The Death Penalty

I've been spending quite a bit of time thinking about the death penalty in light of the execution of Timothy McVeigh. Some of the things I've come up with have changed my mind about it.

The pros of the death penalty:

• Thought to be a deterrent to capital crime.
• We don’t have to support violent criminals in jail through tax dollars.
• We are demonstrating that we will not stand for violent crimes.
• The victims get some sort of “closure” from seeing the perpetrator of the crime put to death.

The cons of the death penalty:

• We run the risk of creating a martyr.
• Two wrongs don’t make a right.
• Nearly all of Europe has abolished the death penalty as cruel and unusual punishment.
• There may be innocent people being put to death.
• The death penalty appears to apply to the poor who cannot mount as good a defense as the rich, who can afford high-priced lawyers to defend them.
• Doesn’t appear to deter capital crimes.
• Of the 29 countries that reported executing criminals in 2000, The U.S. in the top four along with China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq. Is this good company?

I still have mixed feelings about the death penalty. But I think I lean in the direction of being against it rather than for it as I used to be.

© 1998-2000 J. S. Brown