Why I Am Against The Death Penalty

So apparently tons of people find my last post hilarious, that someone like me listens to rap period much less has a fave rap song. Which is largely ironic, because you know I’m OG.

Seriously though, I dunno, I like listening to diverse music, I think it makes one a better musician in general, and I appreciate lots of genres. I’m not a huge hiphop fan but I appreciate good stuffs, and I respect Dre a lot as a producer. I just like good music period, no matter what kind it is.

Why I Am Against The Death Penalty

SN, I personally don’t think the death penalty is counter to Scripture. So my objections to it are largely more pratical than theological.

First of all, I’m against it practically because of its documented high rate of error. In Illinois, since 1970 when they reinstituted the death penalty, 12 people have been put to death, and 13 have been freed from death row on the grounds of being wrongfully convicted. That’s insane. And of course the thing about the death penalty is that it’s irrevocable. Given the rate of error, having the death penalty is ridiculous. This alone is reason enough to be practically against the death penalty.

Understanding that there will always be errors, one could still support the death penalty if the rate of error were low enough and it served a useful societal purpose. But as it is, the death penalty is largely a symbolic act. That is, the only difference to society between life in prison without parole and death is symbolic, not practical.

It’s not a deterrent – the majority of studies show that states with the death penalty have no lower rate of violent crime than those without. It also doesn’t save money. Due to the litigation costs, studies show that applying the death penalty actually costs more than life without parole. And this isn’t going to change – the Supreme Court has kept increasing the procedural hurdles to the death penalty in order to make it conform to the Constitutional requirements of due process. So it’s likely never going to get cheaper.

It doesn’t deter crime, it doesn’t save money, it makes society no safer than putting people away for life without parole (save the extreme corner case of escaping from prison which realistically never happens anymore), so there’s no practical benefit of it. It’s just a symbol. A symbol that has an unacceptable rate of error, arbitrary rules of application, and as is widely reported, is unevenly applied to different races for the exact same crimes. If it served a practical purpose that would be one thing. If it were fairly and uniformly applied with clear criteria that would also be something. Neither of those are true. So I am against the death penalty.

In case you’re wondering, this is essentially a regurgitation of what Scott Turow says. He happens to sum up clearly pretty much what I feel. But yeah, I’m no lawyer, so what do I know.