In this country, people have different views on the death penalty. Some favor it and others are against it and believe we should get rid of it. United States citizens are even more touchy when it comes to women and the death penalty. If you ask any American today if they had to choose between death or life imprison for a women they would most likely say life in prison. People in this country are afraid to give awomen the death penalty.
The first thing that most people think of when they hear the death penalty is who is the next guy who is the one to be executed. No one ever thinks that it is going be a women who is death row. Most people don�t think of women as violent people. Recent history has proven that statement wrong. An recent example of this is Susan Smith. Smith drowned her two children when she let them and her car roll into a lake in 1994. This case opened the eyes of many Americans and they began to see that women are capable of killing too.
Since the first case death penalty case in 1632, only 514 out of 20,000 case executions have been carried out. Out of those 20,000 cases, only 400 hundred of the cases had women as the defendant. 27 women out of those 400 case were charged with witch craft. The number of women charged with death in comparison to men is around one out of every fifty. (Grossman, 269) Because of these figures it is easy to see why most people don�t think of women when they hear about the death penalty.
In the United States 37 states have the death penalty. Washington D. C. and 12 states in the U.S. don�t have the death penalty. Those states are: Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. (http://www.geocities.com/ CapitolHill/8169/)
A big debate in the 37 states that have the death penalty is whether it is cheaper to execute someone or is it cheaper to put them in jail for life without the parole. Many people who oppose the death penalty say that it is cheaper to keep someone in jail for life then it is to put them to death. In one article it cost $1.2 million - $3.6 million more to keep a prisoners in jail for life then to put them to death. The annual cost to keep someone in jail in 1995 was $24,000/yr for an average cell and $75,000/yr for a maximum security cell. (http://www. rit.edu/~wwl2461/cp/html) Being most life without parole prisoners are in jail for an average of 30 years that would cost tax payers $2,250,000 for those 30 years in a maximum security cell. ($720,000 for the 30 years in a average cell) And that cost does not include the cost for appeals. As I see it in the long run it cost more to keep someone in jail for life then it does to put them to death.
Another factor that has to be considered when decided which cost more death or prison is the annual increases. Annual cost increase because:
Increase in prison cost, this includes judicial decisions regarding the conditions of prisons and the inflation rate, medical costs, including geriatric care related to the life without parole sentence, injury or death due to violence, injury or death caused by other inmate, the risk of escape, and the fear by politicians that a violent inmate will be released into society. (http://www.rit.edu/~ww;2461/cp/html)
The death penalty in this country is very sexist. On the average the ratio of men to women who are on death row and who are executed is 68:1 (3400:50). In this country alone in the years between 1976-94, men committed seven times as many murders as women did, a ratio of 7:1. (http://www2.jfa.net.jfa/DP.html) From the ratio you can infer that men are more likely to commit a murder in this country then a women is. Many people in this country might think that at least six or seven women have been executed since 1976 but in reality only 3 have been.
A very small number of women are even prosecuted with the possibility of death if convicted. The few that are prosecuted with the possibility of death usually end up with sentences of life. The first women to be executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 was Velma Barfield. Barfield was executed in North Carolina on November 2, 1984. She was charges with killing her husband by putting ant and roach poison in his drink before they attended a religious revival. It was later discovered that she had killed four other people: a husband, her mother and two people she took care of while they were ill.
On February 3, 1998, in Texas Karla Faye Tucker was the next women to be executed. Tucker and her boyfriend murdered her ex-lover and his new girlfriend with a pick ax. (http://www.courttv.com/ casefiles/tucker/background.html) The third women to be executed since 1976 is Judias Buenoano on March 30, 1998. in Florida. Buenaono was convicted of killing her husband by using arsenic. She committed the murder for insurance money. Buenoano also killed her son and tried to kill a fianc�. She was also the suspect in the 1978 killing of a boyfriend. (http://www.derechos.net/amnesty/ dp/98/judibuen.html) For a complete list of the all 31 women who have been executed in this country see Table 2. (Grossman, 269) Only 31 women have been put to death in this country. Since 1977 only three out of the 440 executions have been women. (Grossman, 269) That is a very small percent. Women in this country have been put to death in four ways: hanging, electrocution, the gas chamber and lethal injection. Electrocution is the most used way of executing women. Of the 31 women put to death 19 have been by electrocution, five by hanging, five by gas chamber and two by lethal injection.
