Tuesday, December 20, 2011 By Mark Anson [ArticleImageHyperLink] Advertising Injecting the death penalty into society (December 20, 2011) -- Joshua Komisarjevsky was convicted in October of 17 charges, including the murder of a mother and her two daughters, kidnapping, burglary, arson and assault. On Dec 13 a jury in Connecticut decided that he would face death by lethal injection. Komisarjevsky’s case brings up one of the most argued topics in politics: capital punishment, commonly known as the death penalty. The death penalty is the most supreme form of punishment in existence — people fear nothing more than death. Compared to losing one’s own life, spending an eternity in an overcrowded cell seems like nothing. It’s apparent that murderers prefer life in imprisonment, or else they would not fight for it. By having the death penalty looming over one’s head, the desire to murder will decrease. If the Clark administration suddenly decided that the punishment for cellphone use was to smash the phone into pieces with a large hammer rather than keeping it in a drawer for a few days, the usage of cellphones would most definitely decrease. The same would go for crimes. A punishment that is irreversible and all-ending deters people from committing crimes that fall under the shadow of the death penalty. The executions that do occur lead as an example to those whose life goals are to commit capital crime. According to a 2003 study by Emory University Economics Department Chairman Hashem Dezhbakhsh and Emory professor Joanna M. Shepherd, “a rational offender would respond to perceived costs and benefits of committing crime. Capital punishment is particularly significant in this context, because it represents a very high cost for committing murder.Thus, the presence of capital punishment in a state, or the frequency with which it is used, should unequivocally deter homicide." Their conclusion, which was based on the data of 3,054 U.S. counties from 1977 to 1966, was that each execution results, on average, in 18 fewer murders. When an execution has to happen, 18 innocent lives are saved at the cost of one. Some people argue that taking a life in place of another's is an act of revenge; however, it is more of an act of retribution. Society is ordered where every person earns what they are due for. Murder disrupts this order and a just punishment should be in order. As said in passages of the Hebrew Bible, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” The only suitable punishment for killing is for the murderer to equally lose his own life. In cases like Komisarjevsky’s, where multiple people are killed, being put behind bars is simply not enough. If a person feels that they have the power to wrongfully take someone else’s life, they should be aware that there are dire consequences for their actions. An organization known as SAFE California is gathering petitions to put an initiative on the 2012 ballot that would end capital punishment in California. The act would reinvest the money from the death penalty into local law enforcements which would lead to an increase in the rate that rapes and murder rates are solved. This would be beneficial if death penalty cases were a great deal more expensive than a life without parole (LWOP). However, because the prices are similar, the only thing the initiative would do is shift expenses from the death penalty to LWOP cases and increase the population of prisoners in already overcrowded prisons. The Washington State Bar Association stated that death penalty cases cost about $470,000 more than if the same case were to be tried and the result was life in prison. While the upfront costs of a death penalty case obviously cost more, over time the cost of a LWOP case will cost even more money. Not only do LWOP prisoners cost states money to keep alive in prisons, they also are given more time to continue fighting for their case. After being executed there is no way for one to fight for their case, as they would dead. The death penalty is a reasonable and efficient way to deal with crime. It has lasted since the beginning of recorded history, and is still going strong.

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