nationwide, the report said.

At this point, 33 states still have the death penalty on the books, but that number has been dropping. Connecticut banned capital punishment this year. It was the fifth state in five years to do so, after Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York.

Experts say juries have been influenced by lingering doubts over guilt, knowing there have been exonerations based on DNA evidence. Also, the expense of incarceration during lengthy appeals and the execution itself make some prosecutors favor life sentences, the New York Times said.

Via The New York TImes

Do you think the death penalty is doomed?

[Ashstop]

Why would we want to keep someone like that kid that killed all those kids alive for 50 years paying for anything he needs? The world is a better safer place without him, if he'd survived he'd have book and movie deals by now!!!

[mtkopf]

First they prisons do not "pay for anything he needs". Prisons give adequate food medical care shelter and clothing. If you think prisoners are living high off the hog go try it.
Second, I know that there are laws that expressly prohibit a convicted criminal from profiting from the crime they committed, so any book and movie deal would only go to compensate the victims families.

[modandmad]

@mtkopf If you kill or molest a child you should die. Simple as that. If you murder an adult out of cold blood, you should die. Why should these prisoners get food, shelter and medical care when their victims and the families cant?

[mtkopf]

@modandmad bc killing those people is too quick of a punishment. Also, there have beenquite a few cases where dDNA evidencehas proven someone innocent.
PPeople make mistakes. I'm not talking about the criminals, I am referring to police and investigators. If the person has admitted to the crime or was caught in the act of murder and murder only, then death penalty should be used. Other than that no.

[modandmad]

@mtkopf if there is an open / shut case, such as Lanza killing all those people, I would prefer him die and I don't care how fast or how slow. I don't want my taxes paying for his worthless hind end to sit in prison and eat, receive medical care, take a shower, etc. Cases where there is doubt should be given the opporunity to prove themselves innocent before dying.

[mimi57]

@modandmad Yes, killing a child should be a death sentence...and molesters usually get what they deserve in
prison, isn't it sad that 'prisoners' can deal out punishment better than judges?..

[WMCOL]

Death Penalty as a policy takes innocent life and as long as there is a death penalty it will continue to happen. It is better that a dozen heinous, evil murderers go free rather that the state take one innocent life.

Also states that have a death penalty have the highest murder rates, while the states that don't have lowest murder rates.

[mtkopf]

And do those states with the highest murder rates also have the most permissive gun laws?

[WMCOL]

@mtkopf
Actually the states with the most "permissive" gun laws have the lowest murder rates.

[mtkopf]

@WMCOL really? Where do you get your data from? My data is from the CDC:
Arizona the most permissive gun laws in country has 15 gun deaths per 100,000.
Mississippi ranked 4th most permissive has 18.3 per 100,000.
Alaska 17.6
Arkansas 15.1
Louisiana 19.9
New Mexico 15

In comparison, Illinois has 8 gun related deaths per 100,000 people.

The numbers don't lie.

[mtkopf]

@WMCOL the states with the toughest gun laws, according to bradycampaign.org are:
Cali which has 9 gun related deaths per 100,000 people
New York 5.1 per 100,000
New Jersey 5.2
Massachusetts 2.8

So are you still going to argue that gun control doesn't work?

[WMCOL]

@mtkopf
I specifically referred to MURDER rates and not just deaths by gun. Obviously when a person is defending oneself using a gun and kills the bad guy it is a death by gun but not a murder. Just saying gun deaths per 100,000 means nothing without looking at how it occurred.

[jessejaymes]

I think there will always be states that have the death penalty and some will stop and some will start again over time. While I support a full appeals process, that process is far too slow. There is no reason all appeals cannot be heard within a 10 year period today with modern technology. I'm aware of those exonerated by DNA and for that reason believe ours standard of issuing the death penalty needs to be raised. But I do believe that there are crimes that rise to the level of a warranted death penalty.

[Fishbone345]

When every aspect of the justice system is perfected, then we could talk about the Death Penalty. But Death Row is not the only place in prisons you will find wrongly convicted, its just the place that garners the most attention because of what it represents.
There are trial after trials convicting the wrong people due to all sorts of factors be it rushed case, fervor from the community and pressure on the DA, mishandled investigation...
There are some serious problems in the justice system, and in my opinion if you want to put someone to death, you better be damn sure you are right.

[jessejaymes]

@Fishbone345 I don't have a problem with your statement. Eyewitness testimony is virtually worthless. D.A.'s routinely withhold evidence and coerce evidence. I wouldn't all the death penalty without solid DNA evidence today. But I still maintain some people are not human at all and deserve to die. The two guys who raped the mother and daughter and set them on fire while alive come to mind.

