THE U.S. REMAINS THE ONLY WESTERN INDUSTRIALIZED NATION WITH THE DEATH PENALTY!
By Glenn S. Reiner
THERE’S NO DARK SECRET how much I detest capital punishment. After 55 years, I still can’t perceive how it is rational, justified or the practice of the allegedly “most civilized nation on Earth.”
The U.S. is the only modern Western industrialized nation on earth to still employ it. The last execution in Europe took place over 30 years ago. This leaves us in the company of barbaric third-world countries, which includes all the Muslim theocracies.
What amazes me most is how the Bible Belt states (including Texas) — where Evangelical Christianity reigns supreme — executes the most amount of death row inmates. For some reason, I fail to see the spiritual component behind state-sanctioned murder.
I have fought with advocates of capital punishment for years, listening to their feeble justifications. But none has been more bizarre — and clearly rebutted with actually statistics — than the deterrent argument.
I can remember my father voting against New York’s three-term beloved governor, Mario Cuomo, who vetoed every piece of death penalty legislation that crossed his desk for 12 years.
Along with the majority of New Yorkers, my father replaced Cuomo with a Republican who ran solely on reinstating this heinous practice.
So what happened? The death penalty was reinstated, then declared unconstitutional by the state’s Court of Appeals — the highest court in the Empire State — before a single execution took place.
Following the the justices lead, the state legislature refused to even consider writing another bill, even one that would have met court’s criteria.
Meanwhile, all those working class people in New York who made George Pataki governor watched helplessly as cut necessary state funding from the cities, resulting in the loss of vital services.
Today, we have indisputable proof the murder rate in states without the death penalty is actually lower (per capita) than those that have it. actually have significantly lower murder rates (per capita).
“States with the death penalty have consistently had higher murder rates than states without the death penalty. If the death penalty was acting as a deterrent to murder, one might expect that the gap between these two groups would lessen over a long period of time as states using the death penalty obtained an advantage in reducing murders,” according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a watchdog group opposed to capital punishment.
“However, the gap has grown larger over the past 18 years. In 2007, states with the death penalty had a 42% higher murder rate than states without the death penalty.”
A murder rate is determined by dividing the number of murders in a state by the state’s population. According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, the murder rate for states with the death penalty last year was 5.83, while those without it was only 4.10. The national murder rate in 2007 was 5.6.
But the death mongers don’t want to hear about it.
Is it possible that capital punishment states have created a self-fulfilling prophecy? Based on results, it would clearly seem so!
5 responses so far ↓
Lynda // December 13, 2008 at 5:54 pm |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNNGCn-MeF8
Death Penalty
Jeremy Irons speaking out with reason–
Glenn // December 13, 2008 at 8:20 pm |
Lynda:
I have always been on the same page with Amnesty International, and these recordings clearly define my stance on this issue.
I guess the element of the death penalty that bugs me the worst is the sanctimonious Fundamentalist Christians in the Bible Belt, who favor it the most. Two of the religious right’s (which is neither, and which I refuse to capitalize) major tenants are pro-life and forgiveness. But their stand on capital punishment is clearly in direct opposition to their ‘alleged’ convictions.
How can one justify executions when they bomb abortion clinics and murder doctors who perform them. They are willing to protect a fetus that hasn’t been born yet and therefore legally not alive but are the first to scream for the murder of a living being — regardless of how detestable he/she might be.
On the other hand, why preach forgiveness when they don’t seem to even be willing to practice anything other than revenge?
At the risk of sounding judgmental, these hypocrites are animals — premeditated murderers who rationalize their heinous beliefs.
Lynda // December 14, 2008 at 7:57 am |
well– I agree. BUT, I won’t lump all believers [Christians] in one entire pile of thought. I would place the words ’some’ or ‘many’ before the word ‘Christians’.
Glenn // December 14, 2008 at 11:06 am |
Lynda:
I didn’t say all Christians, rather FUNDAMENTALIST Christians — you know, the ones that try to impose their values on others (and society at large since the late ’70s). Let’s not forget, I lived in Georgia for many years and witnessed the incredulous first hand!
The Death Penalty (Again) - 1.29.2009 « Samnite Gladiator’s Weblog // January 29, 2009 at 4:08 pm |
[...] His post about the Death Penalty [...]