English 101A

November 2, 2010

Capital Punishment

I can't bring back the lives I took. But I can, if I am allowed, help save lives. That

is the only real restitution I can give . . . I will pay the price for what I did in any

way our law demands it. But in our laws I know that we have commutation for

death row inmates . . . If you decide you must carry out this execution, do it based

solely on the brutality and heinousness of my crime. But please don't do it based

on me being a future threat to society. (qtd. in Geringer 3)

This is an excerpt from the letter that Karla Faye Tucker sent to Governor George Bush

and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to avoid being executed. Tucker was

convicted of killing a man and another woman with a pickax in 1983 and was imprisoned

for the next fifteen years awaiting her execution. During this time, she recognized her

mistake, changed her attitudes toward life, and helped other women deal with similar

issues. However, despite her personal development and regret, Governor Bush and the

appellate court denied her clemency petition, and she was executed by lethal injection in

1998. If Tucker did not represent a threat to society, why was she killed? [Although many

people think that capital punishment grants reasonable retribution and deters crime,

evidence shows that it is a discriminatory solution that could lead to the increase the rate

of murders.]

Capital punishment is not an act of reasonable retribution. This might be a strong

argument in favor of the death penalty. It supports the logical premise that “for every

action, there is an opposite and equal reaction." However, if the American justice system

were strictly based on this type of thinking, why should not the system kill murderers in

the same way that they killed their victims? Following the same rule of this “fair”

retribution, why should this only be applied to murders, and not also to deaths cause by

negligent doctors, drunk drivers, or white collar criminals dumping toxic wastes in the

water? Retribution has become “reasonable” and exclusive for some random murderers

and demonstrates the injustice of the penal and judicial system. Retribution more often, is

not “reasonable retribution” but a perfect rationale for simple vengeance. For example,

as Karla Faye was dying by the lethal injection, her victim’s husband was exultantly

saying: “Here she comes, babydoll [sic]. She’s all yours. The world’s a better place’”

(Buchanan 100). The death penalty does not reform the lives of the murderers. Nor does

it bring back the lives of dead victims. Mostly, it does calm the rage of the victims’

families. David Bruck states that “what really fuels the death penalty is the justifiable

frustration and rage of people who see that the government is not coping with violent

crime” (Bruck 609). Thus, the death penalty is a handy tool to respond to social and

political pressure.

Capital punishment does not deter crime because offenders do not realize or

consider the consequences of their crimes. According to supporters of capital

punishment, when killers deliberately plan the assassination of their victims, they are

afraid that their own execution might be a consequence of the planned murder, deterring

them in this way from acting. However, many murder cases have been taken to trial when

killers have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Other cases demonstrate that

average persons become killers when unusual circumstances make them act

unpredictably. “The emotionally charged environment[s] in which these crimes take

place do not suggest a coolly calculating murderer weighing his options” (qtd. in

Schonebaum 8). Thus, many killers are blind to the consequences of their actions.

According to David Hoekema, studies have shown that capital punishment has just a

“shorter- term effect” in the number of homicides. This drops after few days of a death

sentence, but not before or after few weeks of an execution (444). Thus, even if capital

punishment deters crime for a few days, it does not mean that has fulfilled its objective as

a deterrent.

Some Researchers suggest that capital punishment might increase the rate of

murders. Studies that compare different states with similar social and economic aspects

manifest that murder rates are actually higher in those states were the death penalty is

applied. “The average murder rate per 100,000 people in 1994 among death penalty was

8.0 and the average murder rate among non-death penalty states was only 4.4” (Notis

122). This could happen because killing by execution has a negative effect on society by

validating the taking of life. Thus, American society is giving the green light to potential

assassins by saying that killing is not immoral, and people who deserve to die should die.

Other researchers from New York have shown that in the 1990’s, murders increased

slightly in the months subsequent to a death sentence. These results were analyzed by

“Bowers and Pierce [who] developed what is called brutalization theory, which reasons

that state-sanctioned executions brutalize the sensibilities of society, making potential

murderers less inhibited”(Schonebaum 8). This could imply that the death penalty may

force potential murderers to think that a murder is justifiable. Therefore, the killer will

always find a way to “justify” his atrocities.

