Killing Kids No More
The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision today to ban death sentences for those who committed crimes while kids under the age of 18 has special relevance for the South. Here are the sobering statistics, courtesy of the excellent Death Penalty Information Center:
During the "get tough on crime" craze of the 1990s -- in which the South led the way, locking up more people than any other part of the country -- states shoveled billions of dollars into prison-building, often as a tool for rural economic development. African Americans and Latinos have suffered the most.
But the state budget crises of the last five years slowed that down, and many states are now slashing prison budgets and diverting resources into prevention and treatment programs (which are cheaper) -- just what progressives had argued for all along.
By the way, for those who think it's time to finish off the death penalty for good, two excellent groups agitating for abolition in the South are the Southern Center for Human Rights (based in Atlanta) and in North Carolina, People of Faith Against the Death Penalty.
- Of the 19 states that have allowed youths to be given death sentences, 11 are in the South.
- Four of those Southern states -- and six outside of the South -- had no minimum age for death sentences until 1988, when Thompson v. Oklahoma mandated a minimum age of 16.
- Most telling of all is how this has been actually applied: of the 22 youths who have been given death sentences since 1973, all but three were in the South -- and those three were in the border states of Missouri and Oklahoma.
During the "get tough on crime" craze of the 1990s -- in which the South led the way, locking up more people than any other part of the country -- states shoveled billions of dollars into prison-building, often as a tool for rural economic development. African Americans and Latinos have suffered the most.
But the state budget crises of the last five years slowed that down, and many states are now slashing prison budgets and diverting resources into prevention and treatment programs (which are cheaper) -- just what progressives had argued for all along.
By the way, for those who think it's time to finish off the death penalty for good, two excellent groups agitating for abolition in the South are the Southern Center for Human Rights (based in Atlanta) and in North Carolina, People of Faith Against the Death Penalty.
10 Comments:
Thanks for bringing attention to the outstanding work of the Southern Center for Human Rights.As a law student some years ago, I was priveleged to have an internship working under the direction of Bryan Stevenson and Steve Bright at what was then called The Southern Prisoners Defense Committee. It was a life changing experience.Some of the best and brightest lawyers in the country work there, those that could easily command 6 or 7 figure salaries whever they might want to work.They spend almost every waking hour working for justice and fairness for the most despised members of our society.And they do it for a salary that most of us could not hope to survive on.
I hope your readers understand that SCHR is about much more than abolition of the death penalty, and that many will follow your link to learn about their important work in other ares as well.If a society can be judged by how it treats it's most despised members, SCHR often stands alone to make the reality for poor people charged with serious crimes match our Constitutional standards of fairness and decency.Keep shining the light on their good work!
Thanks Jan -- the Center richly deserves your plug. And you're absolutely right, they've taken the lead on a host of critical issues, including fighting back prison expansion and "lock-'em-up" justice policy.
Another resource is http://www.ncadp.org/
NCADP: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
I love how Scalia denounced the decision as "the subjective views of five members of this court and like-minded foreigners."
Somebody should tell him that execution of children is illegal in virtually the whole world, with the exception of such paragons of enlightenment as Iran, Pakistan, and China.
I am not against the death penalty. I am for it.
Although I am one of those rare people who takes responsibility for my actions most are not. To kill another human being is wrong it is the worst crime there is. In the old days they would hang you for stealing a horse, but in today's society it has to be murder cold blooded calculated murder to receive the death penalty.
It is human to want to live forever look at the Pope. If there is anybody in this world who should not be afraid of death he is the one, yet he holds on.
Now we are talking about kids and the death penalty. Murder is murder weather your a teen or adult. Age shouldn't be the factor the crime should be. These kids may not have been taught the difference between right and wrong, however, no one needs to be taught murder is wrong. I read some of these anti-death penalty statements and they act like we are hanging little kids for stealing bubble-gum. Murder is the one and only thing I can think of that this country punishes you with the Death Penalty. And committing murder at 15 is still murder. Cold blooded calculated murder.
Some say to revenge a murder with a murder is not justice. It is cruel to end another human existence. What is cruelty? Living the rest of your life in a cage or being put to death? Should someone who committed murder spend the rest of their lives in jail at the expense of the tax payers or should they have ten years to prove they have been unjustly imprisoned then be put to death? Most of those who oppose the death penalty also oppose holding animals in cages at zoos. Which is what a prison is a zoo of unwanted people who cannot function as normal human beings.