[Fishbone345]

@jessejaymes I agree with you 100% that some people are so vile they deserve Deaths embrace. I just don't want someone convicted to death because its an election year for the DA or any other similar situation, someone ant afford OJ's defense team, they are a poster child, black/white, etc...
Given the situation you described, if it had happened to my wife or daughter not sure that I wouldn't try to kill them myself. For all my rational or logical response, I get completely feral when it comes to my family. I can understand how that might happen to a victims family left behind.

[Libertyiskey]

I think we need to do some serious reforming to the death penalty when it costs more than keeping someone in prison for life. http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.p...
Actually the whole criminal justice system needs reforming not just death penalty.

[artjeb]

Suppose you explain how a death cost more than keeping a person in prison for life . the latest info is it cost approx 67000 a yr to keep a person in jail.
A exacution is about 2000 bucks its over & don with. Isn't 2000 bucks cheaper than 67 000 dollars a yr ?

[Libertyiskey]

@artjeb Because the process doesn't go straight to execution, there's two court hearings at least, there's appeals, there's waiting on death row and feeding and health during then. That website showed both sides of the argument, it's called evidence.

[artjeb]

@Libertyiskey And all this time it still costs a heck of a lot of money that is more than what a execution costs. So why is a execution cost more than a bushel of money in untold amounts where a ex is about 2000 dollars ?

[artjeb]

@Libertyiskey Again some more to think about. A lawyer's fees are about 400 bucks an hour ? How long does the process take to appeal all this crap ?

[Libertyiskey]

@artjeb I'm not a fan of the process being so costly but I am a fan of the process. The death penalty I think should be for extreme cases and when we are absolutely positive the person is guilty. I'm not a fan of how much money it costs us to keep people in prison but am a fan of criminals being imprisoned. I think our prisons our overcrowded with petty drug users and it costs us way too much money.

What do you suggest? Again, I personally don't like that the cost to execute somebody costs more than life imprisonment, that's including the cost it takes for the process necessary to put the person to death. But it is the situation we live in where it costs more for the death penalty than it does for a life sentence.

[mimi57]

I have been pro death penalty since the mid 90's , however, I'm not sure how I feel about it now. I think it should be
an automatic sentence for mass murderer's, but should be done within 6 months to a year, once found guilty with
no appeals. These people on death row for 10-30 years ???...costing taxpayers millions of dollars is ridiculous.
However, the death penalty seems so random and unfair, and rich people are rarely if ever convicted or put to
death...so, with the exception of mass murderers and serial killers, I'm against it. Since our legal system is almost
totally corrupt including most of the lawyers, judges, etc., and will never be 'fair', it seems wrong to me that someone gets the death penalty for killing someone in a robbery while high on drugs, and another person kills
multiple people and gets a 20 yr. sentence. So, because it appears to be so random, I'm now against it w/ the
exception of mass murders.

[woodtick57]

how 'bout we use those people to study why it is a human mind can twist in sucha horrible way? certainly not all of them will cooperate (not that that means we can't learn anything from them..) but maybe we can actually begin to realize what causes that and try to prevent it in the future.

[Libertyiskey]

@woodtick57 Unethical scientific studies on them? In all seriousness I might be all for that to replace the death penalty. I think you got a good idea there

[texas_cutie75]

I am with you Mimi57. There have been numerous "oppsies" with convictions, leading to the incarceration of innocent folks. There needs to be an overhaul somewhere, just not entirely sure where it should begin. I do think that folks incarcerated for smaller crimes should be put in halfway houses with tracking devices and have them work for their living.... but monitor the daylights out of 'em. That'll ease some of the spending the government does.

[mimi57]

@woodtick57 Merry Christmas ! I think they are doing studies on his brain. A psychopaths brain function is
different than a normal persons. On a study done over the last 20 yrs., 64% of them appeared to have frontal
lobe abnormalities. Up to 50% had brain atrophy, and 40% had EEG abnormalities. Also, 84% were victims of
physical and sexual abuse. The study was done by Renato M.E. Sabbatini-PHD. However, that is only one
study and I'm sure it can be debated, as there are probably hundreds of studies that have been done. One thing
is certain, they are sick, evil, demented people, but, I don't know if we will ever know how to prevent more of them from committing these horrible crimes. Our mental health system is broken...

[texas_cutie75]

@woodtick57

I believe they are doing tests on him. As evil as he was, we need to know what "made him tick".

