Introduction
Death penalty is also referred to as the capital punishment and involves the executions of offenders through a judicial process. Historically, only capital offenders are liable for such punishments. Among the crimes identified as capital offences include murder, treason and espionage offences. In some countries, rape, adultery and incest can result to a death sentence. In Islamic nations, religious crimes such as apostasy amount to capital offence and are punishable by death. Capital punishment has continuously been criticized since it is viewed as a violation of human rights. According to the international human rights commission, every human being is entitled to life, death penalty is therefore seen as a violation of the same.
This paper will seek to launch a comprehensive campaign for the abolition of death penalty in the US judicial systems. An in depth description of the capital punishment will be undertaken in this paper. Some of the critical techniques which can be used to champion the motion in the US community and also in the political arena will be exhaustively dealt with. In addition, the paper will address some of the stages which the legislation will be passed before they can be enacted as law.
The US death penalty history
Death penalty statistics can be traced back in the year 1930 when 54% of the executed people were black and approximately 45% had white ancestry background. A total of approximately 3,900 persons were executed between 1930 & 1967. These numbers included the non-military members who were sentenced under the US civil jurisdiction. The majority of the persons executed during this periods came from the southern region of the United States. To be more specific the state of Georgia registered the highest number of people being executed followed by Texas, New York, California, and North Caroline in that order. In the late 1960s almost all states had authorized the implementation of capital punishment, even though delays were observed as many activists pressurized against the death penalty. Before the moratorium on executions in 1967 an average of 125 persons were executed each year. Years 1967 through to 1972 were marked by increased pressure to the Supreme Court to abolish capital punishment as it was a cruel punishment which violated individual rights to life. Inmates exceeding 600 who were then serving death sentence had their sentence lifted because of Furman activities.
The laws which Furman managed to have them amended were divided into two, the first one was the guided discretion laws which advocated for two stages. The first trial was to determine whether the defendant was guilty or not and the second trial was to aggravate the situation and was applicable at the discretion of the judge and the jury. This was the case in Texas, George and Florida. The other law provided for mandatory death penalty and was applicable for certain specific crimes. In this case the decision jury and judges had no discretion in the determination of the guilty status of the defendant. The pressure heavily mounted into the judicial system and consequently the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.
A long period passed without capital punishment in the United States and it was not until January 1977 when executions resumed (Bedau, 1998, 9.34). The Supreme Court refined some of the death sentence laws. It was in the same year that the court declared death punishment in rape cases unconstitutional. Quite a good number of convicts escaped death row after this amendments. The high court forced some states to consider revising their death punishment laws and instead find other crime mitigating ways which could be used to punish the offenders. Such application was successful in Ohio. Regardless of the growing opposition on the constitutionality of the death penalty laws many states have reinstated capital sentence in the statutes.
A good example is New York which enacted its death law in 1995. Since the reinstatement of death penalty law in the US in 1977, approximately 1,150 persons have been executed as at December 2008. In the resent periods juries are proportionately reducing the number of persons being sentenced to death. The capital crime rate has also reduced significantly in the resent years. The year 2007 has been marked by many changes where the Supreme Court extended a ruling which confined the death penalty to reflect the community conscience. According to the court a significant proportion of people view the punishment as unjust and similar to murder. A good number also separates them from serving the capital cases since it contravenes with their moral beliefs.
Campaign against capital punishment
Since the mid 1930s death penalty has received a lot of criticisms from human rights activists who view it as unconstitutional. The same pressure against the death penalty laws continued, the 1967 Furman case marked a turn around for the activist efforts. During this period Furman fully and exhaustively convinced the Supreme Court why the punishment was unjust means towards crime corrections. Many states that were practicing the death penalty laws were forced to delay some of the executions scheduled to be undertaken. The increased opposition and pressure towards death law made it practically impossible for many states to implement the punishment among its inmates. As a result the sentence was held until 1977 when the executions resumed. In the resent years Amnesty international has exerted more pressure towards death punishment. According to them this form of punishment violates the human rights something which should be discouraged and prevented at all cost. There have been an increased allegations that many innocent Americans are killed through executions something which ought to end.
