SAN FRANCISCO — Is it wrong for the state to murder its own citizens?
In the United States, the answer is no. If you're convicted of murder, capital punishment (as the death penalty is euphemistically called) is carried out by the state. This has been true since 1976; and a majority of people in the US today support it.
Why do so many people here favour this uncivilised act? It is not simply the "eye for an eye" belief (retribution) taught by the Christian bible. No, if revenge was the reasoning, not much could be said except that legal murder makes you morally equal to the person executed.
There is a more honest argument raised: that capital punishment will lead to fewer murders. However, abolitionists, like myself, can document how legal murder by the state has little to do with justice or deterrence. Illegal murderers don't sit around deciding whether to kill someone based on facing the ultimate punishment.
Morally, the death penalty is wrong. Practically, it accomplishes little more than to allay people's fear that convicted murderers could one day go free to kill again. Some pro-death politicians even say that it's better to kill them all and make one or two mistakes than to ban capital punishment.
The issue of legal murder by the state has become an issue in the US presidential election. New scientific and statistical evidence indicates that innocent people have been on death row. Most people in the US do not believe that an innocent person should be killed by the state.
Since 1976, a third of all executions in the US have occurred in the state of Texas. Some 133 people (at July 9) have been put to death under Governor George W. Bush.
Bush is the Republican Party presidential candidate. Al Gore, the US vice-president, is the Democratic Party presidential candidate. Both are strong supporters of capital punishment.
A disproportionate number of people on death row are African Americans and other minorities. In general, blacks and Latinos are convicted of crimes at a higher rate than whites.
The reason is racial profiling. Human Rights Watch, a privately financed group based in New York City, found in a recent study that black men are sent to state prison on drug charges at 13 times the rate of white men.
The June 10 Economist magazine noted that the death penalty (with some exceptions for treason) is banned in 108 countries. According to Amnesty International, in 1999 the US, China, Congo, Iran and Saudi Arabia accounted for 85% of the world's executions.
Since 1976, when the death penalty was reintroduced in the US, 642 people have been executed (as of July 9). Over the same period, 87 people on death row were exonerated. In some cases, the reprieve was hours before execution.
In 1999, 98 people were legally murdered. The death toll .Jthis year is expected to be more than 100. Texas alone is averaging one legal killing per week.
The federal government recently decided to postpone its first execution in nearly 40 years until new clemency procedures are developed. The last federal execution occurred when Democrat John F. Kennedy was president. The main reason for the postponement is the deepening anger about racial profiling and geographic disparities in punishment.
Of the 21 inmates facing federal death sentences, 17 are members of racial minorities; 13 are African Americans. The geographical disparities are also startling: 14 of the 21 inmates are from three states — Texas, Virginia and Missouri.
The July 7 New York Times reported: "Going back to 1988, the [US] attorney general has authorized the death penalty against 199 defendants, according to the death penalty project Federal Death Penalty Resource Project, an organization opposed to capital punishment. Three-fourths of these defendants have been members of minority groups, with 103 of them African-Americans, the project said."
The growing popular tide to change capital punishment began last January when Republican Governor George Ryan of Illinois announced a moratorium on executions until the state was able to get its house in order. A strong supporter of capital punishment, Ryan condemned the state's "shameful record of convicting innocent people".
The change of policy came after a local professor's journalism class exposed how innocent people were put in jail and on death row. Added pressure came from the promise of DNA testing.
Over the past decade, DNA technology has played an increasing role in correcting mistakes made by police, prosecutors and judges. One of the most famous cases involved Clyde Charles, who spent nine years persuading Louisiana courts to let him have the DNA test that eventually exonerated him. So far, only two states (New York and Illinois) require DNA testing.
As DNA testing reveals the innocence of death row inmates, it's not surprisingly that support for capital punishment is declining. It is now just 66%, and only 52% if "life without parole" is a sentencing option.
While Congress and the White House discuss allowing DNA testing and more funds to provide lawyers for the poor, the rise in death row inmates is directly tied to government policies. The Clinton administration drafted the anti-civil liberties Anti-terrorism and Death Penalty Reform Act, passed by Congress in 1996. That law allows secret evidence and sets shorter time limits for court appeals by death row inmates. It also cuts funding for legal aid centres in 20 states.
While the movement to abolish capital punishment remains small, the changing public views on DNA testing and racial profiling (although less so on the latter) means legal murder in the US can be slowed down.
BY MALIK MIAH