The never-ending debate on capital punishment in the state of Texas has not gone away and would not be anytime soon. The death penalty costs are currently at some alarming figures. The costs will continue to skyrocket and continue impacting taxpayers with each passing year. The DPIC study found that from 1972 to 1994, the average cost per prisoner per year in Texas was $9,585. The average cost for life-without-parole was $42,622 per prisoner from 1995-2007, and those costs are expected to increase by an additional 17 percent by 2010. These statistics are staggering; this accounts for the current rise of overcrowding in Texas prisons along with new constructions of prisons that still house condemned criminals awaiting death row appeals and executions. Besides cost, the effectiveness of the death penalty and its deterrent effects on criminals are very much debated. Similarly, innocent people have been wrongfully convicted and put to death, and the cruelty and ethical wrongness of capital punishment have been points of contention since its implementation. The type of execution that is used is also debated.
Introduction
The death penalty is a highly controversial topic in the United States. In 2012, 46 states, as well as the U.S. government, allowed capital punishment in some form. Some people oppose capital punishment on ethical grounds. Another concern is that innocent people may be executed for crimes they did not commit. Also, of concern is that racial and ethnic minorities are over-represented on death row compared to the general population. Some suggest that certain methods of execution might be considered cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the U.S. Constitution. With this in mind, this research shows that capital punishment should be abolished in some form in the United States.
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There are many reasons that capital punishment should be abolished. Since 1973, there have been 122 people who have been exonerated from death row. Since 1973, twenty-three innocent people have been released from death row. Some of the reasons for wrongful convictions are false confessions or admissions, informants planted by law enforcement to implicate suspects, and faulty forensic evidence such as DNA and ballistics testing. One of the most cited reasons for wrongful convictions is official misconduct. Another reason for abolishing capital punishment is its high cost on taxpayers’ money. In 2010, it cost $52.1 million for each of the 3,113 executions in the US. The average death penalty case costs three times as much as a case that results in life imprisonment. The cost of death penalty cases is increasing. Since 1973, the average time between sentencing and execution has increased to over a decade. According to Victor L. Streib, “The average death row inmate faces an impossibly daunting task of endless appeals, soaring legal costs and nagging mental doubts about his own sanity”.
Definition of Terms
Capital Punishment: The death penalty or capital punishment is the execution of a person by the state as a punishment for an offense. Crimes that can result in either the death penalty or a prison sentence are known as capital crimes or capital offenses.
Deterrence Theory: Deterrence theory refers to any threat of punishment that will prevent potential offenders from committing crimes. Deterrence theory is usually based on rewards and punishments, and how people make decisions regarding future actions based upon expectations of these rewards and punishments.
Costs of Capital Punishment: According to The New York Times, the average death penalty case costs three times as much as a case that results in life imprisonment. The cost of death penalty cases is increasing.
Background
The history of capital punishment in Texas began after the Civil War. The Civil War was a time of reconstruction where many former slave owners were tried and convicted for their role in the rebellion of slaves. Many of these slave owners were tried and sentenced to death on charges of murder. After this trial, most Texas citizens supported the abolition of capital punishment and abolished it soon thereafter.
In 1873, Supreme Court Justice Cabe ordered that all death sentences should be reviewed by an appeals court prior to execution. This was the beginning of preemptive appeals as a tool to avoid unconstitutionality. After the Civil War, most judgments were invalid and did not hold up to the standards of the day. Death sentencing became an issue in Texas as there were no clear guidelines for determining who should receive a death sentence. The legislature ignored this problem until 1918 when
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