One of the big arguments that some pro choice advocates continually throw back at me is something along the lines of, "How can you be so against a mother having the right to terminate her pregnancy when you can condone capital punishment and thousands of people dying in the war when these are full fledged fully developed human beings." My typical response is two words and it is usually met with one. I say, "I dont" and they say, "oh". Its funny how it kind of takes the wind out of their sails. The sad thing is that my answer takes them by surprise because it is so unusual. They are right, how can so many people call themselves pro life and then selectively apply the term. When I see someone do it, it makes me question their intelligence. Ill be getting to the war in a later blog. For now I just want to look at five reasons why anyone can see that capital punishment is wrong. Before I do, I want to provide one reason that should hold even more weight to Christians. Nowhere in the New Covenant does Jesus or any of the apostles condone capital punishment. God has made us ministers of reconciliation, not vengeance. The first reason you can see that capital punishment as used in America is wrong is the racist bent in its application. Of the 21 people currently on federal death row, 17 of them are minorities. Between 1995 and 2000 there were 183 cases in which the death penalty was sought. In 74% of these cases the defendant was a minority. But according to the General Accounting Office, "Many studies have already established that murderers of white victims are more likely than murderers of black victims to be sentenced to death. This effect is remarkably consistent across data sets, states, data collection methods and analytic techniques." 1 A Stanford study put it a bit more bluntly: "Male murderers with stereotypically black-looking features are more than twice as likely to get the death sentence than lighter-skinned African American defendants found guilty of killing a white person, Stanford researchers have found. The relationship between physical appearance and the death sentence disappears, however, when both murderers and their victims are black." 2 It is blatantly clear that capital punishment, as it is applied today, is a product of racism. More important than that in my mind is the possibility of error. John Grisham has written many excellent fictional legal thrillers, some of which have also become major blockbuster movies. Many, however, consider his one foray into nonfiction his greatest work. In The Innocent Man he looks into the wrongful conviction of Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz. While Id recommend that everyone go read the book, I understand that not all of you read a hundred books a year so perhaps you could look up online his comments on the book. Since I grudgingly admit that Grisham is maybe a bit better writer than I am, I wont expound on what he says but simply comment here that there are 206 people who have been exonerated in the US after being convicted as a result of DNA testing. 3 The third reason I am against capital punishment is its lack of deterrence for future criminals. There was a survey done of experts from the American Society of Criminology, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and the Law and Society Association that showed that 80% believe the research available does support deterrence as a justification for the death penalty. Over 75% of those polled didnt believe that increasing the number of executions, or decreasing the time spent on death row before execution, would produce a general deterrent effect. 4 "But," you say, "those are a bunch of liberal pundits speaking from behind a desk. What do they know?" When given a list of seven ways to prevent murder, police chiefs all listed capital punishment as the least effective deterrent. It simply does not work. In fact, it does the opposite. My fourth reason for being against capital punishment is its effect on society. Capital punishment brutalizes human nature and lowers the value on human life. The fact is, the primary motive for murdering supposed felons is not deterrence or even justice. It is vengeance. Think about it: "We think killing is wrong. You killed someone. Therefore were going to kill you." Where is the logic. No criminal on death row has committed as many premeditated murders as Uncle Sam has. The fact is, the states that have the death penalty have a cumulative murder rate 44% higher than the ones without it. According to the Dept of Justice, there is actually a spike in violent crime immediately after an execution. 5 Were just as bloodthirsty today as the Romans with their gladiators. Finally, the most important reason I am against the death penalty is that one of the most basic human rights is the right to life. Life is a gift of God. As I said at the beginning, I cannot call myself pro life and condone the legalized murder of another human being. If God has given life, how dare I presume to take it away.
(In case any of you were wondering where I got my facts from)
1 - Jennifer Eberhardt et al., "Looking Deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of Black Defendants Predicts Capital-Sentencing Outcomes" Psychological Science journal, 2006-MAY.
Just makes me want to tear down the NY Times and cast it into oblivion! lol Thanks for the insight, BJ. I'll be mulling this one over as I prepare for possible confrontation with my sister-in-law next week on political issues... she is pro-choice.