Capital punishment is not applied proportionally to the degree of the crime, but

instead it seems to be applied in a discriminatory way. For instance, women or teenagers

are rarely executed even though there may not be fewer murders committed by these

groups. Teenagers are excluded from the death list for the reason they have not formed a

mature standard of morality. Female murders are often thought of as emotionally instable

or lacking premeditation. According to Victor Streib, a Professor of Law and an attorney,

the national trends of women sentenced to death penalty from 1973 through June 30,

2009, show that women represent just 10% of murderers and surprisingly only 0.9% of

all the murderers executed in United States (3). Why are so many women being excluded

from the death list? Supporters of capital punishment state that the majority of victims of

female murderers are not other women or children. This discriminates against men who

are judged twice, by both their gender and by the gender of their victims. It is true that the

stronger the crime is, the most severe punishment should be applied. However, capital

punishment doesn’t seem to follow this pattern, at least when females and teenagers are

the convicts. They are seen with more sympathy and compassion than men. On other

hand, many people do not see the difference between a high school senior who

deliberately kills his classmates with a gun and a drug addicted woman, like Karla Faye

Tucker, who kills a couple of people during a burglary. The severity of the case and

results are similar to those of the male criminals sentenced to death. Without any doubt

all of them deserve the same punishment, probably a lifetime imprisonment, but if there

is a chance of reformation and forgiveness in the case of teenagers, why should there not

be a chance for others?

When Karla Tucker gave her last statement she said: “I would like to say to all of

you – the Thornton family and Jerry Dean’s family,” the two victims’ families, “that I am

so sorry. I hope God will give you peace with this” (Texas Department of Criminal

Justice). She did not apologize because she was asking for mercy, but because she

realized that people deserved a sincere apology. Cases similar to those like Karla Tucker

just demonstrate that Capital punishment should be abolished in our society. The death

penalty does not take into consideration the repentance and forgiveness of a criminal

because retribution does not allow “human” solutions and does not evaluate the change of

behavior in inmates with years of imprisonment. Even worse, the same system washes

their hands when people joyfully celebrate the end of a life. The system seems to justify

their actions in a form of retribution to legitimately violate the basic principles of

morality. The Tucker case has been used to demonstrate that the system is not

discriminatory, but has failed. The only outcome that execution has shown is that the

system is ineffective and insensitive. Some people wonder why these trials take years to

be resolved, and the answer is because the court has the same problem as our society.

Court officials are discerning if capital punishment is the fair solution for a convict of

murder. Hence, if the supporters of capital punishment allow killing inmates with a

minimum doubt of morality and at least one sign of remorse, then they become criminals

as well.

Works Cited

Bruck, David. “The Death Penalty.” Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Ed. Sylvian

Barnet and Hugo Bedau. New York: Bedford, 2004. 606-10. Print.

Buchanan, Pat.”Executions Deliver Reasonable Retribution.” The Death Penalty:

Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. Mary E. Williams. San Diego, Calif: Greenhaven

Press, 2002. 99-102. Print.

Costanzo, Mark.”The Death Penalty Is Discriminatory.” The Death Penalty: Opposing

Viewpoints. Ed. Mary E. Williams. San Diego, Calif: Greenhaven Press, 2002.

173-75. Print.

Geringer, Joseph. “Legal Tactics, Back and Forth.” Karla Faye Tucker: Texas'

Controversial Murderess. truTV Mag., n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2010.

Hoekema, David. “Capital Punishment: The Question of Justification.” Handout. 442-51.

Print.

Notis, Christine.”The Death Penalty Does Not Deter Crime.” The Death Penalty:

Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. Mary E. Williams. San Diego, Calif: Greenhaven

Press, 2002. 119-25. Print.

Schonebaum, Stephen E., Introduction. At Issue: Does Capital Punishment Deter Crime?

Ed. Stephen E. Schonebaum. San Diego, Calif: Greenhaven Press, 1998. 6-9.

Print.

Streib, Victor. “Screening Female Offenders from the Death Penalty.” Death Penalty for

Female Offenders. (2009) Death Penalty Information Center. PDF file.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Death Row Last Statement. Texas: GPO, 27 June 2008.

Web. 2 Nov. 2010.