•
Write the author
Myth No. 1: Death Penalty results in reduced rates of homicides,
murders and serious crimes in a society.
This is the most common myth which works in favour of imposition of death
penalty. Typically, people believe that if there were possibility to be
sentenced to death, the prospective offenders would think twice before
committing a crime and could even totally give up their criminal
intentions. This is what is believed to be the "deterrent effect" of the
death penalty and many people believe that deterrent effect of death
penalty is a very effective way to prevent murders and similar criminal
behavior.
However, in reality, innumerable studies from all over the world have
revealed totally different results. In fact, many studies even show the
opposite effect, that existence of the death penalty as a punishment is
brutalizing society and making it more violent. It is of course impossible
to prove with absolute certainty for example how many murders have been
prevented or how many people more have been killed because of the death
penalty, and further, there are several factors according to criminologist
researches, which can affect to criminal activity and criminal behavior
and deterrent effect of punishment is only one of these factors. There
are, however, several studies showing that there hasn't been any
remarkable change, for example, in murder rates, after abolishing death
penalty and also several studies go on to prove that threat of death
penalty does not have preventive affect for people committing serious
offences. What is remarkable is that some studies have even shown results
that effect of the death penalty is just the opposite: existence of the
death penalty is correlated with increased homicides!
After looking at the available statistics and selecting some very similar
countries where factors relevant to causing or preventing
criminality are quite similar, and then selecting from amongst those the
countries with and without the death penalty, it is possible to make some
careful conclusion as to how effective death penalty is in preventing
serious offences. For example the western (post) industrial
countries (USA, EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland,
Iceland, Monaco and Liechtenstein) have all abolished the death penalty,
except USA, and still, for example, murder rates are much higher in USA
than in any of these other, similar, countries.
Of course it is possible to make
statements that if the death penalty would not exist even more murders
would happen in USA, but it is difficult to find support for this
statement from the studies. There has been no remarkable increase in
murder rates in those US states which have abolished death penalty. In
fact, the survey released in September 2000 by New York Times found that
during the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with death penalty
has been 48 percent to 101 percent higher than in states without death
penalty. Also, the FBI data show that 10 of the 12 states without capital
punishment have homicide rates below the national average (source: Amnesty
USA).
Also, for example, in Canada, after the abolition of the death penalty in
1976, Canada's homicide rate has declined. In 2000, there were 542
homicides in Canada - 16 fewer than in 1998, and 159 fewer than in 1975
(one year prior to the abolition of capital punishment). ( Source:
Correctional Service Canada. derived from Logan R. Crime Statistics in
Canada, 2000, Juristat, Vol. 21 No. 8, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice
Statistics, 2001, p. 6; and Tremblay, S. Crime Statistics in Canada, 1998,
Juristat, Vol. 19 No. 9, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics,
1999, p. 6.)
Some people also believe that the reason USA has such high crime rates
is because of the reason that it is easier to get guns or firearms in the
USA than in other western countries. That may, of course, be part of the
reason, but it still doesn't explain everything: First of all, it is not a
big problem to get a gun in Europe either, and secondly guns do not shoot
the people themselves: you need a person to get a gun and to fire it..
Then, one may ask, what are the reasons that the deterrent effect is not
working? This is mostly because people are not thinking about the
consequences and punishment when they are committing serious crimes. Most
of the homicides are committed under the influence of drugs or alcohol or
in a state of mind, which lowers person's discretion and capability to
think clearly, like rage, anger, fear or panic.
Some of the homicides are
also committed by children or mentally ill persons who do not understand
perfectly what they are doing. There are other types of serious offences,
for example murder or homicide, which are done deliberately after
carefully planning by clear thinking offender. However, even in these
cases the deterrent effect does not work very effectively as either these
offenders do not believe that they could get caught or they don't care
about the sentence they will get if they get caught. Infact, sometimes if
a person knows that the death penalty is waiting for him, nothing will
hold him anymore and he could go on to commit more homicides!
Myth No. 2: Innocent people are not convicted in death penalty
trials.
It is also often believed that proceedings in the death penalty trials are
so meticulously carried out that there is not an iota of scope for error
and in practice it is impossible to send an innocent man to death.
However, there is no such a thing as 'foolproof' trial as long as human
beings are working in the courtrooms, investigating the questions of
guilty, testifying, calculating the evidences, or even passing judgments!
There is always a possibility of making mistakes and those mistakes have
happened several times even during the last few years! Convictions of the
people because of wrong or faulty grounds are not fiction. For example,
according to some studies, only in the USA, around 100 people been
released from a death row because they have afterwards found innocent. It
is also common that after getting more proofs, accused are found to be not
guilty for the same crime for which they were convicted and it is
possible that murder changes to manslaughter, and that one could invite
death penalty while other does not. If an innocent person has been
sentenced to prison, it is, at least in theory, possible to compensate the
wrong judgment passed on that person by releasing him and compensating his
lost with money. However, once a person is sentenced to death, then it is
final, there is no chance to compensate him even theoretically!
Myth No. 3: It is cheaper to sentence a person to death than keep him a
lifetime in prison.
First of all, it is impossible to fix any price on a human life. This by
itself is sufficient to explode the third myth! But, even at the other,
practical level, it is established that the actual cost of one death
penalty case is usually much higher than the cost incurred on an
individual serving life imprisonment. This is because of higher pre-trial
costs and costs incurred during the court process. In the death penalty
cases, states need to guarantee all the possible requirements of the fair
trial, much more investigation, much more time, more defence lawyers to
protect accused, more prosecutor and more bureaucracy. This means, both,
higher investigative costs and higher extra costs during the trial. Also,
many times death penalty is ultimately changed to life imprisonment and
this means also extra costs after the more costly trial.
Of course, all
this depends on the death penalty system of the country. If, in a country
it is possible to award death penalty after "normal" trial, i.e., without
extra investigations or other extra protections for the accused, the costs
of investigations and trial go down, but a system which does not take care
of the necessary requirements for the fair trial and procedural fairness
especially in death penalty cases, is a system that has failed badly.
Also, in any case, in such circumstances, the possibility of faulty
sentences is bound to rise, which goes against the myth no. 2.
Myth No. 4: In death penalty cases, the probability of being sentenced
to die is the same for everyone.
In theory, equality before the law is guaranteed in constitutions and in
international conventions all over the world, which is great if it would
work well. However, several studies have found that in death penalty
cases, the likelihood to be convicted is much higher for the poor, less
educated, ethnic minorities and religious minorities, as compared to the
privileged individuals who have been accused of similar offences. Some
studies have found that from 80 to 90 percent of the death row inmates are
from minority groups and as many as 95 percent are classified as poor.
Also, death penalty may be used for political reasons as well. Infact,
there are so many possibilities of this kind that only when it is
abolished from the law can a person be sure that the death penalty
will not be used against him for the wrong reasons!
Combat Law, Volume 2, Issue 2
•
Vol #2, Issue #2, Combat Law
•
Human Rights
•
Printer friendly version
Myths about the death penalty
Kimmo Suominen
finds that abolition is the only standard by which
capital punishment can be judged to be fair.
Combat Law, Volume 2, Issue 2 -
June-July 2003
•
Vol #2, Issue #2, Combat Law
•
Human Rights
•
Feedback :
Tell us what you think of this page.
