True Story about Death Penalty

I. Introduction:Capital punishment is officially available in 38 of the 50 States and as well as the by Federal Government. Though the capital punishment is executed by the relevant states, the federal government retains the right to exercise the capital punishment but it does so very rarely.

Further, the following states in the U.S have banned the death sentence: Puerto Rico, Maine, Iowa, Alaska, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Islands, North Dakota, Vermont West Virginia, Wisconsin and the district of Colombia.It is interesting to note that between 1973 and 1976, the capital punishment was suspended in United States due to the decisions of the Supreme Court of U.S.A. Local anti capital punishment activist always criticizes the U.

S government initiatives to impose death sentience in colonialist style.[1]2. AnalysisThose who vehemently contest the death penalty argue that it costs too much for the exchequer. They are of the opinion that it is too expensive to execute the convict than retaining them in prison. For instance, in Texas, the estimated expenditure on each execution case is about three times higher than detaining an inmate for forty years with the rigid security. According to the opinion poll conducted by, "The Budgetary Repercussions of Capital Convictions" reveals that the cost incurred on capital trials from 1982-1997 was $1.

6 billion. It is to be observed that a share of the taxpayer’s money is being spent for the cost of executing a criminal.Critics are of the view that the money can be utilized for welfare purposes like Medicare or education. Further, the opponents of the death penalty feel that majority of the convicts are innocent and they are being charged falsely and executed. One of the best illustrations is that all the convicts are not offenders is the case of Greg Wilhoit.

Greg Wilhoit wife was brutally murdered and Greg was charged for the murder. He was sentenced to lethal injection and was placed on waiting for death row for more than five years. By grace of god, new trial found that Greg was innocent. After eight years of misery and pain, Greg was released. This demonstrates that the death penalty can terminate the life of an innocent person just if the evidence is insufficient.

2.1 Leninient views by U.S.A courts on death penalty:In U.S.A, courts have always taken a lenient view while awarding the death sentence.

In Roberts’s v.Lousiana and in Woodson v.North Carolina, it was held that states can not award death penalty as a punishment for a particular style or form of murder. Again in Coker v. Georgia, death penalty was barred for the alleged rape of 16 year old married female and by inference, for any felony other than murder. In Atkins v.

Virginia, 536 U.S .304 (2002), the court held that execution of mentally retarded criminals was cruel and unusual punishment in contravention of the 8th Amendment. In Roper v. Simmons, 125 ct, 1183 (2005) the court held that the execution of juvenile offenders was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th Amendment. In U.

S, In the case of Furman v. Georgia  408, U.S 238 (1972) the death penalty was held as being brutal and inhuman punishment and thus become unconstitutional under the Eighth amendment to the United States Constitution. [Mcdonnell, T. M. 2004).

2.2 Types of death penalty:Present method of execution in case of a death penalty is by way of hanging, firing squad, lethal injection, gas chambers, and electrocution. Thirty eight states are still actively engaged in the usage of the death sentence. Lethal injection is widely used mode of death sentence as of date.

  Oklahoma, Idahoans, Utah are the only three American states that are employing the firing squad method of execution. The traditional and old method of hanging is employed by Delaware, New Hampshire, and Washington. Death penalty is awarded for committing the following offenses like rape, espionage, treason, kidnapping and murder. In the United States, the minimum age for execution ranges from ages sixteen to eighteen. [Bedau, H.

A. 1964]2.3Statistics on death penalty:In U.S.

A, about 7254 death sentences were issued between 1973 and 2002. These had resulted in 820 executions.  For murder crime alone, 3557 prisoners still are waiting on death row. Out the death convicts, 268 were died while imprisonment due to natural causes suicide or murder. About 176 death convicts sentences were commuted by governors or state pardon boards and about 2403, which were released, resentenced or retried by the courts. In 2004 alone, there were about 59 executions.

[Bedau, H. A. & Cassell, P. G.2004].2.