[twinertia]

Unfortunately, the death penalty's going nowhere. Too many people enjoy their revenge.

[PNWest]

Most liberals are against the death penalty. You can release a prisoner if evidence turns up later that shows he was innocent but you can't bring him back from the dead. Almost certainly states like TX have executed people who were not guilty of the crimes they were being executed for. But that being said is the world a worse place because Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy are gone? I don't think so. I'm on the fence on this issue. I would have a hard time sentencing someone to death.

[Libertyiskey]

I'm with you here about being on the fence. I want to say make it for exceptional cases only but then the problem of what constitutes something as more exceptional than another?

[PNWest]

@Libertyiskey I don't have a good answer. I think it's like Potter Stewart said about pornography - it's hard to define but I know it when I see it.

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

Why is it okay to sentence an innocent beautiful baby to death, yet it is perfectly fine to keep the most vile despicable scum alive? I say the death penalty is a just reward for people who commit some of most unspeakable acts possible. I just can't understand the resistance to it.

Hey liberals, riddle me this. You guys claim that innocent people might get executed if we have the death penalty. Well, I can bet you all the money in the world that during EVERY abortion someone innocent is executed. That's wrong. It's wrong. I said it's wrong!

[PNWest]

Many people don't think that abortion is the same thing as murder. According to the Bible in Exodus 21:22-25 God doesn't equate abortion with murder either. If you don't like abortion then don't have one. I thought you conservatives were all about keeping the government out of peoples private affairs.

[Fishbone345]

Good, it sucks too much money out of my check as it is.

[racemonkey]

It's quite possible the whole country may be doomed but that isn't really the discussion. This is a New York Times article so I expect it lean a little left of center but the facts they are reporting may still be spot on. I'm wondering if Adam Lanza would not have killed himself how many in CT would have wished they had the death penalty back. Chicago had ten shootings the same day and consistently ranks pretty high on the murder list. Maybe they should rethink their position on gun control and the death penalty there. I'm a big fan of forgiveness but I'm also a fan of consequences. To forgive does not mean that the person should get a free pass on what they did wrong. People killing people and getting eight years actual incarceration for the crime makes no sense. We make choices, the choices carry with them certain realities. When a person makes a choice to take a life in the commission of a crime or if the taking of the life is the crime they cannot take that back. They cannot return that loved one to their family. Is the death penalty a deterrent to crime? It is for the one we executed. We are a nation that believes less in less in personal accountability so I can see us doing away with the death penalty not because it doesn't work or because it's wrong but because we've bought the big lie that the criminal is the true victim.

[Speedieg]

As I have said before I agree with the death penalty in principle but the risk of error is too great. It should only be used in cases where there is absolutely no doubt that the individual was responsible both physically and mentally. Even then it should be limited to premeditated murder.

[KyleMFb]

Why is the death penalty not being used its stupid once your sentenced to death you should get your 2 appeals after that fails you should be executed soon as possible none of this being on death row for 50 years

[Dan_Tien]

It seems to me that the same sort of DNA evidence that has revealed mistaken guilty verdicts in the past will also help to prevent mistakes in the future. The real resistance to the death penalty is not because of mistaken guilty verdicts, it is due to the sentiment that the judicial system does not have the right to take the lives of people who are guilty of murder. I do not share that sentiment.

[Grubby]

Unfortunately, yes, because of all the liberals who want to protect our criminals. With our current Idiot in Chief we have no chance of getting tough on criminals in the near future.

[Sonny]

I hope it does not go away...There are some criminals who need that ultimate punishment.

[RoyFloyd]

I'm generally against the death penalty, except where mass murder is pre-meditated and planned, like the recent CT tragedy. The catch 22 is that in such cases the perp usually has a death wish and self-imposes capital punishment, or gets mowed down when cops respond. I am for life-imprisonment with no possibility of parole. I've also got no problem with those so sentenced having access to an adequate length of rope and a hook firmly anchored in the ceiling of their cell so that they might shorten their punishment and save us some tax money.

[Oneness3am_i]

I hope not-- because if it does die, we will continue to pay to house inmates until they die of natural cause. So ultimately the death penalty will save money..

[PattyD]

There will never be perfect justice system since its made up with humans.
Police that lie, witnesses that lie. I would hate to be a juror to decide someones fate knowing what I do.

[RobertJHarsh]

The problem with the death penalty is it just "clears out the warehouse". It obviously is not a deterrent against crime of any type. I say let these people rot in jail without any chance of getting out.