... would you let me take care of yours? Or would you fund an inquiry to find out why I keep losing my stuff?
According to a TNean report today, the Administrative Office of the Courts has lost track of around 25% of its capital punishment cases. Listen, I live with an attorney. I know how forgetful they are. But, seriously... these are capital punishment case files. You don't just leave them in the back of your car, you know?
We're trying to sort out how much it costs to kill a person in Tennessee again. And unless all those folks who are testifying this week are doing so on their own time, in their own homes, out of the goodness of their hearts, we're paying more to find out how much we lose because of the Death Penalty. Why are we studying it again? Why, when the first study concluded that death penalty cases cost more, cause more emotional burden to the victims' families, and have no evidence of deterrence, are we looking again? Maybe it's because the first report couldn't include an analysis of all the parts of the process that the Courts had lost track of, like how much time judges and prosecutors spent on the cases. What did the first report say?
- Death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment.
- Tennessee District Attorneys General are not consistent in their pursuit of the death penalty.
- Surveys and interviews of district attorneys indicate that some prosecutors "use the death penalty as a 'bargaining chip' to secure plea bargains for lesser sentences."
- Previous research provides no clear indication whether the death penalty acts as a method of crime prevention.
- The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals reversed 29 percent of capital cases on direct appeal.
- Although any traumatic trial may cause stress and pain for jurors, the victims' family, and the defendant's family, the pressure may be at its peak during death penalty trials. (July 2004)
Those conclusions are not going to change by knowing exactly how much time judges and prosecutors spent working on capital punishment cases, unless the judges and prosecutors spent so little time that their efficiency outweighed all the additional costs. Maybe we're just looking for a different answer.
Look at this comment:
Former state Attorney General Paul Summers said he didn't think that knowing the cost of executions would have much impact on public support of the death penalty.
"I think people feel the death penalty is retributive and worth whatever it costs," Summers said. "Policy makers may feel different."
We punish criminals for two primary reasons: deterrence and retribution. The death penalty, time and time again, has been shown to have no deterrent effect on similar crimes. Retribution, then, as Summers notes, is "worth whatever it costs" to death penalty supporters.
Really? We're choosing a punishment which makes it more dangerous for crimefighters, which is linked to increased crime, which is predicted by race, which is arbitrary in its use, which is linked to repeat criminals, which is really really expensive, and which is arguably unethical, because we want to exact retribution on an individual who, by the very nature of the punishment, is going to be dead four minutes later? Really? Because by that logic, we should do away with all the ways in which we make it hurt less, and instead make it incredibly painful. Is our bloodlust actually satisfied by the peaceful, anesthetized passing of an individual who won't have consciousness of the act?
If the lawmakers know that it's not working, and are only continuing it because of public demand, it's useful to know what public is demanding it. So, what public is demanding it? I can tell you who's not: The American Baptist Churches in the USA, the American Jewish Committee, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Church Women United, the Disciples of Christ, the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American, the General Association of General Baptists, the General Conference of the Mennonite Church, the Mennonite Church, the Orthodox Church in America, the Presbyterian Church, and the United Church of Christ. These are people who can't even agree on whether or not women should wear pants.
A humane and generous concern for every individual, his health and his fulfillment, will do more to soothe the savage heart than the fear of state-inflicted death, which chiefly serves to remind us how close we remain to the jungle.
RAMSEY CLARK, New York Times, Jul. 3, 1968
We're following the money (and spending a pretty penny to do so) trying to justify an opposition to the death penalty by showing that it's just too expensive, and in doing so, we're asking the wrong questions.
- Catherine McTamaney
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