Costly revenge

Michigan should not revive the death penalty

For two Michigan state senators, it is never too late to reintroduce barbarism into the state constitution. Even though it has been banned in Michigan for the past 153 years, Sen. David Jaye (R-Macomb) and Sen. Bill Bullard (R-Highland) are intent on bringing back the death penalty. In Pontiac on Tuesday, a hearing promoted by the pair was held on two identical proposals sponsored by Jaye and Bullard, respectively. If either of the proposals passes by a two-thirds majority in both houses, a constitutional amendment that would restore the death penalty will be put on the 2000 ballot.

While polls indicate that endorsing the death penalty has its political merits, the logic behind the death penalty itself is fundamentally flawed. The problems inherent in executing criminals are manifold and cannot be ignored.

The figures speak for themselves - putting Michigan in the same league as such states as Texas and Florida will cost taxpayers millions. States with the death penalty waste millions of dollars every year on the inevitable and lengthy appeals process that follows sentencing. The 31 people who were executed in 1994 spent an average of 10 years and two months on death row. A capital trial in Texas costs $2.3 million, three times the cost of keeping someone behind bars for 40 years. And Florida taxpayers have to dig even deeper - a capital trail in that state costs $3.2 million.

Despite all of the money spent on appeals, the system is far from foolproof. Last month Northwestern University Prof. David Protess and five of his students proved Anthony Porter innocent of a murder for which he spent 17 years on death row. Porter has an IQ of 51 and was only 48 hours away from execution. According to a 1990 Congressional Record, U.S. courts have sentenced at least 350 innocent persons to death since 1900, resulting in the execution of at least 25 innocent people. Unlike prison terms, the death penalty is not reversible. To allow even the potential for an innocent person to be executed is unconscionable.

Equally appalling is the U.S. record with regard to executing individuals whose lives ought to be spared. Thirteen men have been executed for crimes they committed as juveniles since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Currently, 74 men who were sentenced as juveniles sit on death row. Similarly, the mentally retarded are given no special consideration - 33 mentally retarded individuals, some with estimated IQs as low as 55, have been executed since 1984.

Studies overwhelmingly indicate that the death penalty discriminates against minorities and the poor. A study in Philadelphia by law prof. David Baldus and statistician George Woodworth, concluded that the likelihood of a black defendant receiving a death sentence was 3.9 times higher than other defendants convicted of similar murders.

Within many people, the desire for ultimate vengeance burns in reaction to heinous crimes. But, Michigan cannot afford to have its legislators turn away from reason. Both the practical and moral implications of this government-sanctioned murder make the death penalty an inappropriate punishment for Michigan and the United States.

03-25-99