The electric chair was first used in 1890 in New York State. It is a wooden chair with some metal parts. It has two legs in the back and only one in the front. The condemned is strapped into the chair with leather straps and has a piece of material placed over his/her head. The final words are read to the condemned prisoner while all the connections are check. When everything is checked and is OK then the executioner throws the switch sending approximately 2,000 volts through the condemns body. The prisoner dies instantly. (Grossman, 81-83)
The oldest form of execution is hanging. For this form of execution, the condemned is forced to walk onto a platform constructed from wood with a trap door. The prisoners hands are tied behind his/her back and the persons legs are also tied together to prevent from kicking. A rope or cord is placed around the neck of the condemned. The rope is a thick rope to prevent it from braking and has several knots in it. A hood is placed over the head and the hangman pulls a lever opening the trap door. The victim falls to his/her death and dies instantly from their neck snapping. The person sometimes would be hung from a tree or lamppost if a gallows was not constructed or the execution was a homicide. (Grossman, 111-112) The next form of execution is the lethal injection. This form of execution was first used in 1982. The prisoner is strapped down on a gurney and wheeled into the death chamber. An intravenous needle is inserted into the prisoners vein, usually in the arm. Next a tube is connected to the needle and is hooked up to a small machine. The machine has three vials of solution: sodium pentothal, pancuronium chloride and potassium chloride. The chemicals are drained into the body one at a time. Once the third chemical reaches the body death is almost instantaneous. (Grossman, 153-154)
One recent example of a death penalty case involving a women is the Susan Smith case. Susan Smith killed her two young sons by letting them drown in John D. Long Lake. On October 25, 1994, Susan Smith tried to kill herself and her two children, Michael, 3 years old and Alex , 14 months, after receiving a letter from the man she was in love with saying that things would be great between them if she didn�t have kids. He didn�t want kids and that was the major problem he had with her.
Susan Smith came from a troubled childhood. At the age of six, Smiths parents divorced and just one month later her father committed suicide. Her mother remarried a man who began to molest Susan at the age of 15. When Susan�s mother found out about the molestation she confronted her husband and he did not deny that it happened. The family sought counseling but no charges where ever filed against the step-father. After Susan graduated from Union High School in 1989 she went to work at a Winn-Dixie where she meet David Smith. On March 15, 1991, Susan and David were married. At the time of the marriage Susan was already two months pregnant with their first child Michael. Two years later in 1993, Susan gave birth to their second son Alex. (Newsweek, 20-21)
Around the time Alex was born the marriage between Susan and David began to fall apart. Then in 1994, Susan filed for divorce alleging that David had committed adultery. Not long after Susan filed for the divorce so did David alleging the same thing. At this time Susan�s life was beginning its downward spiral. According to Susan�s psychologist, she had admitted to having sexual relations with four different men in 1994. These men where: Bev Russell (her step- father), her husband David, Tom Findlay and Tom�s father Cary (Cary has never admitted to the affair with Susan). (Newsweek, 21)
Susan�s sexual relations began at a very young age. The molestation by her step-father, which Bev Russell says continued after Susan turned 18 years old (http://www.teleplex.net/SHJ/smith/ ninedays) and it even continued through her marriage to David. (Newsweek, 21) Susan also had sexual relations with one of the store managers at the Winn-Dixie that she work at after high school. The manager was transferred to another store when the relationship was discovered. In early 1994, Susan became involved with Tom Findlay, the son of the owner of Conso Inc., a company that makes interior decorating products. Smith had gotten to know Findlay when she went to work for his father as his assistant to his executive assistant. The two soon began a relationship that lasted unit October 1994.
