SOYOUWANNA LEARN ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY?

For decades, the death penalty has been a controversial and divisive issue in American politics. Few debates have been so much at the forefront of public discourse, and for so long a time. Politicians, seizing upon the vehemence of public support for the death penalty, frequently use the issue for political gain. In 1988, Presidential candidate George Bush ran ads attacking Democrat challenger Michael Dukakis for his stance against the death penalty. In 1993, George Pataki ousted popular New York governor Mario Cuomo, seizing on the issue of capital punishment (which Cuomo firmly opposes).

The debate over capital punishment again took center stage recently when Illinois Governor George Ryan announced that he was issuing an executive order to suspend the death penalty while he determined what was wrong with his state's system. In the last decade, Illinois has executed 12 criminals, but has seen 13 others exonerated while awaiting execution. A new ad campaign by Benetton has also drawn attention to capital punishment, depicting interviews with inmates on death row in an attempt to evoke sympathy for their plight.

We'd like to analyze this controversial issue by providing some background info on the subject, and then presenting the arguments often made by both sides. And, as always, we want to strongly remind you that we're not taking a particular side here - we're just laying out the arguments. So please don't kill the messenger . . . ooh, bad choice of words.

1. LEARN ABOUT THE HISTORY OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

America's practice of capital punishment came to a temporary halt in 1972. In the controversial decision of Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the nation's death penalty, in its current form, violated the Constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Specifically, the Court reacted to evidence that capital punishment was being disproportionately applied to minorities and the poor. In addition, the Court was troubled by the number of people who were executed only to be found innocent afterwards. (It was particularly challenging to integrate such exonerated individuals back into law-abiding society.)

Since the Court objected not to capital punishment itself, but only to its present implementation, many states revamped their procedures in an effort to assuage the Court's concerns. Their efforts proved successful; after four years, the Supreme Court effectively reinstated capital punishment in the 1976 decision of Gregg v. Georgia. Although the decision in Gregg reflected the Court's confidence that new laws minimized the severe errors in the system cited in Furman, most of those same criticisms against capital punishment continue to be expressed. Today, many liberals excoriate the death penalty as a punishment primarily for blacks and the poor; additionally, the advent of DNA testing has exonerated many on death row, creating a growing concern for the certainty of capital convictions.

Criticisms aside, the death penalty is well-supported by the U.S. public. All but twelve states currently impose the death penalty and almost three of four Americans polled support it (although almost half of African Americans oppose it). In 1999 alone, there were 98 executions, an increase of thirty percent from 1998.

In the political sphere, opponents of the death penalty are often derided as being "soft on crime," and all current major Presidential candidates publicly support capital punishment. Indeed, Presidential hopeful George W. Bush captured the Texas Governorship in part by promising more executions, and he dutifully kept his word: under five years of Bush's leadership, Texas has executed 119 people. In the past twenty-five years, the entire rest of the country has executed a little under 400.

Those on both sides of the issue present compelling statistics to support their arguments. Opponents of the death penalty decry the fact that for every seven people executed, one person on death row is found to be innocent. In addition, they cite evidence that suggests African Americans on trial for murder are four times as likely as Caucasians to be sentenced to death. Yet those supporting the death penalty note the correlation between the proliferation of executions in the 90s and the decade's dramatically shrinking crime-rate. So read on, and learn about both sides of the issue.