Electric volts shock a 90-pound 14-year-old George Stinney on June 16, 1944, as the victims' families watch with no remorse. The life of their daughter's alleged murderer was being cruelly fried away. Little did everyone who witnessed the execution of Stinney know, he was not a killer, but simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
While the death penalty has notably changed since Stinney’s execution, some things are still the same. People are still executed for their crimes or believed-to-be crimes.
The modern-day court setting is much more advanced and superior to those of the past, but in some cases, there is not a 100% chance of proving someone guilty and vice versa. This being said, if convicted of a crime and the death penalty is decided, there is a chance that the wrong person is killed. Just like any other industry involving decisions made by imperfect humans, mistakes in the legal system of who committed a crime are not unheard of.
The death penalty is not an immediate day-of-conviction process either. These cases can be drawn out for at least a decade. Currently, more than half of all death row members spent over 18 years behind bars before execution. During this process, many court orders and casework are done to overturn the conviction, or the death penalty of the incarcerated prisoner. Currently, the average age of an arrest for those on death row is 29, according to reporting from WTHR.
The death penalty is not widely agreed upon among the population, and for some it is not even an accepted concept. Many individuals do not support the death penalty due to moral reasons, but many others make an argument that people should face the same fate as their victim or victims. People have been put to death for thousands of years, so its relevance in modern-day society is not far-fetched, some say.
However, it is time to move on and find different ways to handle criminals with the possibility of facing this ending. If society wants to make criminals face the consequences for their crime, they should be sentenced and imprisoned. If we automatically resort to sentencing people to death, it is quick and over. Many want to see people under conviction suffer, and it is arguably a crueler sentence to be sitting in prison for the rest of their life rather than have that cut short with a death sentence.
There is a valid point in mentioning that inmates' needs are paid for with tax money so the more people in prison the more money being spent on keeping the incarcerated healthy and alive. There is also an important point in mentioning that if the guilty party is going to spend the rest of their life in prison, what is the point in keeping them around and wasting away in a cell? I agree and disagree with this point. Yes, keeping humans in a cell until their death is inhumane, but killing them is just as inhumane. For reference, it costs $19,202.65 to keep an incarcerated inmate alive and healthy for a whole year in Indiana, according to the Indiana State Government website. Based on the fact that many inmates on death row would spend 18 years incarcerated before execution, the cost to keep them alive would be a whopping $345,647. At this point, eight men are sitting on Indiana death row. All eight are at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. This means, per year, these eight men cost $153,621.20 to keep alive. So yes, it is in fact very expensive to keep people on death row alive. This doesn't necessarily mean that we should be putting them to death though.
One of those eight men in the Indiana State Prison is Eric D. Holmes, who was convicted of killing two coworkers, attempted murder and robbery. Holmes was sentenced on March 26, 1993, and was recommended the death penalty by the trial judge. This landed Holmes court dates in the Indiana Supreme Court from August 7, 1996, to January 17, 1997. Holmes was sentenced to the death penalty, and his legal appeals have since been exhausted. Holmes is one of four inmates who has ended all legal appeals. No one has been executed in Indiana since Mathew Eric Wrinkles on December 11, 2009. With no current dates for an execution scheduled, it seems pointless to continue Holmes’ and others’ death sentences.
In a 2021 Pew Research Center survey on the death penalty, 60% said that they were somewhat or strongly in favor of the death penalty opposed to 39% somewhat or strongly opposed. In this survey, 33% also said that the death penalty is morally wrong even in a murder case, 63% said that the death penalty does not deter people from committing serious crimes, and 78% recognized that there is a risk of putting the wrong person to death.
Being that 78% of the population recognizes that the wrong person could face the death penalty, why do we continue to execute. I would have thought that there would have been some kind of change in policy nationally but unfortunate for those on death row policy change is not in effect.
The eighth amendment to the United States Constitution states “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” I strongly believe that death of an individual by the court system is both cruel and an unusual punishment that is inflicted. Putting someone to death for their crimes is not justice, it is prolonging justice. There is no justice to the death of an individual whose suffering in jail is ende. It is an escape from wasting away in a cell which is arguably a harsher punishment.
I believe the death penalty is morally wrong and inhumane. I get that many people believe that eye for an eye is right, but flip the role for a second. Even looking at it from a mother or father's standpoint, they have to watch their kid be sentenced to death, wait many years for appeals and it is not called off, and then watch their child be put to death. Their child who they raised is gone from the earth. There are other ways of treating those who are facing the death penalty. They could take part in medicine trials or participate in scientific tests. There have got to be other solutions, otherwise it is a life wasted. The death penalty is an inhumane way that wastes a life in the name of “justice.”