4Advantages of death penalty:Supporters of the death penalty argue that death penalty is necessary as it act as deterrence to commit any heinous crimes by the criminals. Ardent supporters of death penalty are in favour of capital punishment, arguing that a person who has committed a dreadful act merits dying. [Haag, E. V., & Conrad, J.

P. 1983).Some supporters of the death penalty observe that death penalty is inevitable because the Bible calls for death penalty for a wide variety of crimes. If a person commits a heinous crime then the death penalty can only be the best reward. Critics observe that death penalty will deter crimes.

Death penalty actually helps to minimize crimes in the society since it acts as a deterrent. A best illustration of an accused that deserved the death penalty was Timothy Mc Veigh. He was convicted for the Oklahoma City bombing which killed more than 168 people (Bowman). Further, Islamic terrorist have killed thousands of innocent Americans during 9/11 attack.

Do we expect that perpetrators of this outrageous crime are simply let off after having committed this dreadful crime without death punishment?2.5 Disadvantages of Death Penalty:The death penalty is an infringement of fundamental human rights: the right to life and the right not to be subjected to inhuman, brutal, or humiliating treatment. It destabilizes civil relations in the social order and the self-esteem of the people who live in it.Another popular argument about capital punishment is that it offers closure for the victim’s family. It is to be noted that capital punishment does not discourage crime more efficiently than any other punishments.

It is at times employed unreasonably against the minorities, poor and political antagonists.  It is also impractical to make sure that naive people are not executed: As per the version of the US Death Penalty Information Centre, 123 people have been discharged from death row in the USA after being wrongly convicted since 1976.  The abolition of capital punishment has been made as one of its main priorities by the Council of Europe. There has been continuous struggle for 30 years to ban the death penalty across Europe and to make abolition a universally acknowledged value. Since 1997, due to adoption of this policy, no execution has taken place in the Council’s European member states. [Bienne, L.

B. 1999).However, many countries, including Japan and the USA, still employ the death penalty. The Council of Europe has made a vow to continue its struggle against this brutal and atrocious punishment until it has been totally eliminated both in Europe and around the globe.It is to be understood that the death penalty neither discourages crime nor assists the victims. It is alleged that in case of death penalty, miscarriages of justice always occur far more often than most people understand.

Besides, a naive person can be put to death on principle, as capital punishment being an infamous mechanism of silencing political rivals. In majority cases, the death penalty has been always applied in an unjust, capricious and discriminatory manner. Its binding nature makes it convenient to abuse.The death penalty is responsible for generating martyrs of members of groups which employ violence as an instrument to attain their goals, as well as encouraging further violent actions.

According to a UN study conducted in 1996 had revealed that there is no evidence that executions have acted as a great disincentive than that of life imprisonment. Further, as per the views of the American Civil Liberties Union, US states which have death penalty laws in force do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than that of other states. This clearly establishes that there is no correlation between death sentence and crime rate prevalence in any country or in any province.The European Convention on Human Rights, which was approved in 1950, affirms that everyone’s life shall be safeguarded by law and no one shall be divested of life. Conversely, the Convention did permit the death penalty to be enforced when it is required for by law of any member state.Thus, the Council of Europe has become a pioneer as early as 1980 for the eradication of capital punishment, believing it to be a serious violation of human rights.

The organisation’s Parliamentary Assembly steadily convinced governments to assist Europe become the first region in the world to everlastingly ban the death penalty. The Council of Europe adopted in 1982, the Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which became the ever first legitimate instrument eliminating the death penalty in peacetime. As of today, the protocol has been approved by 46 of the Council’s 47 member states; except one, Russia which has dedicated itself to ratification.

Further, in 1989, abolition of the death penalty was made a pre-condition of accession for all new member states. From then onwards, when joining the organisation, all countries are dedicated to introduce an instantaneous cessation on executions and endorsement of Protocol No. 6. Further, a number of systems have been established to monitor in respect of those obligations while helping respective governments with their implementation.In 2002, a significant milestone was achieved by the Council to ban the death penalty in all conditions with the espousal of Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which necessitates the complete eradication of capital punishment - even for acts committed in time of war.