The AI Nepal sponsors a program which aims to campaign against the death sentence across the world. The campaign is marked on the 10th of October every year and the AI Nepal chooses the country in which the campaign should be launched. The program has already established to start with the countries which registers the highest number of executions. Countries in the Middle East, Pakistan, china and the US have been viewed as the leading nations in terms of conducting executions on the death sentence convicted criminals as per the 2008 amnesty International records. The program has mainly been directed to the above mentioned nations as a move to advocate the abolition of capital punishment in those states. According to the amnesty international the abolition of capital punishment will help fight against economic violence and racial biasness which have all along dominated the country’s residents. The campaigners termed the punishment as an irreversible denial of human rights which needs to be scrubbed off from the judicial system. The United States is alleged to execute people with mental illness as well as other conditions such as schizophrenia and delusions, something that is not only prohibited by the international law but also by the nearly all countries in the world. The campaign which is led by grassroots activists from all over the USA states assist through case monitoring and events mobilization as well as lobbying for the introduction of the anti-death punishment legislations.
So far the grassroots campaigners have managed to convince the US Supreme Court to give Troy Davis a fresh hearing in order to determine his innocence. Troy Davis had earlier been sentenced to death by the federal district court in Savannah. There is solidarity among the members who vowed to remain tuned and updated on the pending case in order to ensure justice sustainability. There are much mobilization efforts which are directed towards making death penalty unconstitutional across the world (Bedau & Cassell, 2005, p.77).
The human right watch also greatly oppose the constitutional legalization of the death penalty not only in the USA but also to all nations in the world. This is because the move violates human rights. According to the organization other punishment modes should be used instead. Although the law breakers need to be punished they are still human beings and therefore no one is entitled to deprive them their right to live. It is also equally important to ensure that these criminals transform and be of use to the nation instead of eliminating them through executions. The abolition of the death penalty in the USA will increase the nation’s power in engaging other nations which are highly affected by the extra judicial killings. For example the latest report by the human right watch of the massacre and rapes committed by the security forces in Guinea (Bloody Monday, 2009).
How to introduce the issue in the political process
Since the anti-death penalty legislation is hardly acceptable to all political leaders, strategic measures can be employed in order to guarantee the success of the legislature. A well written legislation proposal should be drafted and tabled in the US senate. The legislation should contain all the material facts of why the constitutional Act which legalizes the capital punishment should be amended. All the legal backings should be incorporated well in the proposal in order to clear any legal inconsistencies.
In order to successfully introduce the death penalty campaign in the political arena, close political connections will be required. The anti-death campaign activists should hold conferences aimed at educating the political leaders on the needs to come up with legislations to address the issue. The influential political leaders should be fully sensitized on the issue as they will further push the same to other political representatives in the senate. In addition some of the key political leaders in the USA can be used to influence the political process which could further see the success of the bill in the senate. Such people include the current US president Barrack Obama, former president Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice.
The above people’s political influence in the US is highly ranked and therefore winning their support can be a great step towards achieving a positive legislation. Having the support of them can significantly influence the senate decision thus making it easier for the legislation enactment. It is therefore important to ensure that the senior marked political leaders understand and acknowledge the importance of such measures in the judicial system. Similarly other respectable persons can be used to assist the adoption and enactment of the anti-death penalty legislation in the political arena. One good example of such persons is Oprah Winfrey who has managed to have excellent and substantial influence both in the USA social and political arena.
Using such characters in the campaign against the death punishment laws can be of great help since they greatly influence the majority of the American people. The required signatories can be easily obtained through cooperation with such people as they have large followers who believe in them. Since the US political government is not run in a vacuum, the incorporation of other international organizations such as the United Nations and Amnesty International can offer great boost in the enactment of the anti-death penalty legislation. This is because the decisions of such bodies matters not only in the USA government but throughout the world. The grassroots campaigners for the abolition of death penalty in the US should therefore fully and extensively connect themselves with such international bodies since this will help improve their political influence.
How to champion the issue through campaigns
It is important to understand that the issue will have both the supporters and the non-supporters. Proper measures should therefore be employed in order to identify the affected people and also try educating those opposing the move so that they can equally understand the reason behind the campaign. Since the young population bracket is the heavily affected group, proper campaign should be directed towards them. Because the execution greatly hampers the lives of the women who are left without husbands after the unjust condemnation, there is need of including them in the campaign. The recruitment of the campaigning team should be initiated from the lower grassroots level to the highest national level in order to ensure a well balanced membership in the team. A national body should be established with representatives from all over the states in the USA, and the body should be entrusted in the running of all activities in the entire region. The body should seek funding from the government and international organizations in order to facilitate their operations. Seminars, conferences and open air meetings should be used to air the grievances of the people.
