Archive: Opinions

I wake up earlier than I would like to, so I start the day by reading the news in bed on my iPad.  Last week I almost fell out of bed when I read a piece in the Telegraph, a British newspaper.  Not only did it not bash the United States, but it made a strong argument for the death penalty in England based on author Tim Stanley's analysis that the death penalty works here.

Stanley writes, "Amnesty International, Liberty and the New Statesman will probably ask, 'Why would we endorse a system of retribution practiced by those knuckle-dragging, Bible bashing, toothless crazies over in Texas?' Well, here’s one good reason: it works."

Personally I've always been for the death penalty.  I understand that there are problems with it both morally and legally, but I was raised in 'an eye for an eye' religion, and for the most extreme crimes I think it is warranted, both as a punishment and a deterrent.  But to be honest, I don't think about it much, and my stand is more a mild personal philosophical one than anything based on great thought or a call to action.

But Stanley's article was a bit of a wake-up call.

It turns out there are studies that show that the death penalty actually does act as a deterrent to murder.  According to a 2007 Associated Press report, one University of Colorado study found that an average of 18 murders are deterred per executed murderer.  Other studies put that number at three, five, and 14.  A 2006 University of Houston study concluded that after the 2000 moratorium on capital punishment in Illinois, there were 150 homicides that would have been prevented.  An Emory University study in 2004 concluded that speeding the executions would deter more murders, saying one murder would be prevented for each 2.75 years cut from the time prisoners spend on death row.

New York actually has the death penalty on its books, but a 2004 New York State Supreme Court ruling  ruled the statute unconstitutional.  The last execution in New York was in 1963.  Nebraska, Kansas, and Massachusetts have also had their death penalty laws ruled unconstitutional.  Since 2004 the New York Legislature has not done anything to bring the law into compliance, so we effectively don't have a death penalty.  So far no New York prisoner that was on death row has every been found innocent.  The last person on death row in New York was re-sentenced to a life sentence.

I don't think this is a big issue in Lansing.  Murder isn't a big crime here.  Property taxes is the biggest crime in my opinion!  But it did make me wonder whether New York City would be helped by revisiting the death penalty in this state.  I don't know the answer, but perhaps our Legislature should either give teeth back to the law, or finally decide to eliminate it.

"According to a 2009 study, there were 2,034 offences per 100,000 people that year in the UK, putting Britain at the top of the international league table," Stanley concludes in his article.  "America recorded just 466. The US seems to be getting something right: executing cold-blooded killers might be part of it."

And there is the cultural piece.  After all the articles I have read about Europeans bashing us for being crazy, uncivilized cowboys because some of our states have death penalties, it was certainly startling to read a piece by an English college professor --  Stanley is a research fellow in American History at Royal Holloway College -- not only defending the practice, but advocating that Britain follow suit.  I am happy to be part of civilization at last.

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