'Round in Circles(C. Johnson) Life, liberty, and death? Do we make ourselves as bad as the crimes we commit? All capital punishment really boils down to are rancor and vengeance from both the system and us, the people. It’s not that I feel for the criminals or anything of that matter. It’s just that I have to face the facts. The death penalty hasn’t shown to be very effective in the deterrence of crime. Also, this may be a shock to many, but studies have shown over and over again that capital punishment costs more than life in prison without parole. This may not be a surprise to some, but the most unethical and major problem with the death penalty is the fact that there are risks of innocent people being executed.

Just like you and I, unfortunately, the system is capable of making mistakes. But what the system can do that most of us would not dear to do is make such a tragic mistake that it is irreversible. It has been reported that near 140 people who were wrongly convicted to death row were absolved of their alleged guilt and blame. There have been many cases where innocent people were put to death. Such a case was that of Cameron Willingham, a man who was convicted of setting a fire that ultimately ended up killing his three daughters. An investigation for arson was done for approximately 12 days, an investigation period that proved to not be enough as the inaccuracy of the forensic data was the catalyst for Willingham’s death. Years after his wrongful conviction and death, the Texas Forensic Science Commission finally resolved that Willingham’s supposed arson was due to fallacious science. There have been many other cases where innocent people were wrongly convicted too, including those of: Carlos DeLuna, Glen Chapman, John Thompson, and Sakae Menda. If you’ve noticed something here, it is that all of the wrongly convicted people that I just mentioned are all of color. In other words, “race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty, i.e. those who murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks” (Death Penalty Focus). To add to that, point, as opposed to consensus, the death penalty can be apply to not only those who commit major crimes, but also to those who commit minor offenses, such as stealing and trespassing. What really determines whether or not a criminal is convicted or not, or even worse: live or die, are the lawyers, and overworked ones at that. All this can be proven from reports, scientific data, past trials of conviction, and suchlike. Some people are lucky and are let free, while others are put to death, even when they are completely innocent. In the investigation of homicides, the system almost always, if not always, depends on DNA and can often be very irrelevant to the whole case, is often not available, and can not guarantee that they will wrongly convict innocent people.

Time and time again, there hasn’t been any evidence, or at least that is credible, proving that the death penalty deters crime and keeps us safer. Despite the fact that only 18 states out of the 50 states in the United States have abolished the death penalty, scientific studies have shown that states that do not have the death penalty have lower rates in murder. Take New Jersey and North Carolina for instance. They both have about the same population size, and New Jersey does not have the death penalty, while North Carolina does. In 2012, it was shown by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI that New Jersey had 388 cases of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, while North Carolina had 479 cases. An appropriate and moral alternative to the death penalty is life without parole, which can prevent reoffending, the execution of the innocent, the possibility for the alleged criminal to prove their innocence, and the fact that the death penalty costs less than life without parole.

This is a surprise to many, but the death penalty costs more than life in prison without parole. In fact, in 2007 it was the principle reason as to why New Jersey was the first state to abolish and ban executions. The highest cost for the death penalty come in for security, jury sequestration, appeals (required by every state), a sentencing trial, the cost for keeping inmates in death row, the pre-trial, that comes along with the conviction, in addition to the expenses that need to be dealt with by the alleged criminal in order to compensate their lawyer. People in death row are separated from rest of the population of the prison and are treated differently. More guards are needed for the people on death row. In an assessment of costs by Judge Arthur Alarcon and professor Paula Mitchell concluded that California has spent over $4 billion since 1978, the year that California reinstated the death penalty. $1.94 billion dollars was spent on pre-trail and trial costs, $925 million for automatic appeals and state habeas corpus (a writ that requires a person under arrest to see a judge or go into court) petitions, $775 million for federal habeas corpus appeals, and $1 billion for cost of incarceration on death row. Also according to the authors, if Governor Jerry Brown were to turn the sentences of those on death row into life in prison, the state would be saving $170 million per year, and in 20 years, the state would save about $5 billion. In California, it roughly costs $47,000 per year to incarcerate someone. In the U.S., overall, it costs approximately $30,000 per year to incarcerate someone. One execution can cost anywhere from $5 million dollars to $30 million dollars, depending upon the crime, victims, lawyers, etc. If someone were to spend life without parole 50 years in prison and die at their 50th year, the cost would be about $1.5 million dollars, which is of course, less than the amount of an execution. Despite of all the facts and precautions, innocent people are still executed.

To prevent innocent people from being executed, the system should take even more strict precautions, make trials longer, provide money to the alleged criminal for a better lawyer, pick an unbiased jury and make the entire sentence longer. The system should clean the prisons, and make life more uncomfortable for criminals. The death penalty really isn’t a punishment. All it is is an easy way out of life and their problems. By putting a criminal on life without parole, they will have problems and their guilt to face, while still having the chance to possibly prove themselves innocent, if they are. If the solution is to kill . . . then all we’re doing is going ‘round in circles.

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