Justice Stevens Arguments Against The Death Penalty

In recent years, anti-death penalty propagandists have succeeded in stoking the fear that capital punishment is being carelessly meted out. Ironically, Of the 875 prisoners executed in the United States in modern times, not one has been retroactively proved innocent. The benefits of a legal system in which judges and juries have the option of sentencing the cruelest or coldest murderers to death far outweigh the potential risk of executing an innocent person. First and foremost, the death penalty makes it possible for justice to be done to those who commit the worst of all crimes. The execution of a murderer sends a powerful moral message: that the innocent life he took was so precious, and the crime he committed so horrific, that he forfeits

These conclusions are not supported by the available data. Justice Stevens has also argued that the risk of error in capital cases may be greater than in other cases because the facts are often so disturbing that the interest in making sure the crime does not go unpunished may overcome residual doubt concerning the identity of the offender. The same could be said of any criminal penalty, including life without parole; there is no proof that in this regard the death penalty is distinctive. He also states: I have relied on my own experience in reaching the conclusion that the imposition of the death penalty" is

The death penalty was not seriously challenged as a constitutional issue in the U.S. until the late 1960s, a time of considerable turmoil on civil rights issues here, and a time of movement toward abolition of the death penalty in Europe. This challenge resulted in the somewhat surprising decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia in 1972 finding the death penalty to be unconstitutional as it was being applied everywhere in the U.S. The question of extradition and the possible use of the death penalty has raised major concerns throughout Europe, Canada, Mexico, and parts of Africa. While the U.S. sorely wants to bring such suspects to justice, many countries just as strongly believe that the death penalty is a human rights issue and extradition in such circumstances would be a violation of deeply held principles. Doubts about the accuracy and fairness of the death penalty have increased dramatically in the U.S. as scores of inmates have been freed from death row. Support for life without parole sentences has increased, and the number of death sentences in the U.S. has plummeted by 50 percent in recent years. International concerns about the death penalty would probably never be enough alone to make the U.S. abandon this practice. However, because international concerns are generally being given more recognition in the U.S., and because the opinion of those other countries is more unified than ever before, it is likely that the death penalty will come under