The death penalty should be abolished

Contention 1: The death penalty is ineffective in deterring murder. A 2009 study by Michael Radelet and Traci Lacock, published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, found that over 88 percent of experts from the country’s top academic criminological societies disagreed that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. [1] When examining actual data for the murder rates of states, the 2010 FBI Uniform Crime Report showed that the South had the highest rate of violent crime. [2] It also, according to the Bureau of Justice’s 2010 report on capital punishment, executed the most people. [3]The National Research Council of the National Academies, after reviewing more than three decades of research on whether or not the death penalty acts as a deterrent for murder, came to the conclusion that “the research to date on the effect of capital punishment on homicide is not informative about whether capital punishment decreases, increases, or has no effect on homicide rates,” and that “these studies should not be used to inform deliberations requiring judgments about the effect of the death penalty on homicide. ”[3]Contention 2: The death penalty is unequally applied. A study conducted in Louisiana based on data collected from 1990 to 2008 by Glenn Pierce and Michael Radelet for the Louisiana Law Review, published in 2011, showed that the odds of a death sentence were almost 97 percent higher for those whose victim was white rather than those whose victim was black. [5] A second study by Pierce and Radelet in California, published in 2005, showed that those who killed whites were almost 3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than whose who killed blacks and over 4 times more likely than those who killed latinos. [6] A report by Professor David Baldus of the University of Iowa College of Law in 2011 showed that, of murder cases in Washington State with at least one white victim, the prosecution sought the death penalty over 23 percent more often than without. The death penalty was imposed 15 percent of the time in cases with at least 1 white victim in Washington State, and only 8 percent of the time with no white victims. [7]Furthermore, in the same report, the rate at which the death penalty was imposed on the accused with at least one person appointed to their defense counsel was fourteen percent higher than the rate at which it was imposed on those with retained counsel- a rate which was zero percent. [8] Indeed: in Washington State from 1981-2003, the rate at which the death penalty was imposed on those with retained counsel was zero percent. Contention 3: The death penalty is more expensive than life imprisonment. In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of 2.3 million dollars- a number that is almost three times as high as the amount required to imprison someone in a single high-security cell for 40 years. [9] A study by the Urban Institute showed that, in Maryland, the average death penalty case costs 3 million dollars. For 1978-1999, the overall cost to taxpayers in the state will be 186 million dollars, for a total of five executions. [10] A study by the Kansas Performance Audit Report showed that, in Kansas, the cost of capital offense cases are almost 70 percent more expensive than comparable non-capital cases. [11] In Florida, enforcing the death penalty costs 51 million dollars a year more than what it would cost to put every first-degree murderer in prison without parole for life. Florida has carried out 44 executions since 1976; it costs nearly 24 million dollars per execution in the state. [12] A study carried out by Duke University in 1993 showed that North Carolina spent almost 2.16 million dollars more per criminal sentenced to execution than they would have spent if that same criminal was sentenced to life in prison. Conclusion: The death penalty is not effective in deterring people from committing murder, as shown in numerous studies. Indeed, the South - which executes the most people - also has the highest murder rate. Not only does the death penalty not deter people from committing murder, but it is also unequally applied when it is pushed for: those responsible for crimes against a white victim receive the death penalty far more often than those who commit crimes without a white victim, and those with legal counsel on retainer receive the death penalty far less than those who are appointed counsel by the state. The death penalty is also more expensive than life imprisonment without parole, as shown in numerous states. A review of the data by the prestigious National Research Council found that studies that claim the death penalty to be a deterrent are fundamentally flawed for three reasons: The studies do not factor in the effects of noncapital punishments that may also be imposed Models of potential murderers’ perceptions of and response to the use of capital punishment are incomplete/implausible Estimates of the effect of capital punishment are based on statistical models that make assumptions that are not credible Life imprisonment would be cheaper, result in a more equal legal playing field for those charged with crimes against whites/those without retained legal counsel, and would at the very least be as effective - if not more effective- as the death penalty for deterring crimes. However, it must be noted that anyone who commits a crime - especially murder - does not intend to get caught. The punishments for committing these crimes, then, are irrelevant to criminals who never intend to face them. I am prepared to address arguments about the moralty of the death penalty at a later date; I'd like to base my arguments on verifiable facts and statistical data first. Sources: [1] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... [2] . http://www.fbi.gov... [3] . http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov... [4] . http://www.nap.edu... [5] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... [6] . http://law.scu.edu... [7] . http://www.mhb.com... [8] . http://www.mhb.com... [9] . http://www.studentabolition.org... [10] . http://www.urban.org... [11] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... [12] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... Throughout (wording, etc. ): . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...