POLICY MEMORANDUM

To: Members of the USA Congress

From: Samir Orujov

Subject: The USA congress should ban capital punishment in order to stop mistaken executions of innocent people.

Date: 14.09.2009

SUMMARY

The main goal of this paper is to scrutinize different ways of solving the issue of existence of capital

punishment and execution many innocent people to this type of penalty in some states of the USA, and

give an efficient recommendation on the issue. Below mentioned statistics will show how capital

punishment caused many innocent people to lose their lives. In turn it provides a great evidence that

the probability of condemning innocent people to capital punishment is increasing day by day. In this

memorandum a) a brief background of the capital punishment in the USA will be provided; b)

importance; b) urgency of addressing the issue will be put forward; c) three different options of

applicability of the punishment will be mentioned; d) appropriateness of three alternative options to

several criterias will be clarified; e) finally, the most viable alternative(recommendation) and its

implementation plan will be emphasized.

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BACKGROUND

Before describing the problem and its consequences broadly, it would be better to provide some

information about historical background of the USA capital punishment. The USA capital punishment

lineage starts in the colonies under the laws of their dominant countries and was carried over into

legislation of the USA and the law of most of the U.S. states and territories. The methods of execution

and the crimes subject to the penalty vary by jurisdiction and have varied widely throughout time. In the

last century, some jurisdictions abolished capital punishment, some of the jurisdictions have stopped

use of it. However, some jurisdictions tend to widen its applicability. So, history of capital punishment

was not constant and exposed different changes. Also,” reforms have influenced the methods of putting

prisoners to death. With the advent of electricity at the close of the nineteenth century, the electric

chair was introduced as a more humane alternative to hanging. Recently, with similar motivation, many

states have adopted the practice of lethal injection, where a deadly chemical is delivered intravenously.

Lethal injection is seen as less stressful to the prisoner and the witnesses than the electric chair”1

WHY THE ISSUE IS URGENT?

Research of this issue made me come to a conclusion that death penalty not only harms the society

more than it contributes, but also it inflicts harms to the society. Death penalty is against the objectives

that the punishment system pursues such as rehabilitation of the offender, restoration of social

injustice and deterrence of new crimes. However, the USA being the country that export democratic

values such as human rights, social justice to the world lets capital punishment exist, which, in turn,

continues depriving people of their inborn rights to live, and which harms the reputation of the USA in

the world. The fact that in 35 states out of 50 death penalty exists and the some of the rest 15 states did

not ban, but suspended its use may be considered failure of USA legislation in promoting ldemocracy

and justice. Especially, as I stressed above, cruel methods of capital punishment challenges democracy

and human rights in the USA. Besides, statistics show that many innocent people were sentenced to

death penalty mistakenly. Through analyzing punishment system of the states the conclusion was drawn

that capital punishment is available approximately for 10% crimes described in the Criminal Code of

states. This can not ensure that innocent people will not be sentenced to this penalty mistakenly.

Actually, the fact that in the last 35 years 130 people after serving average 9,5 years could prove their

innocence and were able to be released from death rows proves increasing probability of sentencing

1 William S. McFeely Trial and Error: Capital Punishment in U.S. History

innocent citizens to this cruel punishment2. It is obvious that who were released from death row due to

fortune were potential victims of this penalty. From 1973-1999, there was an average of 3.1

exonerations per year. From 2000-2007, there has been an average of 5 exonerations per

year3.

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OPTIONS

There are three alternative options which are centerpieces for this memorandum regarding the issue

emerged by the existence of capital punishment: a) To ban capital punishment completely and replace it

with lifetime imprisonment; b) To keep capital punishment, but decrease significantly 1 the scope of

crimes that death penalty is available for, and easing the cruel methods such as electrocution, gas

chambers, hanging and the firing squad that are used for execution of the penalty; c) To let existing

trend continue(status quo).

The first alternative as it was mentioned above is to ban capital punishment completely. This option has

many advantages. First of all, there would be no chance to kill innocent people mistakenly and to

deprive a person of his natural right. Preserving natural rights of people means a high level of provision

of Human Rights, and meeting demands of democratic values. Consequently, this will increase

reputation of the USA. Confidence of International Community as well as the domestic society would be

justified, and the USA would confirm that it is the state which strives to provide democratic atmosphere

both within its borders and abroad. By this way mass population who is against the existence of capital

punishment would rely on the government more than before. Briefly, the Resolution about the

abolishment of capital punishment would be both legal and legitimate, which means that the resolution

would meet demands of Human Rights law and would gain wide social basis. Consequently, social

support of political authority would give a fillip to development in society. Another advantage of

abolishing death penalty lies in its financial aspects. It is obvious that each citizen is a real and potential

2 Staff Report, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil &Constitutional Rights, Oct. 1993, with updates

from DPIC

3 http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org death penalty information center

tax-payer. By killing a person state loses a tax-payer, however if he or she is imprisoned and

rehabilitated, it would contribute to both economic and demographic development of the society. There

are many other advantages of this way that I only provided the most significant ones. However, the

option has some disadvantages which do not diminish the significance of the option. If the people who

had to be condemned to death penalty would be sentenced to imprisonment it demands the state to

spent money for supporting offenders’ life. Moreover, for dangerous law-breakers who are addicted to

break laws this will provide an opportunity to offend laws very often. Nevertheless, this should not be a

basis for depriving a person of his life, his natural right. An addicted lawbreaker should be isolated from

society, but not be killed. This is option is a very beneficial, fair, humanistic solution for the issue.