In mid October, Findlay invited Smith to a hut-tub party at his fathers house. At the party Smith became jealous because Findley was messing around with another women so she started flirting with other men. This angered Findlay and he decided to end the relationship with Smith. He wrote a �Dear Jane� letter to Susan which tore her apart. For the next several days Susan and Findlay spoke in highly emotional conversations with the last conversation being in person on October 25 at the Conso plant. (Newsweek, 22-23)
After the meeting at Conso, Susan drove to John D. Long Lake. According to Susan �I felt I couldn�t be a good mom anymore but I didn�t want my children to grow up without a mom. I felt that I had to end our lives to protect us all from any grief or harm.� (http://www. teleplex.net/SHJ/smith/ninedays) Susan said she tried to drive into the lake twice but stopping both times. After the second time she got out of the car and stood by it. Next thing Susan knew her children where going into the lake without her. (http://www.teleplex.net/SHJ/ smith/ninedays)
At approximately 9 p.m. that night Susan appeared at the house of Rick McCloud of 4460 Lockhart Highway. She told McCloud that a �Black man wearing a plaid shirt, jeans and a toboggan-type hat, in his late 20�s-early 30�s had stolen her car with her two small children inside.� She said that she was at a traffic light and this man jumped in her car and told her to drive. He made her get out of the car in front of McClouds house and told her that he would take care of the kids. (http://www.teleplex.net/SHJ/smith/ninedays)
The Smith�s made an appeal to the entire nation to look for their children. For nine days the entire country looked for Michael and Alex with no signs of them or Susan�s 1990 burgundy Mazda Protege, license plate GBK167 anywhere. Susan made the story so believable that no one started to doubt her story for nine days. On November 3, Susan admitted to killing her two children. She told the police how she allowed her car to go down in John D. Long Lake with the boys strapped in their car seats. The news that Susan had killed her children out of rejection from a lover shocked the nation. Who would have thought that a mother could kill her own children. Not only was the nation shocked at Smith�s admission they were also outraged. People realized just how easy it was for someone to lie and for us all to believe it.
Susan Smith was charged with murdering her two children. Because this was a case of double homicide the prosecutor of South Carolina decided to seek the death penalty. During the trial the jury heard testimony from family members, men Susan had affairs with and physchologist. In the end the jury decided that yes, Susan Smith was guilty of killing her two young children. The next thing that they had to decide what Smiths sentence. The jury had to choose between life in prison or death by electrocution. At the beginning of the deliberations the jury was 11-1 in favor of life but it didn�t take long for the loner to change the vote to make in 12-0 in favor of life. (Newsweek, 23)
Susan Smith received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole in 30 years. That means Smith will be eligible for parole in 2025. The Smith family was not happy with the life in prison verdict but David Smith said �I�ll see that she stays in prison as long as possible. I want to see that life means life for Susan.� (http://www. teleplex.net/SHJ/ smith/ninedays)
The Susan Smith case disturbed me because I found it hard to believe that a mother could kill her two kids because of a guy. I know that as far as my mother is concerned she would never give me and my sister up because a man she was having a relationship with said he didn�t want children. Most mothers do everything in their power to protect their children. When I was involved in a serious car accident nine months ago and spent two weeks in the hospital my mother was there every night to make sure I was OK and bring me anything I needed. I couldn�t imagine my mother not being there for me to help me through that hard time in my life. So in my eyes how could a mother kill the two people that she brought into the world.
In the United States today the feelings on the death penalty are split. You always here people arguing for both side. In my opinion I feel that the death penalty is a good thing. I am not saying that everyone who kills someone should get the death penalty. But in certain instances yes they should receive death for their crime. For instance, if someone kills another person in the act of self defense no they should get the death penalty. But if the person kills another person in cold blood and has no remorse for it yes I totally believe that they should receive the death penalty.
The only problem I see with the death penalty as it stands now is that it takes to long for someone to actually have their sentence carried out. I understand that the convict has the right to appeal but I think the number of appeals should be limited. In some cases, the appeals process could last for up to 15 years. In my view that just isn�t right. Some of the appeals for death penalty cases that I have read or heard about have been over little things that are basically just trying to keep the prisoner ali ve longer. Appeals like those should not be allowed.
When I went into senior capstone I was in favor of the death penalty but really didn�t understand it completely. After all the discussions about it an d presentations about people who have received the death penalty I am even more in favor of it now but I know why more then I knew before. The death penalty is a part of the legal system that helps to punish people for their crimes. If the United States got rid of the death penalty I think that more people would commit violent crimes, like murder, because they know that the toughest punishment they would get would to spend the rest of their life in jail.
In the United States many people feel that the punishment should fit the crime as long as the person being punished is not a women. Most people would not give a women the death penalty. Charles David Smith, David Smith�s father, believes that people are cowards because they will not give a women the death penalty. In my opinion I would have to agree with that. As history has shown only three women have been put to death in the United States since 1976. If people were not scared to give a women the death penalty I think more women would have been executed since 1976.
Women and the Death Penalty, part2
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