NCJ Number
84888
Date Published
1981
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Testimony from a representative of Amnesty International on S. 114, a bill to establish criteria for the imposition of capital punishment, argues that the death penalty has no positive social value and undermines valuable moral concepts such as respect for life and the humane treatment of offenders.
Abstract
As a method of attempting to eliminate political dissent, the death penalty is abhorrent, and as a method of protecting society from crime, it cannot be shown to have a special deterrent effect. Further, the death penalty has traditionally been unequally applied to the poor, minorities, and oppressed groups within a population. The possibility of judicial error or inequity assumes extreme importance with the death penalty, because the error is irreversible, and error is inevitable in even the most careful human institution. Those who argue that the death penalty is necessary to maintain respect for life or to uphold moral values and order will find little evidence for such a theory in any comparison of those societies which have abolished the death penalty and those which use it regularly. The value of human life can be seen to be progressively lessened once a state resorts to cruel and inhumane methods of social control. A Presidential Commission should be appointed to study the pros and cons of the use of the death penalty in the United States so as to remove the fact-finding from the political and emotional climate surrounding it and produce a rational perspective.