Growing up in a conservative household, I was always pro-death penalty. In our house, it was always said that criminals deserved to be punished, and if they did something bad enough, they deserved to die.
As I grew to become my own person, my conservative beliefs changed. But even though my mind changed on practically every political opinion, I still questioned my stance on the death penalty.
It took a long time to resolve my thoughts, but I eventually came to the conclusion that I did not believe in enforcing a death penalty. However, my moral opposition to execution was nearly irrelevant when coming to my own opinion.
According to a study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, at least 4.1 percent of all people sentenced to die are innocent. I cannot support the death penalty because I can’t support killing even one innocent person.
I understand the want for vengeance when someone does something inhumane, but killing an innocent person makes the law unworthy.
If we kept prisoners worthy of the death penalty in solitary confinement without the chance of parole, a lot of issues would be solved. It takes away any quality of life and it is a lot easier to reverse than death.
Eliminating capital punishment would not only save innocent lives, but also save taxpayers’ money.
It is a lot cheaper to send a person away with life in prison than it is to execute them. When a prosecutor seeks the death penalty, the time in court is longer and more costly.
In Idaho, the State Appellate Public Defenders office spent almost 8,000 hours per capital defendant compared to about 180 hours per non-death penalty defendant.
In New York, death penalty cases cost a projected $1.8 million for the trial and initial appeal. In Kansas, housing prisoners on death row costs more than twice what it costs to house other prisoners.
Though it isn’t my biggest argument against the death penalty, I still question the morality of capital punishment. Part of me wants to see people pay for their crimes when they are especially inhumane, but I feel uncomfortable knowing the government holds the power to take a person’s life.
I wish I could say all we need to do is make it harder for someone to be sentenced to death, but there will always be a chance of mistakes.
Prosecutors will always convict innocent people. It’s within human error, and people’s internal biases can always affect a trial’s outcome.
I don’t judge those who are pro-death penalty, but I believe supporting it means supporting the execution of some innocent people. We must ensure that no person is executed at the hands of the government because the search for justice should not overshadow what is really at risk — the life and liberty of the innocent.
Lynne Bunch is an 18-year-old mass communication freshman from Terrytown, Louisiana.