Deck 17: Section 1: The Death Penalty

Question 1

What are Americans' views on the death penalty? Why is it important to consider public opinion on this issue?

Answer 1

Main points:
• Most Americans support the death penalty if they are just asked "Do you support the death penalty?"
• However, when presented with alternatives such as life in prison without parole, the majority choose an alternative to the death penalty as a more preferable option.
• The Supreme Court sometimes uses public opinion data as an indicator of "evolving standards of decency" as a basis of their decisions,

Question 2

Is the death penalty an effective deterrent to murder?

Answer 2

Main points:
• The idea that the death penalty deters murder is hard to test and prove.
• Those states that do have the death penalty also tend to have higher murder rates.
• There is no indication that murder rates change in response to death penalty abolition or reinstatement.
• However, there are some indications of possible brutalization effect when murders spike after highly publicized executions.
• Thus, there is a substantial body of research that shows no deterrence effect.
• Moreover, the alternative to the death penalty is often life in prison. It is not clear if life in prison has a lower deterrent value than the death penalty.
• In addition, most capital murders are crimes of passion, which makes it unlikely that the killers would pause to rationally consider the likelihood of apprehension, conviction, and sentencing.

Question 3

Discuss the racial disparities in administering the death penalty.

Answer 3

Main points:
• Some shameful effects of slavery remain and they are reflected in how the legal system and it actors - willingly or unwillingly - treat black defendant compared to whites.
• Racial discrimination is clearest in cases involving rape, where defendants are sentenced especially harshly in cases of white victim and black defendant.
• In addition, multiple other studies confirm the "black offender/white victim" effect in other types of crimes and in capital cases.
• Studies also show that, when jurors don't fully comprehend instructions form the judge in capital cases, they are more prejudiced against black defendants, according to their verdicts.
• As a result, it is not surprising that over 40% of death row inmates are black, which is highly disproportionate to the percentage of blacks in the population.
• Moreover, black death-row inmates are likely to be executed sooner than white ones.