Inkspire

“Capital punishment means ‘them without the capital get the punishment.’”

• Bryan Stevenson (founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, author of Just Mercy, and advocate for human rights

Introduction

The death penalty has existed since the 16th century BC. It is probably the most archaic form of punishment, and yet it is still used in developed nations – including the United States. Bryan Stevenson is not exaggerating when he says there are no wealthy people on death row. The truth is that people with the funds to get a somewhat adequate lawyer simply do not end up with capital punishment. This fills death row up with the poor, disabled, and mentally impaired; worst of all, some people on death row are innocent and still sentenced to death. It’s now up to the public to decide whether or not juries full of humans – who are in no way perfect or all knowing – should be allowed to sentence people to death.

History

The context for the death penalty debates in America started way back in 1608 Virginia. George Kendall was killed in Jamestown for being a Spanish spy. As more colonies developed, only devout Christians were allowed to participate in political and legal matters like creating laws. These same people feared crime and misdeeds severely because of their belief that they would face punishment from God if they sinned even a little. This pushed them to sentencing people with all sorts of small misdoings to death to eliminate all crimes. For example, in Virginia in the 17th century, you could be sentenced to death for merely stealing grapes.

The Enlightenment – an era of research, science, and logic – revealed new political beliefs. Cesare Beccaria (a dedicated advocate for reform in the legal system) wrote a revolutionary essay pointing out all of the flaws in the justice systems and laws of that time. He was one of the first to proclaim that the government has no right to take someone’s life regardless of the crimes they committed. Abolitionists, reformers, and advocates all took to the streets protesting laws and echoing Beccaria’s words. If this can’t convince you how influential Beccaria was, Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill to revise Virginia’s death penalty policies because of his writing. He proposed that capital punishment should be used only for capital crimes (murder and treason). Unfortunately, his bill was vetoed but only by a single vote.

Forwarding into modern times, the US Supreme Court dealt with the issue of the death penalty in numerous instances. In the late 1900s, the states were allowed to edit their own laws surrounding the death penalty. While some states moved towards abolishing it entirely, the more conservative states set policies to maintain it. In the last few decades, state officials campaigned under the platform of being “tough on crime”. Those government officers are part of the reason why the death penalty occasionally makes a comeback in certain states. Overall, there was a significant decline in the number of people sentenced to death – until recently that is. Just in the few months of 2024, nineteen people have been executed in the United States only; also, there are currently 2,244 people sitting on death row awaiting the same fate.

Conclusion

The death penalty casts a dark shadow on the history of America, and the amount of innocent people that have been killed because of it have yet to be avenged – they won’t ever be avenged until it is completely abolished. If you’d like to learn more about what the death penalty actually feels like as told by one of the few lucky people who managed to get off death row alive, The Sun Does Shine is the best memoir out there for that. It tells the story of Anthony Ray Hinton – who was wrongly accused and later rescued by the Equal Justice Initiative.

It’s now your turn to decide. Is jail meant to be a place for rehabilitation and reform or punishment? Should courts be allowed to sentence someone to death? What if the person on trial is a murderer? What if the guilty party has a serious mentally impairment? These same questions run through the head of judges all the time. The truth is, in a world full of crime, rehabilitation goes a lot further than simple punishment. In fact, multiple studies have proved that confinement in stressful places (like death row) is more likely to deteriorate a person’s mental state further; people with such immense trauma like that are also more likely to continue to commit crimes. The only way to get rid of this vicious cycle is for justice systems to get prisoners good mental and physical care and treatment, so they can have the chance to become upstanding citizens. If this speaks to you in any way and moves you to speak out against these unnecessary evils in the justice system, there are numerous petitions you can sign. Remember, everyone has a story to tell, and not even the worst thing a person has done makes them undeserving of rehabilitation.