Some people work harder protecting GUILTY MURDERS than innocent victims. It is up side down, but like Mansion put it "wrong is right and right is wrong."
The days for Old Testament judgement are over. We are the only industrialized country that has been executing children. Children cannot make adult decisions. Their brains are not mature, their reasoning is not the same as that of an adult.
We're trying to have a civilization here. We need to find more effective methods of dealing with each other than gunfire and electrocution. Is it too much to ask that we stop killing children? That should be the least of our policies.
A fifteen year old who has enough rational to murder someone has enough rational to know there are consequences for that. They have enough reasoning ability to plain and go through with a monstrous deed. If they can make an adult decision to kill then they forfeit the I'm a kid and don't know better copout. It is like loosing your virginity once you cross the line to make adult decisions like killing someone or a group of someones you can't go back. Like I said "Age shouldn't be the factor the crime should be."
I'm sorry if its sad, but it is sad to loose a loved one to some evil kid who thinks just because I'm a kid they'll let me go.
What is so civilized about committing murder? I know the Death Penalty is murder, no it is a punishment for a cold, calculated, planed murder. What you all are proposing is that young adults can kill people then expecting to live in a cage for the rest of their lives or get out in 7 or 20 years for good behavior. Why not just slap them on the wrist, oh I'm sorry scold them real good hitting is wrong.
Most people make the same mistake in thinking that Death Penalty cases are only the very worst murders, here there is the very kind of evil calculation that anon talks about. Trouble is, the facts don't back that up. Most murders are stupied misjudgements that happen on the spur of the monment, often fueld by alcohol, and always without a single thought of consequences.
If people were capable of contemplating consequences in a situation where murder may be close at hand, then the death penalty would actually be a deterrant. Fact is, 100% of the research shows that there is absolutely no deterrant value in the death penalty. So no, with very rare exception, possible consequences are not considered by adults, let alone minors.
Also you may not know that Murder is almost always a one time only crime. It has one of the lowest repeat offender rates of all crimes. If you want to deal with people who are predictably dangerous, and are overwhelmingly likely do it over and over, you may want to look at Aggravated Assaulters. In light of that, it doesn't make sense, in an enlightened society, to kill minors who kill.
Finally, there is the most troubling problem of all -the certainty that we have, on more than one occasion, executed actually inocent people. Not probably innocent. Actually innocent.Demonstratably innocent. For more on the subject, I highly recommend Sister Helen Prejean's latest book, The Death of Innocents. Most readers are probably familiar with her earlier work, Dead Man Walking. Even if you believe in the death penalty, and even if you think minors are just as guilty as any one else, any thinking person would have to be troubled by this problem.
Our whole application of the death penalty has been shameful. I've never been concerned with its effect as a deterrent. Its only benefit in my opinion is the fact that it is 100% effective in preventing that person from ever killing again.
Until we can be certain that no innocent person is going to be killed, we need to stop altogether. I think DNA testing should be automatic if it's possible and it might even be a good idea to require DNA evidence for a death sentence.
I do favor creating some sort of law that addresses predatory crimes. Something that addresses a Ted Bundy-type serial killer, or rapists or even pedophile who acts out of compulsion.Those crimes usually have an abundance of evidence, and the recidivism rate is very high.
Problem is that we don't reserve the death penalty for the Ted Bundys of the world. We know about serial killers because they are the anomolies, of society certainly, but also among murderers. Most murders happen because someone gets a really stupid idea to get rich, or an impulse to get even, then gets loaded and/or high, and then hanging out with the wrong company when the situation spins out of control. Horrible crimes, but mostly really, really dumb, thoughtless ones. These guys don't repeat much.
What gets you on death row, like the whole rest of the criminal justice system, doesn't depend on how evil your crime, so much as where you do it, who you do it to, and most important, if you can afford legal representation at the trial level.
Too bad we don't look at who is really dangerous, and who is likely to go out and harm again and again, and lock those people up for a long time. We know who they are. Agg Assaulters, and pediphiles are high on this list.As it is now, these guys can get early release to make room in overcrowded prisons for pot smokers. Surely, we should be able to do a better, more even handed job of sorting offenders out for different types and degrees of punishment. So, to come full circle on our topic,not killing kids seems to be a huge right step in that direction.
Post a Comment
Return to Facing South's main page