The Death Penalty and the American Justice System

Alfonso Rodriguez Jr, the 53-year-old North Dakota man who made history in 2001 for raping and killing a college student, was sentenced to death today, an event that led me to reflect on the death penalty and the American criminal justice system. As someone constantly trying to make sense of the world around me, there are few convictions that I am as steadfast in and as sure of as my opposition to the death penalty. Part of this comes from a rather libertarian standpoint; I feel that under no circumstances should the state have so much utter control over a person that they can decide whether he lives or dies.

I am also a firm believer in rehabilitation as the purpose of imprisonment. Unfortunately (while it is a popular opinion, and is officially an objective of the United States Prison System) this is not at all what prisons accomplish in reality. Repeat offenses are skyrocketing and reports of prisoner cruelty and hardship are abundant. And aside from the antique and outdated concept of parole, absolutely nothing is done on the part of the U.S government to ensure that released prisoners aren't going back to the state of extreme poverty that drove many of them to crime and gang involvement. Many prisoners are released into society with literally nothing more than several sets of clothes, a bus token and their parole papers, but are expected to live the life of a law-abiding citizen with none of the necessary social or economic tools. But the worst evidence of hypocrisy in the U.S Prison System comes in the form of its endorsement of the death penalty, which I feel is the total abandonment of the rehabilitation objective. What the death penalty does is label certain criminals as unable to benefit from any rehab; a court identifies certain defendants as different, more anti-social, uncorrectable, based on any number of variables, the least of which it seems, is the crime itself. How many prisoners on death row have encountered others doing much lesser sentences for similar crimes? It bears mentioning here that, while race is undeniably a large factor in criminal conviction and sentencing, since the death penalty was re-instated in 1976, a little more than half of those sentenced to death were white.

However, this is NOT the case in other areas of U.S incarceration. As of an official 2005 U.S study, black people (regardless of gender) were three times as likely to be in jail as Hispanic people, and were five times as likely to be incarcerated as white people. According to another 2005 survey, there were 4682 black inmates to each 100,000, while there were only 709 white inmates to each 100,000. Contrasted with the 1993 statistics of South Africa under apartheid this becomes even more frightening; there there were only 851 black prisoners per 100,000.

I am certainly not saying that this large discrepancy in race among prisoners is exclusively the fault of blatantly racist juries. It is true that many young black people live in inner cities in extreme poverty, and so turn to gang activities and other illegal practices so as earn money to cope with their poverty. It is also true however, race relations in the U.S being as they are, that many white people view black people, especially young men (Note: 11.9% of American black men ages 25-29 were incarcerated as of 2005) with certain amounts of fear and apprehension. Gangs come to mind, as to thoughts of drugs and gun violence when many white Americans see young black people, and popular television shows like Cops do nothing but reinforce these feelings. And is hard for me to believe that this common attitude, this common fear, whether subconscious not, does not come into play as juries are deciding their verdict.

Statistics from:

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance.htm#cptrends

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/jails.htm

http://www.prisonsucks.com/