POL 306 April 19, 2011 Dr. Inscho Anthony Staup, Shannon Sawyer, Amy Ruehl, Keith Conti, Katlyn Lopus, William Bair.
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POL 306
April 19, 2011
Dr. Inscho
Anthony Staup, Shannon Sawyer, Amy Ruehl, Keith Conti,
Katlyn Lopus, William Bair
Capital Punishment
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“legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime”
It gets hazy at this point because how is one convicted person chosen the death penalty over others?
Capital Punishment, Defined.
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“the decision that capital punishment may be the appropriate sanction in extreme cases is an expression of the community's belief that certain crimes are themselves so grievous an affront to humanity that the only adequate response may be the penalty of death."
~Supreme Court of the United States of America
Cont.
7
European settlers took with them the ideals of Great Britain
Deeply rooted in American and world culture
History of the Policy
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IllinoisAbolished the death Penalty
West VirginiaA bill was introduced to reinstate the death
penalty (defeated)Utah
Limiting # of Appeals
Ever-changing Process
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Federal Government• Certain Crimes fall
under capital punishment
• Supreme Court • Federal Issue can
overrule state law
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State Government35 of 50 states have
death penaltyStates have more
impact on death penalty laws
States Enforcement
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Amnesty InternationalStarted by British lawyer Peter BenensonBegan campaigning for human rights in 1961Comprised of over 2.2 million members in 150
countries.Tactics used:
Direct lobbying.Public demonstrations.Targeted appeals. Human rights education.
Death to the death penalty
Non-Governmental Actors
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Justice for All"If we execute murderers and there is in fact
no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call." ~~John McAdams - Marquette University/Department of Political Science, on deterrence
Cont.
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Is an all volunteer, non-profit organization.Created in order to push for justice and to
promote victims rights.Tactics used:
Started projects to promote victim awareness, such as:Website database.Park memorial.
Cont.
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Wrongly sentenced deathDue to unfair trials,
unreliable evidence, and police misconduct
Homicide rates in states without the capital punishment are lower than the national averageProven to not deter murder
Current Policies are not Effective
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Cost of trial and sentencing More involved process when capital punishment is possible
sentence Cost/Opportunity of appealResources are diverted
Positive incarceration programs suffer from high costs of capital punishment cases.
Cost of Capital Punishment
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Death row inmates often can not afford lawyersProvided aid is at
lesser quality to well paid attorneys
Residence of criminalNon-cohesive states
provide great difference in similar trials depending on state crime is trialed in
Trial Fairness
This lawyers first capital punishment case
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Gregg vs. Georgia of 1976Each state who facilities capital punishment
must also have a list of “capital offenses” or crimes for which capital punishment could be sentenced
Difference in lists of capital offenses leads to inconsistencies
State mandated capital offenses
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Only just over half of public believe capital punishment should not be used
Juries are beginning to sentence death more infrequently.
Public Opinion
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Studies showed that prosecutors are more likely to sentence death when the race of the victim is white
Race in Capital Punishment Cases
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There have been approximately 560,000 murders and 358 executions from 1967-1996 FBI's Uniform Crime Report (UCR) & Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).
Therefore one of our recommendations is to increase the number of persons executed to make the death penalty a real deterrent for murder.
Policy Recommendations
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If the states chose to follow these standards they would receive extra money from the Federal Government to be used for criminal justice.
This would make the entire system fairer. Some of the statutes that we would like to see
in this standard would be the number of appeals allowed for each case, to cut down on costs associated with capital punishment cases, and a list that showed what crimes were punishable by death.
Set a predetermined set of standards that each state would follow
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If the death penalty was to no longer exist life sentences would fill that spot and would become more expensive and less likely used.
It would also make life sentences seem more severe. This scares our group because it could lead to lower sentences for major crimes.
Death Penalty is the highest form of punishment in the United States
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Justice For All - A Criminal Justice Reform Organization. Web. 16 Apr. 2011. <http://www.jfa.net/index.html>.
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Amnesty International USA - Protect Human Rights. Web. 16 Apr. 2011. <http://www.amnestyusa.org/human-rights/universal-declaration-of-human-rights/page.do?id=1031003>.
"Innocence." Pro-death Penalty.com. Web. 19 Apr. 2011. <http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/innocence.htm>.
"Death Penalty : Profiles of Exonerees, Victims, and Law Enforcement." Death Penalty. Web. 19 Apr. 2011. <http://deathpenalty.org/section.php?id=26>.
"State by State Database." Death Penalty Information Center. Web. 19 Apr. 2011. <http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state_by_state>.
"Death Penalty Facts." Amnesty International. Web. <http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/factsheets/DeathPenalty Facts.pdf>.
Dictionary Google. Web. 19 Apr. 2011. <http://www.google.com/search?source=ig>. "Facts About the Death Penalty." Death Penalty Information Center. Web.
<http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/FactSheet.pdf>. Marzilli, Alan. Capital Punishment. New York: Chelsea House, 2008. Print. Aiusa Death Penalty Abolition Campaign. "Death Penalty Facts." Amnesty USA. Amnesty International,
Oct. 2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. <http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/factsheets/DeathPenaltyFacts.pdf>.
Work Cited
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