The other option to solve the problem is to keep capital punishment but to decrease the scope of crimes

that is appropriate to it and changing the methods of penalty. This alternative has advantages and

disadvantages. The first advantage of this option lies on reduction of probability of killing innocent

people, because the scope of crimes that involve capital punishment is decreased. The second

advantage would be eliminating the cruel methods of penalty such as electrocution, gas chambers,

hanging and the firing squad which challenges the reputation of the USA. Another advantage of this

option is its applicability in only few cases which means its execution towards most dangerous and

incorrigible law-breakers. The preservation of capital punishment has importance during vulnerabilities,

civil commotions when the survival of the state could be a victim of betrayal. Disadvantage of this option

lies on loss of offender-tax-payers forever which has bad economic influences. Moreover, preserving

capital punishment as a part of punishment system would still remain as a threat to lives of innocent

people. The second option is less beneficial, fair, humanistic alternative.

The last option is keeping the status quo which means letting current trends endure. The advantage of

keeping the status quo is liquidate the financial expenses for amendments and changes to legislation.

However, the disadvantages of the status quo prevail over the advantages. As it was mentioned above

losing tax-payers, persistence of harms inflicted to the international reputation of the USA are only

some major disadvantages of the option in question.

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CRITERIA

Five criteria were included in order to measure efficiency of the three given alternatives: a)Probability of

execution of innocent people; b) relevance to democratic values; c) Legitimacy means relevance of the

alternative to moral norms and values existing in the society; d) Impact on economic development of

the society means benefits of each alternative to the financial situation of the state; e) Impact on the

reputation of the USA means influence of each alternative to International image of the USA.

The first alternative (to ban capital punishment completely) diminishes probability of execution of

innocent people to zero. While the punishment is banned there is no chance to condemn any one

person whether he is guilty or innocent to death penalty. Moreover, the option in question is very

appropriate to the basic principles of democracy of which one is to provide the security and inviolability

of life of a person. Furthermore, the policy alternative in question would be legitimate, which means

would gain wide social basis. In addition, the policy alternative would have good impact on economic

development of the USA.

The second policy alternative diminishes probability of execution of innocent people, however the

remaining of capital punishment still does not liquidate the probability. Moreover, it is less appropriate

to democratic principles than the first one. In addition, choosing this policy alternative will have a good

impact on economic situation of the USA. Ultimately, if this policy is chosen the international reputation

of the USA will be better than it is.

With respect to status quo, its high probability of execution of innocent people and non relevance to

democratic virtue eliminates its rationality. Moreover, status quo has very narrow social basis. The

evidence that many attempts directed to abolishment of capital punishment such as publishing books,

opening websites and sometimes holding demonstrations against the death penalty prove that there is

mass scale dissatisfaction about the status quo in the USA. Furthermore, depriving the potential killers

of their lives whether fairly or mistakenly influences financial situation badly. A recent article on this

subject in the Wall Street Journal linked the death penalty with need for additional resources: “Nothing

is certain," it stated, "except the death penalty and higher taxes.” The extra money spent on the death

penalty could be spent on other means of achieving justice and making the community safer:

compensation for victims, better lighting in crime areas, more police on the streets, or as has been

proposed here, funds for pursuing cold homicide cases.4 Finally, the policy would increase reputation of

the USA in the International Community. Finally, keeping the status quo means persistence of inflicting

harms to the international reputation of the USA.

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Matrix of criteria

Options

Probability of execution of innocent people

Relevance to democratic values s

Legitimacy(Social Acceptability) 1 ___

Impact on economic development 1

Impact on the reputation of the USA

To ban capital punishment completely and replace it with lifetime imprisonment

0% ~100%(high)

HIGH HIGH

Very good

To keep capital punishment, but decrease significantly 1 the scope of crimes that death penalty is available for, and easing the cruel methods

~0% ~50% (medium)

INTERMEDIATE INTERMEDIATE GOOD

Status quo ~20-25% Non-relevant LOW LOW BAD

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RECOMMENDATION

In order to avoid the execution of innocent people to death penalty, to increase reputation of the USA in

international society and to enhance confidence between USA citizens and the government the first

option, precisely abolishing capital punishment completely is the most beneficial way. As it is obvious

4 http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/COcosttestimony.pdf Costs of the death penalty.

from evaluation based upon four criteria this option takes place on the most efficient rank of matrix of

criteria.

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Implementation

Implementation of the first alternativesimmediately, of course, would bring some difficulties. The major

difficulty would be convincing the conservative people that the states which have the higher rate of

execution of the death penalty in the same time have the higher rate of crimes.5 Therefore, before

implementing above stressed recommendation some measures should be taken. First of all, the people

should be informed about statistics of crimes in the states where capital punishment exist. Moreover,

the statistics of how many innocent people were killed and how many people released from the death

row proving their innocence after some 9-10 years of service. Besides statistics, realization of any type of

enlightening measures would give a good effect before implementation of the alternative in question.

SOURCES

1) http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/tab…

2) http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/COcosttestimony.pdf Costs of the death penalty.

3) Staff Report, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil &Constitutional Rights, Oct. 1993, with updates

from DPIC

4) William S. McFeely Trial and Error: Capital Punishment in U.S. History

5 http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/tab…