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The Death Penalty - A Question of Justiceby David Kaczynski Excutive Director of New Yorkers Against The Death Penalty
This is the recap of a talk given at the November 10, 2002 CDHS monthly meeting.
At our November meeting, David Kaczynski, Executive director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, described his organization’s views, provided us with a clear picture of the serious problems associated with the death penalty, and shared his family’s story. Kaczynski addressed the arguments most often used to justify capital punishment, asserting that, when examined closely, these arguments do not live up to expectations: 1. Capital punishment saves lives by acting as a deterrent. The evidence doesn’t support this. The former Attorney General Janet Reno, a U.S. Supreme Court opinion (Ring v Arizona), and The American Society of Criminologists all agree that it has no deterrence value. A NY Times study shows that states with the death penalty have 50-100% higher murder rates than non-death-penalty states. Canada abolished the death penalty in 1978 and its murder rate has fallen steadily since then. 2. It helps grieving families by providing closure. Having reached out to groups like Parents of Murdered Children, Kaczynski can tell us that the flaw in this assertion is its blindness to the complexity of human nature. In reality, there is no closure. When observing the reactions of the families who attended the McVeigh execution, one will discover a diversity of thought and emotion. Kaczynski described grieving as a journey with thoughts and feelings that change. He encouraged us to speak to victims’ groups and spoke of the personal connection he has made with them by sharing his family’s story. 3. It saves money. Actually, a death penalty case costs two to three times more than a life sentence. Since its return to NY in 1995, $100 million has been spent (approximately $20 million per successful prosecution). The New York Daily News estimates that before the first execution takes place, $238 million will be spent. NY has the option of life imprisonment without parole. Kaczynski asks us to consider if the outrage we feel truly justifies the expense of capital punishment. There are many human services that could benefit from this money. He then addressed the alarming range of problems that capital punishment creates for society. The most obvious and serious problem is the execution of innocent people. Since 1973, there have been 102 death row prisoners exonerated and released. This dramatic increase in exonerations is due to DNA technology. One can only wonder at the number of innocents executed before this technology was available. Also, because DNA evidence is often not available, there is still the probability of innocent people on death row in the future. To quote U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor: "If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed." Equally disturbing is the unfairness of the process and Kaczynski had many statistics to back this up. Of the 20,000 homicides per year in the U.S., the 50 which result in executions are not "the worst of the worst" as one would hope. We are executing the criminals with the least money and worst lawyers. To quote U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, she has "never seen a death penalty case on appeal before this court in which the defendant was well represented at trial." When compared to African-American and Hispanic victims, the murder of a white is four times more likely to result in a death sentence. In NY there is a three times higher chance that capital punishment if the victim is white. If the defendant is nonwhite, this also increases the likelihood of a death sentence. Also, geography is a major factor in cases. Of the five men on death row in NY, three (60%) are Suffolk County convictions. To quote material from NYADP: "When a sentence of life or death depends on the defendant’s social class, his race, his economic resources, his county of residence, the whim of the prosecutor, political pressures or other factors unrelated to the severity of the crime or the defendant’s character, then what we have is not justice but a hollow legal process that threatens the elemental fairness on which justice depends." David Kaczynski then told us about the painful journey his family has faced. Beginning with their first suspicions about his brother Ted being the Unabomber, he described the agonizing search for answers that he and his wife faced. This search ultimately leads to the realization that they had to contact the FBI and, most difficult of all, tell David’s mother. It is a story of a family’s love being tested in ways most never have to endure. Clearly touched by the story, the audience learned of the love and compassion that drew the family together. Also discussed, were the original partnership and subsequent feelings of disillusionment experienced in their interaction with the FBI. The FBI failed to live up to two promises it had made to the Kaczynskis. The first was the promise to keep secret the fact that a family member had alerted the FBI. This information leaked to the press and the family faced a media feeding frenzy, which they had to protect their mother from as well. The second promise was that the prosecution would conduct a fair and impartial mental evaluation of Ted. They later discovered that, rather than get an objective expert opinion, the prosecution used a psychiatrist who was a professional prosecution witness. This was in the hopes of securing a death penalty conviction. Kaczynski also described how politicians support capital punishment because of polls and election-time concerns, rather than a clear desire to help the victims’ families. If their main interest was in the victims, why don’t they make more of an effort to create needed services for victims? Despite differing views about the death penalty, Kaczynski sees common ground we can agree on in the unfairness of the process. Resources that could be spent on communities and other criminal cases are tied up in a capital punishment system that doesn’t work. We need to work together for a moratorium on executions so that these concerns can be addressed. New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty contact info: listserve - send e-mail to info@nyadp.orgNYADP 40 North Main Ave Albany NY 12203 [For an alternative view, see (what else?) [The Death Penalty – An Alternative View] | |