Due to this, there has not been any solitary execution in any of the member states of the Council of Europe for the last 10 years. In Europe, only Belarus which is not a member of the organisation is still using capital punishment. The Parliamentary Assembly now desires to expand prohibition to countries which are enjoying as an observer status with the Council, which includes Japan and the United States.A resolution demanding for a global freeze on executions had been introduced at the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, which began on 18 September 2007. No doubt, its adoption would be a landmark towards the eradication of the death penalty worldwide.

According to Amnesty International, more than 130 countries have already eliminated the death penalty both in law and in practice. 29 of these countries are de facto abolitionist: thus, they keep the death penalty in law but have not carried out any death penalty for the last ten years or more. However, 67 other countries preserve and employ the death penalty, but the number of countries which in reality execute prisoners in any one particular year is much lesser. In 2006 alone, 1,591 people were executed in 25 countries as per the estimates of the Amnesty International. However, this number could be much high in countries where such figures remain a government secret, like China.

[Anckar, C. 2004].The Council of Europe also stoutly condemns the United States for continuing to employ the death penalty. US government has been demanded by the Parliamentary Assembly to initiate a moratorium on capital punishment. The council through its secretary general frequently interferes in individual cases in U.

S.A appealing a stay of execution. The method in which the death penalty is governed in the US is also a subject of anxiety, especially for its discriminatory nature. For example, over fifty percent of those who are on death row currently in the United States are non-white. This demonstrates that there exists discrimination against the poor in U.

S.A, who are habitually incapable to afford an adequate defence, also happens. [Jenco, M. 2005].

2.6 Death penalty in Thailand:If one analyze the Thailand laws, under the Thailand Penal Code alone, the death sentence can be awarded  to 35 crimes, ranging from offences against the King, murder, treason, rape in which the victim is killed and arson, to robbery which results in death. One of the strange provisions in Thailand Criminal law is the mistreatment of position by a legislative official for his/her own advantage is also subject to the punishment, although in real parlance no one has ever encountered it.In Thailand, the death penalty is normally not employed just like that.

Rather, there is a long-lasting, intricate process involved. A convict on death row has two months to request a royal pardon from His Majesty the King. Once the request is made, the penalty will be suspended until His Majesty decides otherwise. In most instances, pardons are awarded. As a result, very few in fact face lethal injection. Moreover, Thai laws authorise statutes to grant for pardon and commutation of punishment, such as when a convicted person had formerly done good deeds, or has admitted the crime and repented.

3. Conclusion:Though the federal government vehemently supports the death penalty, as does our highly dedicated executive branch, it does not connote that states follow the suit and they are having adequate privilege to exercise their right to enact what a just and equitable system that deserves to them, either right to have death penalty or no death penalty.  There is clear evidence that support is going down for capital punishment in the U.S., following perhaps the global standpoint that has survived for decades in other developed western countries.With new capital punishment reforms are being pursued in the United States, liberalizing the death penalty statute demonstrates a change in ideology.

  The United States appears exceptionally conservative, almost behind in policy towards its convicted criminals.  None of the developed western country in the world even has the death penalty as a sentence to any crime, except the United States. Europe stands as an illustration by abolishing the death penalty. In this light, this liberal vs.

conservative disagreement in terms of legal rights of government actions can apply to many U.S. vs. Europe ideologies and policies.There is justice for tit for tat by giving death penalty to a murderer and sending a person to gallows as a pay back for having killed another one. The killer is no doubt has done a heinous crime, but the government is even more erroneous to kill those people instead of making them to live day after day in a tiny cell to recount and repent for what had happened.

Just by ending the lives of these criminals is no more than allowing them to have the easy way out, which is surely not what they merit at all. The government needs to incarcerate these criminals because there is always a prospect that the person convicted may not be guilty and if they were butchered, the government could be blamed by the poor families of the wrong victim.