Death penalty should be abolished permanently in Illinois. Death penalty does not reduce crime contrary to the very reason for upholding the same. The same also wastes money which should have been channeled for better use. Stamper cites his own life story of as a 29-year veteran of the San Diego Police Department, by urging everyone to stop execution of death convicts. He had confessed many occasions that during his more than thirty-year career as a police officer when, he had for someone’s sudden death against his conscience. As a police officer,
Stamper should be the first person to claim the imposition of death penalty if in fact the method reduces crime. But his being against it now must be a good reason for its abolition. While Stamper admits that despite his instinctive reactions to violent offenders, in his work as policeman, he also admits discovering about inefficiency and extravagance of death penalty. He depict the fact in the matter of prosecution and public defense on issue involving a capital offense, the same could take more than ten years of appeals , thus costing taxpayers millions of dollars in addition to waste of time.
He cites The Los Angeles Times reports indicative of $114 million cost in California being spent for locking up prisoners for life. He could have considered the amount justified if indeed it would reduced capital offense if the same amount is used in death penalty but to his dismay it did not. Using Illinois statistics of about murder rate of 20, 000 killings a year that would have been lowest in the civilized world had the adoption in Illinois of death penalty was a success but again to his surprise the state of Illinois is among those in the top list.
In proving his point, he mentions a report by the New York Times that cited states that have abolished the death penalty showed lower homicide rates compared with states imposing death. His finding appears to be observable within a 20-year analysis. Stamper argued that communities would be far better off to reinvest the time, money and resources spent of implanting the death penalty. Having seen the scarcity of public resources that are presently applied mental health care and drug and alcohol treatment may justify Stamper’s observation.
Stamper instead suggested life in prison, with no prayer of parole, as an alternative as it guarantees that the guilty never to get out, avoids execution of innocent persons while allowing better reinvestment on much needed programs. New Batch in discussing the recent history of capital punishment in the United States reported the U. S. Supreme Court striking down state death penalty laws in 1972 that caused a executions all over the US to a halt should be a good indication that man is fallible and that there could be many innocent people being killed as against the claim of crime deterrence.
The evolution of knowledge should be a sign that man should become wiser over time. The fact also that among the 50 states, thirteen states and additional five more states having not carried out any recent executions should be a sign of point of realization about the futility of killing by state. New Batch added cited Governor George Ryan of Illinois imposing a suspension for on the imposition of the death penalty in Illinois, in 2000.
The governor’s finding from the review of death penalty cases since 1977 which resulted to his discovery that 13 death row inmates in Illinois to had been cleared of murder charges, as against 12 who had been put to death should be enough reason to see the errors that could be committed by the criminal justice system in killing the innocent. New Batch of course reported the use of DNA evidence in exonerating the accused. Such was in fact defect in the system as admitted by the governor.
By the unfortunate turn of events, Governor Ryan had campaigned in support of the death penalty since he believed a correction was in store. However by his decision in January 2003 to commute all death sentences to prison terms of life or less should be again an enough conviction to ban death penalty at all sorts. Finding no evidence to restore it the Governor should not go back to it for it would be foolishness at its height. It may be concluded that death penalty fails to attain its very reason why it exists hence it should be abolished indefinitely.
To continue using the same despite the overwhelming evidence disproving its claim is act of emotionalism which could reduce the rational nature of man. Moreover waste of money is trying to defend and sustain death penalty is not good. The money could be better used in more productive resources as illustrated , why waste further? To act against what is obviously wrong is act of foolishness. Hence no time should be wasted for Illinois in stopping executions. The governor has in fact suspended it in 2003, why not be made permanent then?