The body should also select few legal representatives in order to address the already inflicted persons. The national body should focus at moving around all the states in order to advocate their presence and objectives to the American people. Conferences chaired by some selected influential political leaders can be used in order to win the support of people at the local levels. The political, legal and social elites should also be used in the campaign so as to exhaustively clear any questions that the public may have on the meeting agendas. The posters and billboard campaign should be utilized as many supporters will be captured through them. Peaceful demonstrations should also be undertaken in order to sensitize the public the weight of the issue. The campaign message should be clear in order not to be mistaken by the general public. Reasons why the punishment should be abolished and the alternative forms of punishment which should be used to replace it should be addressed. This is because some people might major on the objective to launch campaign countering the same. They may convince the public that the campaign’s objective is to see all the criminals set free without having to pay for their crime, which is not the case.
It is therefore important to take great care when airing the views of the group in order to avoid being misquoted. The campaign should also see to it that the guilty and convicted criminals are fully punished for their crimes. Life sentence should be used in punishing such individuals.
The campaigning team should also use the media such as radio and television program in their efforts toward promoting the team’s agenda. The reason why such medium should be used is because quite a good number of populations can be reached through radio and television. A discussion talk should be scheduled in radio programs where the team’s agenda could be exhaustively addressed for the listeners. The listeners should then be given chance to raise their views as they will enable the team get the actual feedback from the affected communities and parties. The donated funds should then be used to meet the advertisement bills.
The campaigning team should also think of capturing support from the local public universities in the region. This is because the institutions hold huge young population in them, people who are significantly affected by the issue. By so doing the team will have an increased influence in the political, economic and social affairs since the graduated students will absorbed in those sectors. The inclusion of the elite population will also boost the team campaign as proper organization of speeches and events will be observed.
The congressional committee to address the issue
The proposed legislation should be tabled through the Senate Committee on the Judiciary which comprise of nineteen members and is under the leadership of Senator. Patrick Leahy. The bill was earlier introduced to the committee and have already undergone through the first two stages, additional information need to be added in the newly created bill in order to further support the bill as obtained in govtrack.us (2009). According to the committee files, the S.650: Federal death penalty abolition Act of 2009 was introduced in March 19th 2009 and so far the bill is yet to be reported by the committee as at November 14th 2009. Since the reporting stage is the most crucial stage, more sensitization to the committee members needs to be done. After the reporting stage the bill will be open for discussion in the senate upon which voting will be done in order to approve it. If the bill succeeds through the senate it will proceed to the congress where final amendments will be done. The final voting will be done in the house after which the bill will wait for the president’s assent. It will be later be publicized in the national gazette and be enacted as law in the United States.
Additional legislation in the newly created draft
The draft should consist some of the latest approved statistics from the Amnesty International and Human Right Watch. Such statistics will enable the concerned parties to make wise and sober decisions on the issue. It will also assist them to get some of the clear and updated effects of the innocent killings both within the USA boundaries and in the world at large.
The new bill should also establish some of the impacts that the USA enactment of the bill will cause to the rest of the world. This is considering the influential position that the country possesses to the rest of the world. It is also important to expand the sentence definition to include the forces or military and the police killings in the world. This is because such killings have been on the rise in the resent times and violates the human rights to life (Hood, 2002, p. 25). A proper legislation should be enforced to govern both the military and the police force in the region. The law will help reduce the extra judicial killings that are undertaken by the security forces in the name of fight against terrorism.
Conclusion
The abolition of death penalty in the United States of America will not only act as a means towards upholding human rights but will also act as a good example to the rest of nations, which still exercise the act. In addition it will add discipline to the security forces that is the military and the police force. In my own opinion the move will act as an example to the current and future generations which will be cautioned before making any unjust and cruel laws. The enactment of the legislation will ensure the consistency between the US federal constitution and the international human rights. It will also approve the US greatness as the nation’s law will be used by the rest of the world.
References
Bedau, A.H. (1998). The death penalty in America: current controversies. New York
Oxford University Press US. 2009, Web.
Bedau, A.H. & Cassell, G. P. (2005). Debating the death penalty: should America have capital punishment? : The experts on both sides make their case. New York, Oxford University Press US. Web.
Bloody Monday. (2009). Human right watch. Web.
Govtrack.us. S.650: Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2009. Web.
Hood, G. R. (2002).The death penalty: a worldwide perspective. New York, Oxford University Press. Web.