How much does it cost to kill someone? Well, if people’s money is being spent on killing other people in the US, they should know how much it costs, right?
The death penalty is the most expensive part of our criminal justice system. The median cost is roughly $1.26 million dollars, and that money comes from our federal tax dollars. This means that your tax money can be used to fund death penalty cases. One case of the death penalty happened on Sept. 24, 2024.
A man named Marcellus Williams was executed in front of the entire nation that day. Williams was a black man from Missouri who was accused and convicted of murdering Flicia Gayley, a former journalist who died in 1998. Gayley was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in her home and was estimated to have been stabbed 43 times. Evidence that was used against Williams included two testimonies. One was a former cellmate of William who claimed he confessed to him, and the other was William’s ex-girlfriend, who said she saw him with items belonging to the victim. This led him to be on death row for almost 3 decades. These testimonies seem unreliable. There was no physical evidence in the case, and there were no eyewitnesses who saw William at the scene of Gayle’s murder.
A few years later, once technology had advanced, a DNA test on the knife used in Gayle’s murder was tested in 2015. This revealed that the DNA did not match William but rather an unknown individual. Despite this new evidence, the action of a new trial or clemency was denied, and his execution still proceeded in Sept. 2024. Even when the prosecution asked for more time, the victim’s family asked for more time, and millions of Americans petitioned the Supreme Court to give this man more time; nonetheless, they still would not reopen the case. What I find ironic is that the Supreme Court did not just say no. They said, nope, we’re not even going to listen to you, and you’re going to pay for it.
Some lawmakers believe that if the death penalty is present in a country, the homicide rate will decrease when, in reality, it just doesn’t work like that. It does not bring the desired effect. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Canada, which abolished the death penalty in 1976, tends to have a better record of homicide rates. A study conducted in 2018 by The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics analyzes the effects of criminal punishment. Canada abolished the death penalty, and its homicide rate was 3.09 per 100,00 people. After its abolishment, it dropped to 1.75 per 100,000 people. Not only is the death penalty truly ineffective, but we also have international receipts proving that getting rid of the death penalty does not increase homicide rates. There is not a single study that says otherwise. It’s a huge waste of time and money; plus, the system often kills innocent people. Since 1973, over 200 people on death row have been exonerated, meaning they were found innocent after being sentenced to die. Evidence from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) concludes, “The death row population is over 41% Black, even though Black people make up about 13% of the U.S. population.”
At the end of the day, the death penalty does not even solve the major issue. Instead, we should focus on things like education, poverty, and mental health support: the things that actually contribute to crime. Why do we think that killing people will solve everything? We should be here for solutions that are effective for our world now.