My second major reason for holding my position against the death penalty is that death penalty experts are even against the idea of capital punishment. A 2009 study by Matthew B. Robinson surveyed 45 death penalty experts on their opinions on specific topics. In order to gain accurate opinions, Robinson needed to establish a definition of the term “expert”. He developed the following definition, “a capital punishment expert is a person with a high degree of knowledge of capital punishment, is widely recognized as a reliable source of knowledge due to prolonged experience through practice and education related to the death penalty, and whose judgment is accorded authority and status by the public or their peers” (Robinson, 2009, p.6-7). After …show more content…
The second question asked whether capital punishment achieved deterrence, and only 9% said yes while 79% said no; they stated that the main reason deterrence does not work is because the executions are extremely rare relative to the number of murders (Robinson, 2009, p.13-14). The third question asked whether capital punishment achieves incapacitation (“prevents future murders by killing murderers who would murder again”), and 64% of experts said yes, yet 24% said no; yet those who said yes stated that incapacitation means the murderers won’t murder again and therefore do not need to be executed (Robinson, 2009, p.14). The fourth question asked whether the death penalty was racially biased and 84% said yes; racial bias does not pertain to the offender but the victim, and killers of white victims are more likely to be executed than killers of black victims (Robinson, 2009, p.15-16). The sixth question asked whether capital punishment has ever been used against the innocent, and 76% said yes while only 2% said no; the Death Penalty Information Center and the Innocence Project both have lists of wrongly accused (Robinson, 2009, p.17). The eighth question asked who supported and who opposed the death penalty, and 80% said they opposed it