Atarah-Sheba Young

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Dr. Kimberly Smith

Persuasive Argumentative: Abolishment of the Death Penalty

Ending the life of a criminal is murder. However, when done by government officials, it
is no longer murder but capital punishment, also known as the death penalty. The death penalty
has been practiced in America centuries ago, with the first recorded execution in Jamestown,
Virginia in 1608 (Reggio). It wasnt until the 1960s, three centuries after the first recording, that
it was suggested to be a cruel and unusual punishment, thus making it unconstitutional under
the Eighth Amendment. However, instead of abolishing the death penalty all together, the
Supreme Court reformed the statues of the death penalty. Since then, the abolishment of the
death penalty has become a very controversial topic. Those that agree with the death penalty say
that it is the only means of justice for such horrid crimes. However, those that disagree with
capital punishment see the huge flaws in the system. The death penalty should be abolished
because it is not a deterrent of crime, it waste limited resources, it is racially bias, and it is a cruel
and unusual punishment that goes against the 8th Amendment of the US Constitution.
The death penalty does not deter crime. Many people that are opposed to the abolishment
of the death penalty claim that there are recent studies that prove executions reduce crime.
However, these studies are unreliable with numerous technical and conceptual errors, such as
incongruent methods of statistical analysis and absence of any direct test of deterrence. For
example, many supporters of the death penalty base their data and statistics off of econometric
modeling, also known as multiple regressions modeling (Goertzel 83). This model involves
creating complex mathematical models on the assumption that the models reflect what happens
in the real world. However, this model is only successful when there is a large continuous flow

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of stable data. Ted Goertzel, a professor of sociology, states that ...this method has consistently
failed to offer reliable and valid results in studies of social problems where the data are very
limited. (83) Therefore, using econometric modeling to prove that the death penalty deters crime
would be providing unreliable data. As a professor of Law and Epidemiology at Columbia
University, Jeffrey A. Fagan, PhD, emphasizes that death penalty deterrence studies:
fail to reach the demanding standard of social science to make such a claims
social scientist have failed to replicate several of these studies, and in some cases
have produced contradictory results with the same data, suggesting that the
original findings are unstable, unreliable and perhaps inaccurate. (Fagan)
Incongruence and unreliable date suggests that there is little proof that proves that the death
penalty deters crime. That being said, whether someone is for or against the death penalty, the
topic of crime deterrence simply could not be argued until social scientists find a reliable, stable,
and consistent study to prove such a claim.
The death penalty is far more expensive than life without parole, making it a waste of
limited resources. Many people that agree with the death penalty believe that it is more cost
effective than life in prison without parole due to the fact that if the criminal is executed, the cost
of sustaining that prisoner is eliminated as well. However, due to the constitution, the death
penalty requires a long and complex judicial process to be carried out, thus dramatically
increasing the cost of execution. John Roman, PhD, a Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute and
Executive Director of the District of Columbia Crime Policy Institute, confirms the cost

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difference, stating that cases receiving a death notice are approximately $147,000 more costly
during the penalty phase, and $201,000 more costly during the appellate phase than a capital
eligible case where no death notice was filed. On average, a death notice adds about
$1,000,000 in costs over the duration of a case (Roman). The principle reason for this dramatic
difference is because the death penalty is a capital case. Executive Director of the Death Penalty
Information Center, Richard C. Dieter, points out the reasoning behind that fact:
Jury selection takes much longer; more mental health and forensic experts will be
needed; two trials will be required - one for guilt and one for sentencing; and the
appeals will be far more complex, focusing on both the conviction and the death
sentence. Two attorneys are usually appointed for the defense, so that issues of
guilt and sentencing can be separately explored. The prosecution has to respond
with equal or greater resources since they have the burden of proof. (Dieter)
Some people still continue to say that you cant put a price on justice. That is true; however you
can put a price on programs that actually decrease the crime rates. Murder rates could be cut
through programs such as neighborhood watch, increasing policing, and adding new
technologies that focus on high-crime areas. That being said, the death penalty should be
abolished to prevent a waste of limited resources and taxpayers money, instead the money
should go into increasing the safety of communities with systems that are known to lower crime.
The death penalty system is extremely flawed due to the racial bias involved with who
lives and who dies. Many supports of the death penalty believe that the only reason a majority of

