Opinion: Students Take Sides on the Death Penalty

Pro- Death Penalty

Mikaela Stiner

Christians spend a significant amount of time persuading the secular culture of the inherent value and dignity of human life and seeking to protect and uphold the recognition of that life. The bold affirmation of the dignity of every single human — created and established by God in God’s own image — creates a unique tension as the Christian considers capital punishment’s place in contemporary society.

According to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, many mainline Protestant denominations oppose the death penalty. However, the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant conservatives believe that capital punishment can be supported by scripture. Many individual Christians fail to have a clear standing on the issue.

What does the Bible say about the death penalty?

In Genesis 9:6, God says to Noah, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by men shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”

Capital punishment is a measure of justice specifically prescribed by God in Scripture. It is a bold declaration of the value of human life, a demonstration of God’s ultimate authority over both life and death and a sobering expression of his gravely serious, perfect standard of justice.

Christian ethics, in regard to the sanctity of human life, are constantly challenged across contemporary culture, particularly when it comes to topics such as abortion and euthanasia. The basis of these controversies is a fundamental disagreement regarding the value ascribed to a human life and the conviction that life is created, preserved and concluded all by the sovereign hand of God.

Genesis 1:27 says, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Because man has been made in God’s image, the price of murder is the very life of him who purposefully shed the innocent blood. In a perfect society, capital punishment would not be necessary, but in a sinful and fallen world, it is a continually relevant measure in the pursuit of justice.

The English Standard Version Study Bible notes two good reasons why Christians should believe that God’s command in Genesis 9:6 is still relevant today. First, the covenant established by God following the Noahic flood were set in place for all societies and times from that point forward. Second, the reasoning stated in the mandate is still valid: man is indisputably created in God’s image.

In a July 2016 article by Catholic World Report, titled “Why the Death Penalty is Still Necessary,” it said that ultimately and most importantly, “(The death penalty) promotes belief in and respect for the majesty of the moral order and for the system of human law that both derives from and supports that moral order.”

The proper execution of capital punishment — carried out in the case of individuals determined by the state to be undoubtedly guilty and thoroughly deserving of the death penalty — upholds the value of life.

According to Romans chapter 13, “There is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God … if you do wrong, be afraid, for (rulers) do not bear the sword in vain.”

Scripture maintains that the right to exercise capital punishment is reserved for the state, not the individual. The weight of humanity’s inherent dignity is displayed not only through the preservation of life from the moment of conception until death, but also by the dignity preserved through retributive justice.

In a 2014 Q&A on the death penalty, New York Law School professor Robert Bleckert said, “Opponents (of the death penalty) wrongly equate retribution and revenge … Whereas revenge knows no bounds, retribution must be limited, proportional and appropriately directed — we should only execute those who most deserve it.”

The principle of “lex talionis,” or the law of retaliation, promotes and protects justice in three ways in cases where the death penalty is a viable option. First, the lex talionis prevents private vengeance — justice is determined by the state, not a private party. Second, it prevents excessive punishment — not allowing more than an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth or life for a life. Finally, it prevents insufficient punishment by properly administering just punishment.

Current legal protections in the U.S. ensure that the death penalty is not doled out arbitrarily. It is the responsibility of the justice system to continue to take every precaution to ensure that individuals convicted of extreme crimes receive the sentence they deserve.

The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia affirmed the constitutionality of the death penalty in his comments during the Glossip v. Gross case of June 2015.

“Not once in the history of the American Republic has this Court ever suggested the death penalty is … impermissible. The reason is obvious: it is impossible to hold unconstitutional that which the Constitution explicitly contemplates,” Scalia said. “The Fifth Amendment provides that ‘no person shall be held to answer for a capital … crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury,’ and that no person shall be ‘deprived of life … without due process of law.’”

The death penalty should continue to serve as a conduit of legal and moral justice in modern society. Christians can be confident that state-administered capital punishment defends the sanctity of human life and displays the justice of God.

 

 

Con – Death Penalty

Chad Wylie

Gabriel Solache immigrated from Mexico with hopes of the American dream.  He found a factory job in Chicago working the graveyard shifts, and he got an apartment.

In April of 1998, his roommate Adriana Mejia brought a baby girl to the apartment.  Attention soon turned to the television, where news reports flashed about a couple being murdered in their apartment and that their children were missing.  From the television reports, someone in the house recognized the baby girl that Mejia brought home.

Solache and his friend Arturo Reyes accompanied Mejia to the police station, where they were interviewed by Detective Reynaldo Guevara.  Mejia confessed to the murder and implicated Reyes, who in turn implicated Solache.  After three days of questioning, Solache confessed to the murder of the couple to the police officers.

With no physical evidence, Gabriel Solache was convicted by a jury based on the elicited confession, and he received the death penalty. Solache’s story was featured in an article by the Bluhm Legal Clinic Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, which highlighted the flaws of the capital punishment system.

The death penalty is a polarizing issue facing society.  Thirty-one states allow the death penalty, while 19 states and Washington D.C. do not.

Capital punishment, though, should not be allowed in the United States.  It is an ineffective method of deterrence, and it is financially irresponsible.  There are also distinct racial issues in how death sentences are administered.

The death penalty is not a deterrent.  According to an FBI Uniform Crime Report in 2016, the South has the highest murder rate of any region in the U.S., while also accounting for 80 percent of death row sentences.  The Northwest, responsible for only 1 percent of death penalty convictions, has the lowest murder rate.

A recent study conducted by the University of Colorado polled criminologists from across the nation.  Eighty-eight percent do not believe that the death penalty is a deterrent, while 94 percent said there was no empirical data suggesting that it is a deterrent.

A punishment must have a penological justification.  Rehabilitation is only possible through a prison sentence, not death, and incapacitation of the criminal is just as effective in a high security prison as it is for the death penalty.  Retribution may be fulfilled by the death penalty, however, requiring someone to live with the consequences of their actions serves that purpose as well.

Furthermore, the death penalty should not be allowed because enforcing the death penalty is more expensive than sentencing criminals to life imprisonment.

In Florida, it costs $51 million more per year for all death sentences, while in North Carolina, it costs $2.16 million more to sentence an inmate to death than to give them a life sentence according to a Duke University study.  In Texas, three times more money is paid on a death sentence than 40 years in prison with no parole.

A large reason for the increased costs of capital cases has to do with the fact that the legal system recognizes the seriousness of sentencing an individual to death. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that death penalty cases cost more because of the requirement of a death-penalty qualified defense attorney who often spends 10 times the amount of money on a capital punishment case.

Additionally, trials, jury selection and appeals all involve a lengthier and more complicated process when the death penalty is being sought. There are several mandatory levels of review and appeal that are involved in a death penalty case that can take years or even decades to complete according to Death Penalty Focus.

It is in the best interest of society to abolish the death penalty.  It doesn’t serve its primary purpose – deterrence. Nor does it save the prisons any money to execute prisoners.

In 2007, a judge ordered a post-conviction evidentiary hearing in Gabriel Solache’s case.  Detective Guevara had beaten the confessions out of Solache. According to the article by Bluhm Legal Clinic, Guevara had subjected Solache to a grueling three-day interrogation, denied him any food, deprived him of sleep and beat him regularly.

Solache only spoke Spanish, but he signed a confession written by Guevara entirely in English.  On Dec. 21, 2017, all charges were dismissed, Solache was exonerated, and he walked out of his prison for the first time in 20 years.

Solache is one of the 155 people who were sentenced to death and later released since 1973.  If even one of their sentences had been executed, the criminal justice system would have failed.  Human life is far too sacred and valuable to be put into the hands of a jury.