However, executions do not help these people heal nor do they end their pain the extended process prior to executions prolongs the agony of the family. There is a better way to help the families of murder victims.įamilies of murder victims undergo severe trauma and loss which no one should minimize. Around our country, states without the death penalty have a lower murder rate than neighboring states with the death penalty. Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter people from committing crime. A study at Columbia University found that 68% of all death penalty cases were reversed on appeal, with inadequate defense as one of the main reasons requiring reversal.
One of the most frequent causes of reversals in death penalty cases is ineffective assistance of counsel. Poor quality defense leaves many sentenced to death. It is estimated that total prosecution and defense costs to the state and counties equal $9 million per year.
In 2000 a fiscal impact summary from the Oregon Department of Administrative Services stated that the Oregon Judicial Department alone would save $2.3 million annually if the death penalty were eliminated. The two others, one of whom was found guilty of four murders, are not on death row. We pay many millions for the death penalty system.Īccording to the Oregonian, in 1995 the trials for three Washington County murder cases cost more than $1.5 million. In Oregon, prosecutors from some counties are more likely to pursue the death penalty than others are. Those who kill whites are more likely to be sentenced to die than those who kill African-Americans. Race and place determine who lives and who dies. To execute an innocent person is morally reprehensible this is a risk we cannot take. In Missouri, Texas and Virginia investigations have been opened to determine if those states executed innocent men. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, 138 innocent men and women have been released from death row, including some who came within minutes of execution. The death penalty puts innocent lives at risk. There are currently over 121 people in Oregon who have received this sentence. In Oregon, we have the option of sentencing convicted murderers to life in prison without the possibility of parole. There is a better alternative: life without parole.
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