[FADPUpdate] UF Column on Florida DP

[MElliott3@aol.com]

Friends,

This Opinion column appeared in Friday's edition of The Independent Florida 
Gator, on.  I am passing it along because it is well-researched, thoughtful and 
Florida-specific.  It was written by Todd Portnowitz, a Junior at the 
University of Florida and weekly columnist for the Gator.  This article as well as 
other DP news is available at FADP.org "DP in the News".


Mark Elliott, Coordinator/Spokesperson
FADP - Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
(727) 215-9646
mark at fadp.org

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."
"The time is always right to do what is right."
Martin Luther King



Capital Punishment is Costly, Immoral

By TODD PORTNOWITZ
Witz's Wit

The word "capital" in capital punishment comes from the Latin for head, 
"caput." Capital punishment therefore refers directly to "losing your head." I 
think it's fair to say that any state government still enforcing capital 
punishment has indeed lost its head. 
One month ago, Gov. Jeb Bush signed another death warrant for convicted 
murderer Clarence Hill. Hill was supposed to be executed in January, but the 
Supreme Court stayed his execution. They ruled that Hill and others on death row had 
the right to challenge the use of lethal injection as a method of execution. 
Lethal injection has come under suspicion recently based on research done 
right here in the state of Florida, at the University of Miami. A UM study found 
that in 43 of 49 investigated cases, condemned prisoners did not receive 
enough sodium thiopental to induce a quick and effective state of unconsciousness. 
That means they were awake while being executed. 
Is that not cruel and unusual punishment? Besides, who gave us humans the 
right to take another human's life in the first place? 
I don't see where the popular support for capital punishment comes from. 
Eighty-eight countries have abolished capital punishment, whereas only 69 retain 
it. Of those 69 countries, 29 have not executed a condemned prisoner in the 
last 10 years. Clearly, the United States is lagging. 
America is a mostly Christian country. Isn't God's message to love 
unconditionally - even your enemies? Yes, in the Bible, God takes revenge countless 
times. But we are not God. 
How can one be pro-life and pro-death penalty at the same time? You may argue 
that a fetus is innocent, whereas a criminal is not. But how can we judge the 
nature and nurture that steered the course of a criminal's life with enough 
certainty to execute him? 
As much as capital punishment is a moral issue, it is also an economic one. 
The National Bureau of Economic Research estimates that between 1982 and 1997, 
the cost of capital punishment trials was $1.6 billion. 
Florida would save $51 million a year by punishing all first-degree murderers 
with life in prison. Capital trials are long and expensive - and in cases 
like Clarence Hill's, in which constant appeals burden the justice system, the 
cost of actually executing a condemned prisoner is outrageous. 
So why not save our tax dollars for education and address the problem of 
criminals at its foundation? 
Perhaps the most effective argument in favor of the death penalty is, "What 
if someone killed a person you love?" My answer is that I, of course, would go 
insane - meaning I would be in no place to make a sane decision regarding the 
criminal's life. 
We cannot, as sane voters, allow politicians like Jeb Bush to act as 
demigods, meting out life and death. With gubernatorial candidates Charlie Crist and 
Jim Davis - both supporters of capital punishment - running against each other 
in the upcoming election, there isn't much room to turn. 
But if we as voters want to see justice carried out with human decency - and 
our tax dollars put to good use - we're going to have to speak up. 
Todd Portnowitz is an English junior. His column appears on Fridays.