Countries Practicing Death Penalty

 80% of all executions

world wide occur in
China, Iraq, Iran,
Saudi Arabia and US
States with the Death Penalty
 Quick Facts
 Fact: Average murder rate is 5.3 in death
penalty states and 2.8 in non-death
penalty states
 Fact: As a region the south accounts for
over 80% or all executions and has the
highest murder rates. Northeast carries
our less then 1% of executions and has
the lowest murder rates
FBI Uniform Crime Report 2004
 Lifetime incarceration costs far less than
the death penalty
 Cost of executing an individual is 4 times
greater than life without parole.
 Flaws in the System

Flaws can be found in the ethics, the

application and the logic of the system
1) Ethics: Bishops statements clearly
state the ethical position of the church
The sanction of death, when it is not necessary
to protect society, violates respect for human
life and dignity.
State-sanctioned killing in our names diminishes
all of us.
Its application is deeply flawed and can be irreversibly
wrong, is prone to errors, and is biased by
factors such as race, the quality of legal representation,
and where the crime was committed.
We have other ways to punish criminals and
protect society. Catholic Conference of Bishops to end the death penalty
 "Abolition of the death penalty is most
consonant with the example of Jesus, who both
taught and practiced the forgiveness of
injustice."

US Bishops, Statement on Capital

Punishment, art. 13
Race of Defendant Executed since
1976
Race of Victims
Flawed Application
 More then 120 Death
row inmates have
been exonerated since
1976 (11% of death
row population)
 Apply to classroom??
Flawed Application
Classist

95% of the 3,350 lived below the poverty line

Used to determine indigent
Unable to pay an attorney
Court Appointed Attorneys
According to the study Inept Defenses
(2006)
12% of those executed between
1976—1999 were represented by an
attorney who had been or was later
disbarred or suspended.
 `

Sleeping during trial

Drunk
Failure to turn in paper or evidence
Battered / abuse
Mental retardation / mental illness
 "The death penalty is no more
effective a deterrent
than life imprisonment... It is also
evident that the
burden of capital punishment falls
upon the poor, the ignorant and the
underprivileged members of society."
—United States Supreme Court
Justice Thurgood Marshall
 Death penalty has a flawed logic
Kill the killer to show that killing is wrong
Rape the rapist?
Burn the house of an arsonist?
Lex Talionis:
Views of the death penalty are influenced by
1) View of human nature
2) Role of society
3) Interaction between the individual and
society
4) Ethical perspective
 The Morality of Punishment

Four ways of justifying punishment:

1. Retribution DUTY THEORIES

1. Deterrence
2. Rehabilitation UTILITARIANISM
3. Reconciliation
 The Morality of Punishment:
Utilitarianism
Punishment and making the world a better place for
everybody concerned:
(U) Punishing a criminal is right because it has beneficial
consequences, in particular, that fewer crimes will be
perpetrated.
Conditions for a just – i.e. efficient – punishment:
(U1) Applied consistently
(U2) Applied quickly
Example: Cheating
 The Morality of Punishment:
Duty Theory
Retribution and Respect:
(DT) Punishing a criminal is right because it is the only way
in which we can respect her as a rational, autonomous
agent
Two Principles for a just punishment:
(DT1) Punish only the guilty
(DT2) Punish in proportion to the offense: lex talionis
Ex: stealing
 Death Penalty and Human Dignity
The Significance of the Lex Talionis

Understanding the lex talionis: Two interpretations:

(I1) A scale of punishments, corresponding to a scale of
offences
(I2) Exact pay back?

(I2) cannot be true:

Raping the rapist? Killing all the family members of the one
who murdered the family of someone? Killing an entire
community…?
The Lex Talionis is about a SCALE, not about exact
payback.
Three ethical theories
1) Teleological (consequentialist)
Focus on the end results
Is the consequence ethical?
Was the intention ethical?
2) Deontological:
Was the action ethical independent of a positive
ethical outcome?
3) Virtue theory: Are we trying to be good? Right effort.
 Death Penalty and Human Dignity
The Significance of the Lex Talionis

What should be the upper limit of the scale?

Painful Death? Non-painful Death? Life sentence? 30 years?
20 years?
Duty Theory does not tell us!
Duty Theory does not justify death penalty
 Death Penalty and Human Dignity
The Moral Integrity of the Executioners

Appeal to virtue ethics:

What kind of person do we want to be?
What kind of punishment makes us lose our moral integrity?
There is no doubt that awful people deserve awful treatment.
But what kind of punishment do we want to be
responsible for?
 Conclusion:
Is Death Penalty morally right?

1. From the point of view of Utilitarianism:

There is no convincing evidence or argument that applying death
penalty has beneficial consequences:
- Unfair distribution
- Slow procedures
- No premeditation most of the time
 Conclusion:
Is Death Penalty morally right?
2. From the point of view of Duty Theory
Duty Theory does not support death penalty either:
- Problem of Wrongful Convictions
- Duty Theory justifies that a proportionate punishment be applied,
but does not tell us about what the highest level punishment should
be