1worldinternational is pleased to have Andrea Trattner as its guest author. This week she presents a compelling polemic on the death penalty. 1worldinternational assures its readers that the views of supporters of the death penalty will be somewhat altered after viewing this page. Again, the views espoused by the author are solely hers.
Note: This article refers mainly to the USA, which is the only G8 country continuing to enforce the death penalty. Most readily available data regarding convictions and executions is from US sources, with other countries, such as China, refusing to publish official statistics relating to convictions and executions. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the actual number of executions carried out each year is substantially higher than official reports suggest.
Intoduction
In May 2012, Columbia University law professor James Liebman published an article (An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution (2012), of his findings following an investigation into the case of Carlos DeLuna, convicted of stabbing a Hispanic woman to death in 1983. Liebman’s investigation highlighted a catalogue of errors that had led to the conviction of DeLuna, throwing serious doubt on the conviction.
However, Carlos DeLuna could not benefit from the findings of this investigation. This was because following his conviction in the state of Texas, he was executed by lethal injection in 1989, more than 20 years before Liebman’s findings were published.
Flaws in the Arguments of the Supporters of the Death Penalty
The conviction of Carlos DeLuna rested on the testimony of an eyewitness who saw a Hispanic man leaving the scene of the crime, who later identified that man to be DeLuna. The forensic evidence gathered rendered no conclusive findings and DeLuna not only claimed to be innocent, but also named the person that he believed to be guilty, a man known to the police following a string of offences, including armed robbery and as a suspect in another murder investigation. In addition, the man that DeLuna named as the murderer, a Mr Hernandez, was also reported to have confessed to the murder at one point.
Liebman concluded that the flaws in the investigation, not least “faulty eyewitness testimony, poor legal representation and evidence withheld from the defence — continue to put innocent people at risk of execution….”
Arguments against the Death Penalty
The possibility of innocence is one of the strongest arguments against the use of the death penalty. The possibility of wrongful execution is very real as no criminal justice system is without human error; people make mistakes and this has led to wrongful convictions in capital cases. Human error takes many forms within the justice system:
• eyewitness error - from confusion or faulty memory
• government misconduct - by both the police and the prosecution
• junk science - mishandled evidence or use of unqualified "experts"
• snitch testimony - often given in exchange for a reduction in sentence
• false confessions - resulting from mental illness or retardation, as well as from police torture
• other - hearsay, questionable circumstantial evidence, etc.
Since 1973, 140 people have been released from death row in light of new evidence. There is no way to accurately calculate how many innocent people have been wrongly executed as courts do not entertain claims of innocence once the defendant is dead. However, there are cases where evidence has come to light which strongly suggests the defendants’ innocence after the sentence has been carried out. Whatever the cause of the wrongful execution, there is no way to compensate for the mistake once the truth comes to light.
Executions
Globally, although fewer countries are carrying out executions (21 countries worldwide in 2011) the number of executions carried out in 2011 showed an increase from 2010 figures, mainly attributed to the “significant increase” of executions in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
At least 676 executions were known to have been carried out in 2011 with more than 18,750 people sentenced to death worldwide by the end of 2011. According to the UK newspaper, The Guardian, the countries that carried out the most executions in 2011 are believed to be China, Iran, North Korea, Yemen and USA, with the USA being the only G8 country to have carried out executions. Official figures do not include the thousands of executions which are believed to be carried out in China as China does not provide any figures regarding convictions and executions.
The USA is not only the only remaining G8 country to carry out executions; it is also one of the five top executioners based on 2011 figures. Since reintroducing the death penalty in 1976, 1295 people have been executed. In 2011, 43 people were executed in 13 of the 33 states that retain the death penalty. This year 18 executions have been carried out so far. The state of Texas has carried out most executions since 1976, with Texan executions totalling 30% of the USA total in 2011.
The Future
In November 2012 Californians will vote in a referendum considering the abolition of the death penalty. This measure would replace the death penalty for death row inmates to life imprisonment. In California only 13 executions have been carried out since reintroducing the death penalty in 1978 with no executions being carried out since 2006.
In light of the presence of human error in the legal justice system, clearly demonstrated by cases such as that of Carlos DeLuna, it must be concluded that the death penalty is not an acceptable punishment for crimes as errors made in the conviction cannot be rectified later. Innocent people have been executed, which is not justice and cannot be compensated for after the sentence has been carried out.
Sound-off
There is currently no evidence that demonstrates that States that have death penalty laws have lower crime rates than states without such laws. The death penalty has no deterrent effect on the crime rates.
Furthermore, there is a serious moral issue with giving the power over life and death to members of the judicial system. Not least because of the known presence of human error and possibility for judgements to be influenced for personal or political gain. Legally, some countries carry out the death penalty but this does not mean that morally, it isn’t wrong.
Andrea Trattner studied law in Austria and England. She worked as a volunteer for Amnesty International for many years. She dealt in particular with issues about Africa (Zimbabwe). Her personal interest is above all the issue of death penalty and its abolition, in particular regarding death penalty in the USA.
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