By Monica Larsen
John Ramirez, Rick Rhoades, Stephen Barbee, Ruben Gutierrez, Fabian Hernandez, Kosoul Chanthakoummane, and Ramiro Gonzales will be executed by the state of Texas before the end of the year.[1] If Texas is anything like the state of Florida, the executioner will be paid $150 for each life taken.[2] Even if these men are guilty, they do not deserve to die.
It is a mistake to focus on death-row innocence cases. It’s obvious that innocent people should not be killed, and that the state should take no part in doing such a thing. While it is beneficial to point out the infallibility of the criminal justice system, this detracts from the central issue that is it wrong to take a human life. The larger systemic issues, such as bias among jurors, law enforcement and prosecutorial misconduct, poor representation, and racism all contribute toward the need to end capital punishment, but the simplest reason to end capital punishment is that it is wrong for a civilized state to put its citizens to death.[3]
But, for context on the issue of race in capital punishment, some facts are important. Although about half of all murder victims are black, nearly 80% of new death sentences in 2019 were imposed in cases with white victims.[4] Since executions resumed in 1977, 308 black people have been executed for murders involving at least one white victim, and only 34 white people have been executed for murders involving at least one black victim.[5] The composition of people on death row has become increasingly racially disproportionate. In 1980, about 54% of death row prisoners were white, and by 2019, only 42% were.[6] The greatest increase has been among the Latinx population, whose proportion of death row inmates quadrupled in the same period (from 4.4% to 13.4%).[7]
Proponents of capital punishment argue that the only just punishment for taking a life is to take a life in return. However, this approach is not replicated in most other criminal contexts. The punishment for theft is not to simply return the money, the punishment for rape is not to be raped, and the punishment for arson is not to burn down the arsonist’s home. In our criminal justice system, we seek certain objectives through punishment: deterrence of future crimes, incapacitation, rehabilitation, retribution, and denunciation. The death penalty has no deterrent effect.[8] This has been thoroughly studied and it is evident that states with capital punishment do not have lower crime or murder rates than states without such laws, and states that have abolished capital punishment show no significant changes in crime or murder rates.[9] The death penalty certainly incapacitates a person who is a danger to society, but so do methods of punishment that take away freedom without putting someone to death. The true objectives served by the death penalty are retribution and denunciation.
Retribution is like vengeance in that it’s an emotional response. Retribution leads to excessive punishment and cruelty because full emotional closure after a crime is nearly impossible to attain.[10] We do not as a society kill rapists because we do not believe that the punishment fits the crime. But wouldn’t some victims or their loved ones believe that a rapist deserves to die? Are all murders really worse than all rapes? And is putting someone to death for impulsively killing one person the same as putting someone to death who killed and tortured one hundred people? The issue with retribution is that it puts too much emotion into a system that is meant to be guided by justice and fairness. Similarly, punishment by death is a clear denunciation of acts that are deemed to be the most morally reprehensible, but the government cannot become complicit in devaluing human life and dignity while denunciating certain acts.
The Kantian idea that it’s better to let ten guilty people go free than to punish one innocent person is especially true when that punishment is death. But innocence is irrelevant. Even if everyone on death row were guilty, there still wouldn’t be justification for the death penalty.
[1] Death Row Information, Tex. Dep’t of Crim. Just., https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_scheduled_executions.html (Sept. 15, 2021).
[2] Death Row, Fla. Dep’t of Corr., http://www.dc.state.fl.us/ci/deathrow.html (last visited Sept. 25, 2021).
[3] Elizabeth Bruenig, Not That Innocent, The Atlantic (Jun. 9, 2021), https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/innocence-project-death-row/619132/.
[4] DPIC Analysis: Racial Disparities Persisted in U.S. Death Sentences and Executions in 2019, Death Penalty Information Center (Jan. 21, 2020), https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/dpic-analysis-racial-disparities-persisted-in-the-u-s-death-sentences-and-executions-in-2019.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] The Death Penalty: Questions and Answers, ACLU, https://www.aclu.org/other/death-penalty-questions-and-answers (last visited Sept. 25, 2021).
[9] Id.
[10] In the Eyes of God, Does a State Have the Right to Kill a Man?, N.Y. Times (Sept. 1, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/opinion/death-penalty-texas.html?showTranscript=1.
1 Death Row Information, Tex. Dep’t of Crim. Just., https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_scheduled_executions.html (Sept. 15, 2021).
2 Death Row, Fla. Dep’t of Corr., http://www.dc.state.fl.us/ci/deathrow.html (last visited Sept. 25, 2021).
3 Elizabeth Bruenig, Not That Innocent, The Atlantic (Jun. 9, 2021), https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/innocence-project-death-row/619132/.
4 DPIC Analysis: Racial Disparities Persisted in U.S. Death Sentences and Executions in 2019, Death Penalty Information Center (Jan. 21, 2020), https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/dpic-analysis-racial-disparities-persisted-in-the-u-s-death-sentences-and-executions-in-2019.
5 Id.
6 Id.
7 Id.
8 The Death Penalty: Questions and Answers, ACLU, https://www.aclu.org/other/death-penalty-questions-and-answers (last visited Sept. 25, 2021).
9 Id.
10 In the Eyes of God, Does a State Have the Right to Kill a Man?, N.Y. Times (Sept. 1, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/opinion/death-penalty-texas.html?showTranscript=1.