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minorities have been on the death row is simply because a majority of them commit crimes.
However, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People points out that
despite the fact that African Americans make up only 13 percent of the nations population,
almost 50 percent of those currently on the federal death row are African-American. Why is
there such a high percentage of Blacks being persecuted? Is it simply a coincidence that our
judicial system is controlled and dominated by whites, yet the recipients of such deadly
punishments are disproportionately black? When US Senator, Russ Feingold looked into the
issue, he declared:
A survey on the Federal death penalty system from 1988 to early 2000 was
released by the U.S. Department of Justice in September 2000. That report
showed troubling racial and geographic disparities in the Federal Government's
administration of the death penalty. In other words, who lives and who dies in the
Federal system appears to relate to the color of the defendant's skin or the region
of the country where the defendant is prosecuted... (Feingold)
This chilling information goes against the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States
Constitution, addressing equal protection of the laws. Based on the words of the constitution,
equal protection of the law does not mean whites get life and blacks get death. The inequality
and flaw of the system is evident. Therefore, due to the mistreatment of the Fourteenth
Amendment caused by racial bias, the death penalty should be abolished.

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The death by execution is a cruel and unusual punish, which goes against the 8 th
Amendment. Many supporters of the death penalty claim that just because an execution may
result in pain, this does not establish the sort of objectively intolerable risk of harm that meet the
requirements as cruel and unusual. However, the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty
states:
Recently, concerns have surfaced regarding Pavulon [a drug used in lethal
injections], which could paralyze inmates to the point where they are unable to
communicate any pain they are feeling from the following dose of potassium
chloride. Painful, lengthy executions constitute violations of the 8th Amendment,
which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. (National Coalition Against the
Death Penalty)
Treating humans like dogs to be put to sleep, or objects to be toyed with then discarded is enough
of a requirement to break the 8th amendment. Many death-penalty abolitionists understand that
the constitutional flaw in punishment by death is that it treats members of our human race as
nonhumans. That being said, the death penalty should be abolished because it does not correlate
with the ideals of the 8th Amendment, which was written with the idea that even the vilest of
criminals should be treated as a human with common human dignity.
The death penalty has yet to be abolished in the United States as a whole. The reasons to
do so are crystal clear. There is no evidence that capital punishment deters criminal neither
behavior nor crime rates. It wastes nearly one million dollars of taxpayers money for single

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criminal, resources that could have been used to increase safety methods that are actually proven
to deter crime. It is racial bias, being that fifty percent of inmates on death row are African
American. Also, the death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment, thus breaking the 8 th
Amendment of the United States Constitution. For these reasons, men and women must join
forces to bring these issues to the forefront. Its about time we put an end to the system and a
death to the death penalty.

Works Cited:
NAACP Remains Steadfast in Ending Death Penalty & Fighting Injustice in Americas Justice
System. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 28 Jun 2007.
Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
Dieter, Richard. Is the capital punishment system working? Death Penalty Debates. 20.41
(2010): N/A. CQ Researcher. Web. 7 November 2013.
Fagan, Jeffrey L. Deterrence and the Death Penalty: Risk, Uncertainty, and Public Policy
Choices. US Senate Committee. 1 February 2006. Web. 7 November 2013
Feingold, Russ. Does a Persons Race Affect the Likelihood of Him/Her Receiving the Death
Penalty? ProCon.org. 15 Aug 2008. Web. 7 Nov 2013.

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Dr. Kimberly Smith

Goertzel, Ted. Death Penalty Ed. Uma Kukathas. Farmington Hills: The Gale Group, 2008.
Print.
Reggio, Michael. History of the Death Penalty. PBS. Georgia. n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
Roman, John. Does the Death Penalty Cost Less Than Life in Prison Without Parole?
ProCon.org. 9 Aug 2012. Web. 10 Nov 2013.
The National Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Is the death penalty unconstitutional?
ProCon.org. 6 Jun 2008. Web. 7 Nov 2013.