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Death Penalty
Hawkins Supports Abolishment of Death Penalty |
Howie Hawkins supports the abolishment of the death penalty at the federal and state level. Hillary Clinton supports the death penalty.
The death penalty is not only immoral, it is ineffective, failing to defer crime and murder. It has been applied in a racist manner. The death penalty is also enormously expensive for taxpayers, costing New Yorkers at least $170 million in the last nine years. It is also often applied to far too many innocent defendants.
The death penalty has become a growth industry worldwide after 9/11. Amnesty International reports that in 2003, 1,146 people were executed, primarily in the United States, China, Iran and Vietnam. Death row became even more crowded in 2003, with 2,756 condemned to die. While most democratic countries have outlawed the death penalty, since 9/11 countries like India, Indonesia and the Philippines have been threatening to revive the death penalty. One of Iraq's first "independent decisions" was to re-impose the death penalty.
New York's death penalty was recently ruled unconstitutional – again – by the courts.
New York has sent more innocent persons to their death than any other state. Twenty nine New Yorkers were erroneously convicted in potentially capital cases, and eight have been wrongfully executed. Since the death penalty was reinstated nationally in 1976, 101 men and women have been exonerated from Death Row. One death row inmate is found innocent for every seven executed.
The death penalty has also been applied in a racist manner. Of the last 19 people executed in New York, 14 were African American, one Hispanic. Nationally, a person accused of killing a White person is 4.3 times more likely to receive the death sentence than an individual accused of killing a Black person.
The death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime. A FBI study shows that states which have abolished the death penalty had lower murder rates (by about 50%) than states which have not. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1995 in New York, the homicide rate has risen significantly in Rochester, where the death penalty often has been sought, and fallen dramatically in Manhattan, where a death sentence never has been sought.
A majority of New Yorkers support alternatives to the death penalty. In a poll released by Quinnipiac University in March 2003, people in New York favor life without parole over the death penalty by 53% to 38%.
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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