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FBI statistics show that in 10 out of the 12 states without capital punishment, the homicide rates are lower than the national average. The New York Times points out that states with the death penalty had homicide rates 49 percent to 101 percent higher than in states without it. Some 84 percent of top academic criminological societies believe the death penalty is not a deterrent. In addition to these statistics, racial discrimination is rampant in death penalty cases. In fact, a North Carolina study found the chances of getting a death sentence increased by 3.5 times when the victims were white. Looking at similar crimes committed by similar defendants in Philadelphia, the death penalty was administered for African Americans 38 percent more often than for all other ethnic and racial groups. The number of innocents sentenced to death but later exonerated continues to grow. Over 120 inmates have been released, and cleared of all charges, since 1973 — each incarcerated on average of nine years before their release. The criminal justice system in its current state is the basic element that brings the mentally incompetent, minorities, poor Americans, and minors — frequently with sub-par legal representation — to death row. Consider this: based on the findings of one study, 65 percent of capital case convictions are overturned. In the face of all of this public support for the death penalty has been declining, fewer people are being executed every year, and fewer people are being sentenced to die every year. A May 2006 Gallup Poll states that when one is given the option for an alternative punishment of life without parole instead of the death penalty, support for the death penalty drops to 47 percent. The percentage of people supporting the death penalty is down from an all-time high of 80 percent in favor in 1994, and the first time since the 1970's that support has dropped below 50 percent.
In addition to public support waning, the number of executions nationally has dropped by 46 percent, to 53 executions in 2006. This decline is down from the peak of 98 executions in 1998. An even more drastic statistic is the decline in capital punishment sentences. In 2005 there were only 128 death sentences, down 60 percent from the peak of 317 in 1996.
All these statistics beg for scrutiny — and change — that will come only from progressive Democrats. Democrats we all must support.
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