Superfluous Pain and Dollar Drain: The Perversion of Capital Punishment

Firmer Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor once observed that,

" If statistics are any indication, the [death penalty] system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed."

Indeed, since the national moratorium on the death penalty effectuated by Furman vs. Georgia expired in 1976, 130 convicted murderers, previously condemned to death, have been exonerated from death row, exposing the glaring fallibility of our justice system.

Supporters of our new "peculiar institution" claim that a high number of exonerees evinces the efficacy of the system- that innocent prisoners are eventually released and not executed. However, many of these judicial miscues have been reversed by external forces.

Juan Melendez was saved by an attorney who unwittingly stumbled across the confession tape of the actual killer for whom judge and jury had mistaken him. The tape had been given to and ignored by his attorney, illustrating the unacceptable performance by many legal actors in cases which pend the possibilities of life and death. In the words of Melendez, "I was not saved by the system, but in spite of the system."

Similarly, Anthony Porter came within two days of his scheduled execution in Illinois before his innocence was discovered by a journalism class at Northwestern University. The class also discovered that police had pressured a witness to testify against Porter, an innocent man.

Although no definitive evidence exists of an execution of an innocent in the modern era, investigation ceases following execution, making the discovery of any such incident virtually impossible.

In addition to the unacceptable risk of human error with life and death at stake, libertarians ought to be particularly concerned with an inefficient and illegitimate system. Various studies have been conducted in states across the country to measure the economic costs of capital punishment. Each reveals a staggering burden to taxpayers- highlighted by California's estimate that the death penalty system is $137 million a year more expensive than life without the possibility of parole would be.

As our country's recession continues to deepen, legislators are becoming increasingly desperate to mitigate budget shortfalls due to decreased tax revenue. In a bizarre but logical turn, many states are now considering death penalty abolition to cut costs. Such a move would both enhance justice and ease an outrageous and unnecessary onus of taxation.

Limiting government is about restricting the damage that can be inflicted by inadvisable policies. Life, the most precious of human gifts, cannot justifiably be taken by the arbitration of a third party. Clearly it makes libertarian sense, and just good policy sense, to abolish the death penalty.