| Death penalty reinforces inequality, should be abolished |
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By Jordan Jochim The execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner this past month is just another page in the sordid and misguided history of capital punishment. From the guillotines of the French Revolution to the stakes of the Salem Witch Trials, the death penalty has been seen throughout history as the proper and just way of dealing with the criminal and violent members of society. The United States finds itself in the company of Indonesia, China, and Iraq as one of the ever-dwindling number of nations that refuse to forego this age-old form of blood atonement. At its most basic level, capital punishment is hypocritical. One cannot help but be reminded of a quote by Victor Hugo; “What says the law? You will not kill. How does it say it? By killing!” Tom Maloney, professor of economics and head of the Tanner Center for Nonviolent Human Rights Advocacy, said that the issue of capital punishment cuts to “the very heart of the idea that there is an inherent value to human life,” and that the death penalty ends up trying to distinguish the value of some people as being less than that of others. One needs to look no farther than the disproportionate number of murderers of white victims on death row as compared to the number of black victims to see how this system perpetuates inequality and reinforces a scale of value that is based on the ethnicity of the victim. According to Amnesty International USA, since 1976, roughly 79 percent of death row inmates have been sentenced for murdering someone who is white. This is particularly disquieting when you take the time to consider that nearly half of all murder victims within the Unites States are black. The Yale University School of Law conducted a study of the death penalty in 2007 that reinforces these findings. In the study, defendants who were African-American were sentenced to death at nearly three times the rate of white defendants when the victim was Caucasian. Perhaps Senator Russ Feingold said it best; “We simply cannot say we live in a country that offers equal justice to all Americans when racial disparities plague the system by which our society imposes the ultimate punishment.” The National Alliance on Mental Health concludes that about one in ten people that have faced the death penalty might have suffered from some sort of mental illness. Texas has executed 460 people since 1976, dwarfing the 7 that Utah has sentenced in that same time frame. Texas also ranks 46th in the country when it comes to the amount of money spent per capita on the treatment of those who are mentally ill. The constitution leaves it up to the state to decide what actually constitutes insanity. The death penalty is a form of punishment that targets those least likely to defend themselves, as well as those who have the least presence of mind to weigh the gravity of their actions. Murder is obviously a horrendous and despicable crime, and those who commit this crime should be punished severely, but the death penalty as a form of punishment is outdated and should be abolished. Maloney was not overly optimistic on the possibility of some sort of nation-wide abolition of capital punishment, saying that “there’s so much disparity in our country... that any sort of uniformity on the issue is extremely unlikely.” It’s difficult to disagree with him when considering the state of affairs that we live in today, especially when states such as Texas and Virginia tower over the rest of the nation in its fondness for executions, showing no sign of relenting to a federal ban on the death penalty. Many maintain that if you take the life of another you forfeit your own right to live, and that in and of itself justifies the death penalty. This sort of circular logic has no place in our judiciary system, as once again, it reinforces the idea that certain people’s lives are worth more than others. This is a stance bereft of objectivity and impartiality, which are the fundamentals of our legal system. As a nation that prides itself on the objective nature of its judicial branch, the time has come to tear down this crude act of retribution and vengeance. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/news/death-penalty-reinforces-inequality-should-be-abolished-1.2277432 |
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