More than 250 years ago, Wisconsin was the first state to abolish the death penalty and set a precedent for the rest of the U.S. Since then, no executions have occurred in Wisconsin, but they continue to be performed in other states. Advisory referendum 501(c)4 will be on the ballot in November, and, if approved, will make the possibility of reinstating the death penalty after all these years a reality.
The death penalty has absolutely no advantages over life imprisonment. Proponents of the death penalty often cite false interpretations about the death penalty that counter actual statistics. This includes the common belief that life imprisonment is more expensive than the death penalty, which is simply untrue.
According to the Legislative Bureau of the State of Wisconsin Fiscal Note, when Wisconsin legislators were debating reinstating the death penalty in 1993, they estimated that it would cost up to an additional $285,000 per capital case, $1.4 million to build a prison death row and $500,000 per year to staff it. Today, these numbers are likely even higher. Wisconsin must consider the price of utilizing the death penalty. The economy in Milwaukee would be the most likely to struggle due to the fact that the majority of murders in Wisconsin happen there. The cost of the death penalty in Milwaukee would limit the amount of money given to desperately needed social services, potentially causing even more problems since states with the death penalty often have much higher murder rates.
In the U.S., 36 states still use the death penalty. For a nation where all people are innocent until proven guilty, it is surprising that the U.S. is one of the leading executioners. Others include China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. It is hard to imagine another situation where these countries would be grouped together, thus validating the notion that this process is outdated and cruel.
The act itself is also difficult because it is a violation of medical rights for a doctor to perform an execution. No Death Penalty Wisconsin claims, "The current method of lethal injection used on death-row prisoners is so inhumane that even veterinarians don't use it to put animals to sleep." The physical pain that a prisoner must endure while experiencing the death penalty is only momentary, whereas the pain they endure every day in prison as they recollect their horrible actions is worse. Many prisoners on death row do not cherish the lives of others — how can they be expected to cherish their own? For many prisoners, their greatest wish may be to be executed; why grant them that wish?
Despite prosecutors' best attempts to determine the truth, errors often occur because people and science are not infallible. Since 1976, 116 people have been removed from death row after being cleared of their charges. Cumulatively, these people spent over 1,000 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Even worse, in the past two years the Chicago Tribune, the Houston Chronicle and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, reported that four executed inmates were most likely innocent.
Racial and economic biases are also prevalent in sentences with the death penalty. The American Civil Liberties Union said in 2003, "People of color comprise 43 percent of total executions since 1976, while comprising only around 25 percent of the population." Criminals need to be charged and sentenced according to their actions alone, not on their racial background. Death row inmates often also lack sufficient finances to receive adequate legal assistance.
The death penalty should not be an option for punishment in the U.S. and should not be reinstated in the state of Wisconsin. It was the first state to realize the foolishness of this method of punishment and should continue to promote life imprisonment as the only option for inmates in the U.S.
Joelle Parks ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism and spanish.
Correction: The lead for this story should have read “More than 150 years ago.”
