01/03/06 We Know Enough About Death Penalty

"Should the death penalty be enacted in the state of Wisconsin for cases involving a person who is convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, if the conviction is supported by DNA evidence?"

This is the question on the ballot for Nov. 7. In the past couple of months, I have been asked to speak several times as a lawyer and a minister about this issue. Here is what we know about the death penalty:

We know that the death penalty is constitutional. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the death penalty as it was then administered by states. In 1976, after states implemented legislative changes, the court reinstated the death penalty.

We know the death penalty is currently legal in 39 states.

We know the death penalty is administered in a variety of ways including lethal injection, the electric chair, the gas chamber, firing squad and hanging.

We know that in 1853 Wisconsin outlawed the death penalty.

We know the death penalty is ineffective in deterring crime. Studies comparing regions of the country have found that the South, in which most executions occur, has the highest murder rate. As a group, states that have the death penalty have a 42 percent higher murder rate than states that do not.

We know the death penalty is unpredictable. It varies from state to state, county to county, judge to judge, jury to jury, black to white and rich to poor.

We know the death penalty is profoundly racist. The majority of people currently on death row are either black or Hispanic. Also, in a process called "black victim discounting," people are three times more likely to be sentenced to death for killing a white person than for killing a black person.

We know the death penalty is not justified by traditional legal standards. The law allows the taking of a life in self-defense or defense of another when no other option is available. Since life without parole is an option, the self-defense justification does not apply to the deliberate decision of a state to choose death over the available option of life in prison.

We know the death penalty is contrary to Christian traditions. The Bible, of course, is used on both sides of this debate. But I think it is most helpful to look at God's own mercy toward three high-profile murders: Cain (Genesis 4:8-17), Moses (Exodus 2:11-15) and David (1 Samuel 11:1-21). Also, given Jesus' love for the poor and oppressed, it is hard to believe that he would abandon those on death row.

We know that the death penalty kills innocent people. Since 1973, over 115 innocent people in 25 states have been released from death row.

I think most people know all this. They know that the death penalty is ineffective, racist and unpredictable, and kills innocent people.

But many people still support the death penalty because they think some crimes are so terrible that the people who commit them deserve to die and that we can fix the problems in the system.

They believe that we are smart enough to find a system that ensures we will be safer, that will be predictable, that will eliminate the current racist imbalance, and that will guarantee that an innocent person will never be put to death.

But there is one more thing we know. We know that for the past 30 years we have tried and failed to find a fair way to implement the death penalty. After all that time we are left with an ineffective, racist, unpredictable system that kills innocent people.

What is obvious is that any fair system for killing people in the name of the state of Wisconsin is simply beyond our capacity to design.

As a minister, I would not presume to tell you how to vote on this issue. I will tell you that to believe that the death penalty can be used in a way that is fair and foolproof is sinful human arrogance.

\ The Rev. Jerry Hancock is director of the Prison Ministry Project at First Congregational United Church of Christ and is an attorney who formerly worked for the Wisconsin Department of Justice.