The Death Penalty: A Review

A detailed Summary of The Death Penalty: A Review

In the waning hours of September 21, 1998, it appeared that there was no hope for Anthony Porter. It seemed that all the legal avenues for a reprieve on his death sentence had been exhausted. Granted, his legal counsels throughout his attempts at a new trial or a new ruling on his present case were ill prepared at best. This, however, did not seem to cut much slack with the Illinois Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court. Both had dismissed his direct appeals and his petition for certiorari although both courts had several Justices who vehemently opposed the ruling. With fifty hours to go until his scheduled execution, it seemed to most that a stay of execution would be highly unlikely. A savior did appear, though, in the form of an I.Q. test score. In a recent test that Porter had taken, he scored an unimpressive fifty-one. A score that low gave his pro-bono attorney all the ammunition he needed and, with the help of several other volunteers, submitted a last-minute petition for a stay of execution to determine if he was mentally competent to be executed. It was at this time that a Northwestern journalism professor by the name of David Protess and some of his students became interested in the case. They did no

"I shall ask for the abolition of the death penalty until I have the infallibility of human judgment demonstrated to me," remarked the Marquis de Lafayette in the late Seventeen hundreds. It would appear, today, that his observation has been overlooked. Of the endless arguments that could be used to refute the idea that the death penalty is administered fairly, the most obvious are the cases of wrongful convictions. While most people would not view this as a significant problem, most people are also not aware of the facts. Since 1973, a total of sixty-nine people have been released from death row after their innocence was confirmed. Twenty-one of those inmates were released in or after 1993 and the number is still rising. Most of these cases were overturned not because a particular court discovered its error and recanted its judgment but transversely, as a result of new scientific techniques, investigations by journalists and other outside parties, and the pain-staking efforts of dedicated expert attorneys. The typical death row inmate is not blessed with such resources. Since such extraordinary efforts are necessary to free someone from death row, one can only assume that there are more innocent men and women on death row who will not be released. The judicial system has proven itself to be inefficient at best in terms of finding and prosecuting the guilty party. Eric Zorn, a writer from the Chicago Tribune, wrote an editorial following the release of Anthony Porter.

With no foreseeable end to the carelessness of the legal system and a press by the same system for a shortened appeals process, the number of wrongful convictions and executions is sure to rise.

Today, there is a good likelihood that several of the inmates sitting on death row are innocent. The statistics make it a certainty. Yet, advocates for capital punishment seem to be either oblivious or indifferent to that fact. For them, the service that it supposedly provides for society outweighs the fact that innocent men and women could be killed as a result. Intrinsically, they are avenging the lives of innocents with the further killing of possible innocents. This is not only illogical but also immoral. Add to the equation the obvious economic benefits and the lacking proof of deterrence, and you have a public policy, which is ineffective, uneconomical, and illogical. Society is in flux on many issues facing it today. The argument over the death penalty has camps on both sides deeply entrenched with little sign of relinquishment. However, an honest look at the facts pertaining to capital punishment depicts a picture of unfortunate misguidance that can only be corrected by public outcry. As the author F. J. Litardo wrote: "The death penalty provides human sacrifice for a sick society. The death penalty is the cry of politicians who buy votes with fear. The death penalty has no place in a civilized world. The death penalty has no place in the Unite

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Approximate Word count = 1993
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics