The death penalty needs to go. Since 1976, there have been 1,486 executions in the U.S., according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Thirty states, including Ohio, permit the execution of prisoners for crimes deemed heinous enough to be atoned by death. Ohio has executed more than 50 people in the last 40 years. But the question being raised isn’t whether convicted criminals deserve to be held responsible for their crimes; but rather, should the state be allowed to execute them?
The criminal justice system may not even be executing the right people. Dating back to 1973, 160 people on death row have been released due to a false conviction, according to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil & Constitutional Rights. The mere thought that just one of those 1,486 executed prisoners could have been innocent is disturbing. Ohio is guilty of almost executing nine people of crimes they didn’t commit. Putting innocent people to death is more than just a mishap during the conviction process. It backtracks an entire criminal investigation and causes those affected to relive the pain of the situation.
In 2012, Marquette University studied families of murder victims, and researchers found that families have greater satisfaction with the criminal justice system and higher levels of physical, psychological, and behavioral health when the sentence was life — not death. No single person speaks for all survivors or victims, as every case is different. But on average, evidence shows better results with a non-death verdict.
Maintaining the death penalty is surprisingly expensive. Amnesty International USA, a nonprofit non-governmental organization, found that the median cost of an execution is roughly $1 million. In California, state records show that the current system costs $137 million per year, despite the most recent execution dating back to 2006. Maryland’s death penalty cases cost a whopping $3 million each, according to Urban Institute. Paying for a system that is rarely used diverts financial resources from bettering mental health and drug treatment programs or improving police equipment.
Some believe that enforcing the death penalty will discourage criminal activity. Even former president George W. Bush said he supports the death penalty “because it saves others’ lives.” This defense, while logical, isn’t backed by data. The murder rate fell in New York and Illinois after both states repealed the death penalty. A 2009 survey found that 88 percent of presidents in criminology societies rebuffed the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. In a 2012 report, The National Research Council found that studies that claim the death penalty has a deterrent effect on murder rates are “fundamentally flawed.”
Ohio currently has 141 prisoners on death row, but the policy opens the door to potentially executing a defendant for a murder they didn’t commit. Non-murderous criminals should be barred from state-sanctioned deaths, even if they convinced others to commit terrible crimes. Ending the death penalty would give legal closure to victims’ families, save Ohio taxpayers millions of dollars every year and wipe away the risk of ending an innocent life.
