What Does the Constitution Say?

The Eighth Amendment states "excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."  In 1972 the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional.  This decision was then overturned in 1976.  Since then, the number of executions in America has drastically increased, according to The Death Penalty.  Soon after the death penalty was re-instated, lethal injection became the method of choice in 1982. 

With this more civil way to execute prisoners, support and popularity of the death penalty climbed.  Over 70% of Americans say they favor some form of capital punishment.  Is this because lethal injection is more humane than the gas chamber or electric chair?  Most likely.  The reputation of the electric chair declined during the seventies as the number of executions that had gone wrong grew.  Some required several shocks while others experienced side effects such as charred flesh, burnt hair, and burst eyeballs. 

Just because there are no side effects to lethal injection, does that make it any less cruel?  Execution is execution, regardless of the method.  A person is still losing their life.

Sam's Story

In The Death Penalty by Hayley R. Mitchell, William Vance Trollinger Jr. tells about the execution of Missouri death row prisoner Samuel McDonald.  Sam was an African American Vietnam veteran who robbed and killed an off-duty police officer in front of the man's daughter in 1981.  William befriended Sam three years later after he contacted him through a death penalty support group. 

The two men became close friends and began contacting each other on a regular basis.  William learned that Sam had been traumatized and addicted to drugs after returning from Vietnam.  Sam's assigned public defender repeatedly got in shouting matches with the judge, who refused to allow testimony regarding Sam's troubling war experiences.  Sam was sentenced to death.  After appealing for sixteen years with no results, Sam was set to be executed on September 24, 1997.  He asked William to be there with his other friends and relatives.

The execution took place at the Potosi Correctional Institute outside of St. Louis.  Trollinger describes the event in great detail.  The viewers were placed in rooms with glass windows and a curtain was opened.  There laid the condemned with a sheet up to his neck.  The guards injected Sam and soon after he shuddered and closed his eyes.

Trollinger says he had been against the death penalty since his late teens for many reasons.  He stated that he never imagined he would ever witness someone being murdered.  William wrote Sam with the intention of following through with his convictions and being a Christ-like person.  He wanted to help Sam in any way he could.  He ended up playing a bigger part in the man's life than he ever imagined he would.


This is a prime example of how people change.  These men both benefitted from their new-found friendship in many ways.  Sam obviously changed his ways and regretted what he had done.  Shouldn't he deserve a second chance?

Cutting Costs

Most people are for the death penalty because it costs less than feeding and housing a prisoner for the rest of their lifetime.  On the contrary, it actually costs twice as much to execute someone than to imprison them for life.  According to The Death Penalty by Hayley R. Mitchell, the average cost to execute a single person in Florida is $3.2 million.  The estimated cost of life without parole can range from $750,000 to $1.1 million, which is substantially less.

Why is it so expensive to execute someone?  Capital trials must be conducted thoroughly and are more complex and time-consuming.  Capital trial investigations also take three to five times longer than regular investigations, which adds the cost of experts such as forensic scientists and medical personnel.  Because of the large work load, capital cases usually require two attorneys and many investigators for both the prosecution and defense.  Not all defendants in capital trials are sentenced to death-- many are sentenced to life in prison or are acquitted.  The United States is in tremendous debt and most believe that the death penalty can relieve some of the unnecessary costs.  In all actuality, abolishing the death penalty would be more beneficial.

Death Row Bloggers

If you want to hear first-hand information and facts about the death penalty, where better to go than to the convicted killers themselves?  While researching the death penalty, I was told to take a look at blogs by death row inmates.  Two of my favorites are Deadman Talking and Meet Vernon.  When I stumbled upon these blogs, I found myself unable to stop reading.  Both men talk about life in prison and answer questions that readers have for them.  Granted, it takes several weeks to hear back from them because prisoners are not given internet access, but you are able to communicate with them nonetheless.  Reading these blogs makes me sympathetic for all of the prisoners on death row.

Not many can relate to these men, who are spending the rest of their lives in prison awaiting their execution.  Blogging allows them to convey a message to the reader and to make others aware of their situation.  Both Dean Carter and Vernon Evans are currently fighting and repealing their convictions as both claim to be innocent.  One of the major downfalls of the death penalty is that innocent people are being executed.  According to The Death Penalty by Hayley R. Mitchell,  for every seven executions, one other prisoner on death row has been found innocent. 

I strongly suggest you check out these blogs before you start any research, just to hear their point of view.  Obviously if you heard a rumor, you would want to go to the person and ask them about it, right?  These men should be punished, but not have their lives taken from them.

Welcome

Welcome to the Death Penalty in America Blog!  My goal is to inform voters about the death penalty and hopefully persuade you to vote against it by showing you the facts.  I started this project not knowing my own stance on this issue, but after conducting research I have found that I am against the death penalty in every way.  With this blog as my final piece of the project, I am hoping to show you everything I have created/researched and also present new information that I find.  Please feel free to comment or share!