The Influence of Death Row on Deterrence

The Influence of Death Row on Deterrence

The state of awaiting execution after an individual is found guilty of a capital offense is termed death row. The jury has the mandate after the judgment to impose life imprisonment or a death sentence without the possibility of parole (Sun, 2013). The questions remain, what types of murders are deterred? What is the influence of death row on deterrence? Based on past inmates statistics and change in-laws over the past 100 years, the major types of murders that are deterred include murders of African-American and white people, murders between acquaintances, inmates, and strangers, murders committed during other felonies and crime-of-passion murders.

Controversies Surrounding Deterrence

However, some researchers argue that murders by inmates and crime of passion are not deterrable (Sewall, 2010). This gives an obvious expectation that the number of implemented excursions directly affects the frequency of all types of murders. The kind of murder or capital crime to be deterred is also dependent on the quality of suspect`s lawyer, the jury’s verdict, and the prosecutor’s decision. Therefore, in most murders, an offender is not in the know, whether eventually he or she will be convicted of a death-eligible murder.

The Effect of Death Row Wait Time on Deterrence

The length of time that prisoners spend on death row directly affects murder rates. Many attempts of prisoners to delay their executions have been recorded. This means that a longer wait on death row is preferred to a shorter wait (Conrad, 2013). Therefore, excursions of an inmate who had a shorter length in death row may have a greater deterrent effect compared to those who waited for a long time on a death row. Should a shorter death row wait be more of a deterrent than a longer death row waits, then the noted national trend of longer death row waits could be lessening any deterrent effect of the death penalty (Conrad, 2013).

Conclusion

In conclusion, killing or excursion of broken people is to serve a lesson the others who might be involved in the same criminal activities in the future. This justifies that the number of implemented excursions directly affects the frequency of all types of murders. Justice is not fair to both parties involved in any case before the jury.

References

Sewall, M. P. (2010). Pushing Execution over the Constitutional Line: Forcible Medication of Condemned Inmates and the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. BCL Rev., 51, 1279.

Sun, A. A. (2013). Killing Time in the Valley of the Shadow of Death: Why Systematic Preexecution Delays on Death Row Are Cruel and Unusual. Colum. L. Rev., 113, 1585.

Van den Haag, E., & Conrad, J. P. (2013). The death penalty: A debate. Springer Science & Business Media.