May 16, 2018
Page 13
O PINION
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The Death Penalty and the School Shooter
Why I don’t
want to see him
executed
l aura f inley
Martin Luther
King Jr. once
said, “The ulti-
mate
measure
of a man is not
where he stands
in moments of
comfort and convenience, but
where he stands at times of chal-
lenge and controversy.”
I’ve been thinking about that
quote a lot lately, and about the
importance of holding positions
that are particularly difficult. I
live not 30 minutes from Park-
land, Florida, where Nikolas Cruz
murdered 17 people at Marjorie
Stoneman Douglas High School
on Valentines Day.
Cruz left 17 others wounded
and devastated not just the school
but the entire community. Despite
the horrors that Cruz levied, I still
do not want to see him executed. I
universally oppose the death pen-
alty. That is not a particularly easy
position to hold right now, in this
case, but I believe it is the right
one. It is for me, at least.
I oppose the death penalty for
many reasons, but will highlight
just a few here, briefly. First, as
by
much as people want to believe,
no credible studies show it to be
a deterrent.
Second, it costs far more than
does incarcerating someone for
life without parole, money
that could be better used to
help victims and to support
violence prevention pro-
grams.
Third, it is rife with ra-
cial bias.The Death Penalty
Information Center reports
that 297 black defendants
people have been exonerated from
death row since 1973. Florida has
exonerated 27 individuals.
Sixth, a vast majority of the
people on death row have signifi-
cant mental issues, and a 2014 poll
showed that Americans oppose
executing the mentally ill more
than two to one.
But, perhaps most importantly,
I reject the death penalty because
it is morally repugnant. The state
should simply not have the right to
kill if we want to teach people that
...perhaps most importantly, I
reject the death penalty because it is
morally repugnant. The state should
simply not have the right to kill if we
want to teach people that killing is
wrong.
have been executed for killing a
white victim while only 31 white
murderers have been executed
for killing black individuals (and
black defendants are wrongfully
convictedat a rate seven times that
of white defendants).
Fourth, it is arbitrary, with
death sentences varying wildly
from county to county.
Fifth, we get it wrong way too
often and no one can fix a wrongful
execution. One hundred sixty-two
killing is wrong.
In the case of Cruz, his attor-
neys have offered that he would
plead guilty and accept multiple
life sentences with no chance of
parole in exchange for dropping
the capital charges. This would
ensure he cannot commit any oth-
er offenses, save taxpayer dollars,
and it would spare the families of
victims a long wait for a lengthy
and difficult trial, followed by
many years of appeals. By some
estimates, it could take 10 years
for Cruz to face trial and another
20 of appeals.
I don’t speak for all the victims
or their families, but at least some
have been on record saying they’d
prefer prosecutors to accept Cruz’s
guilty plea so they can move on.
Just like the case of Dylan Roof,
who received a death sentence for
the murder of nine African-Amer-
ican parishioners in South Caroli-
na in 2015, Cruz is clearly guilty
and there is no racial bias given
that he is Caucasian. So, some as-
sert the system “works” in these
cases. That is far from the truth.
Executing Cruz furthers a sys-
tem that is desperately broken
and that is, most often, not used
against people like him. Death
row is filled with poor, uneducat-
ed men of color and individuals
who suffer from serious mental
issues. Pretending that two sup-
posedly “slam dunk” cases fixes
the rot that is the death penalty is
no more accurate than announcing
success for saving one berry in a
moldy batch.
Yes, Cruz’s actions were hor-
rendous. Yes, the community is
still grieving. Adding one more
body to the list of fatalities can
hardly help, though.
Laura Finley, Ph.D., teaches in
the Barry University Department
of Sociology and Criminology and
is syndicated by PeaceVoice.
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