Adrian Northrup

Vote yes for this, vote no for that. what are the real issues? We’ve all seen the political ads and heard the rhetoric. On campus, we have representatives from both political parties chalking the sidewalks with uninformative commands.

But I’d like to inform the campus about one issue on the Nov. 7 ballot – the possible reinstatement of the death penalty.

The nonbinding ballot question will ask voters whether the state should bring back the capital punishment for first-degree, intentional homicide cases “if the conviction is supported by DNA evidence,” according to an Oct. 22 article in the Wisconsin State Journal. It’s basically a poll, since nothing will go into law from the results. It’s a political ploy to get conservative voters to ballot boxes.

Reinstating the death penalty is completely unnecessary.

Wisconsin was the first state to abolish capital punishment in 1853. Thirty-eight states still have the death penalty in their law books, yet its use has fallen in the last few years. The United States is also the only industrialized nation, besides Japan, to implement the death penalty.

Killing criminals is evidently a dying practice in the modern age.

Wisconsin would become the first state to add DNA requirements to capital punishment cases, if the measure passes and the Legislature follows the will of the people.

Tacking this prerequisite onto the question is misleading, since only 10 percent of murder cases have such evidence available. Timothy McVeigh, for example, was convicted and executed without DNA proof.

Labs have been known to make mistakes. Isn’t killing one innocent person worse than setting the guilty free? The death penalty leaves no room for error, and the courts are far from perfect.

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” is the Biblical saying. Yet that pro-death penalty argument is actually found in the Old Testament laws, which Christ annulled. Furthermore, Jesus teaches forgiveness over this very proverb in Matthew 5:38-42.

Do we really want to write revenge into our state constitution? It’s a dangerous idea for lawyers to get families of victims to give “impact statements” to juries by convincing them that getting revenge will make their lives easier. Two wrongs never make a right.

Some say implementing the death penalty protects society, since released criminals can re-offend. But sentencing murderers and rapists to life in prison, without parole, eliminates this risk.

Keeping criminals on death row, for 11 years on average, is more costly than a life sentence. Amnesty International found that states spend $2 million to execute a person, while it costs $800,000 to incarcerate someone for life.

Does living in a state with the ultimate punishment on its books deter violent crimes? To an extent, I’d agree with this argument, but most murders happen without time to think over the consequences of one’s actions. Plus, statistics show that states employing capital punishment actually experience higher murder rates.

As an advocate of human life – from unborn infants to convicted criminals – I believe in giving second chances. Rehabilitation and repentance by even the worst criminals is possible, so their right to life should not be compromised by a political agenda.

I am also leery of a proposal that does not take into consideration precedence and sound research. While recent state polls show the majority of Wisconsinites will vote “yes” on the death penalty question, I hope more citizens inform themselves before next week.