The state should lead by example with the death penalty

The death penalty is a divisive issue around with world, with some countries viewing it as necessary justice while others see it as the ultimate denial of human rights. Anna Martin says humane societies must find a better way to deal with crime.

Over the last few weeks, the death penalty has been making headlines: the Aurora cinema massacre is causing the state of Colorado to consider capital punishment (Colorado has executed just one person since 1976), while an Australian woman is facing a mandatory death sentence having been charged with drug trafficking in Malaysia.

I believe that no good can come from capital punishment.  On the contrary, it only contributes more suffering, violence and death to society.

Removing the arguments relating to the unfair application of the death penalty, I simply believe that under no circumstances is it justified to take the life of another human being as a form of punishment.  We  should not be so confident in a criminal justice system to allow a punishment with such finality.  We should never say to a fellow human being that he or she has nothing more to offer and should therefore be killed.  We must not punish an individual for a crime by committing the same act.

In 2006 I undertook a Reprieve Australia internship, which involved volunteering at a small, under-funded law office in Texas, assisting poor people facing the death penalty.  Over the last 10 years, Texas has been carrying out executions at a rate of one person every 2-3 weeks.  It was a busy office.

My work primarily consisted of compiling a client’s background information to present to the Court in mitigation for the rape and murder that he had committed.  I spent months filtering through document after document gradually gaining an insight into his life.  He became somebody's son, somebody’s father and somebody’s husband.  He had slipped through the cracks of an ineffective education system, a totally incompetent child welfare system and lastly, the deadly criminal justice system.  He was a poor, black, uneducated man with years of being the victim of sexual and physical abuse behind him and significant mental impairments – it was no surprise to me that he was on death row.  Sadly, most of our clients had much the same story.

While there is rarely any doubt that the actions of those facing the death penalty are wrong, it is important to pause and consider the possible causes of such behaviour, or at least, the contributing factors.  Crimes attracting the death penalty are very often crimes of desperation, whether it be capital murder in the United States or drug trafficking in Malaysia. They are not usually behaviours of rational, intelligent and mentally stable people who believe they have alternative options.
Even if there are no mitigating circumstances at all and a person is deemed not to have even one redeeming feature, still we should not take their life.

A humane and educated society must find a way to deal with people convicted of crimes that does not resort to execution.

 
Anna Martin is a Melbourne lawyer who completed a Reprieve internship at the Gulf Region Advocacy Center in Houston, Texas in 2006.  She has been involved with Reprieve Australia ever since and is currently Vice-President.  Prior to her admission to legal practice, Anna worked at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and studied in both London and Sweden.  She was also the Patrons Coordinator of the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival.