Legal Killing

Some might think I am anti death penalty based on the title of this post. I am not. I once was but no longer. Here is that story of why I no longer oppose it (originally posted in August of 2012). I am re-posting this because of the execution Thursday in Ohio of a man who raped, sodomized, and murdered a woman who was 8 months pregnant.


For much of my life, we (as a nation) have debated the efficacy, morality, and now the economics of the death penalty (hereafter referred to as DP). It's not a new tactic, the cost of death penalty sentence has been shown to be more expensive than a life without parole (LWOP) sentence. But, instead of that old argument, the new one argues how much more expensive it is to just prosecute a capital case than a case where the DP has been taken off the table.

I first ran into a DP opponent in junior high. One of the smartest kids I knew and his argument was solid. This was in 1960 and he used the Caryl Chessman case as his foundation. He forced me to read up on Chessman so that I could understand his position. He eventually convinced me to also oppose the DP. And I stayed opposed to it for many years.

At some point I changed my mind and began supporting it again. It was Robert Alton Harris who was my reason for a change of mind. Robert Alton Harris. Here's how Wiki describes his crime:

On July 5 [,1978], the Harris brothers happened upon John Mayeski and Michael Baker, both 16, sitting in a green Ford LTD eating hamburgers in a supermarket parking lot in Mira Mesa. Mayeski and Baker were best friends who had planned to spend the day fishing to celebrate Mayeski's newly acquired driver's license. Robert Harris commandeered Mayeski's car and ordered him to drive to Miramar Lake, with Daniel Harris following in another vehicle. Robert Harris told the boys that they would be using the vehicle to rob a bank, but that no one would be hurt. At Miramar Lake, the Harris brothers ordered the boys to walk away from the vehicle. While they were walking, Robert shot both boys multiple times. The Harris brothers then returned to Robert's Mira Mesa home and finished the victims' half-eaten hamburgers while Robert boasted about the killings.

I was living in San Diego at the time and it was big news. The murders were unknown at the time of the Harris brothers' arrest but soon came to light. The case was on everyone's lips, it seemed, for quite some time. The outrage was incredible. And I was caught up in it. I think the calmness of the Harris brothers immediately after the murders is what fed the outrage. It was a planned execution of two kids just so they could steal the car they were in.

Daniel Harris, I believe, testified against his brother and claimed he had no knowledge of his brother's intention to kill the two boys. He was sentenced to 6 years for kidnapping and was released in 1983.

Over the years since then, I have developed reasons for supporting the DP. The economic reasons for opposing it do not impress me.

The basic economic argument is that it costs, on average, $1.3 million more to prosecute a murder case where the DP is a possible sentence. What is behind the additional cost? The enhanced investigation and the increased oversight required, and the higher security measures for the trial as well as having two phases; main trial and sentencing trial.

But how many DP cases are tried each year? Good luck finding that number. When you research the DP online, you get a lot of data about executions and about the cost of carrying out that sentence vs life sentences but you will have an extremely difficult time getting a count of capital punishment cases each year in the U.S. I would like to see that, along with the number of convictions and DP sentences vs the number of acquittals and lesser sentences handed down. I would then like to learn how many potential DP cases were pleaded down to LWOP or less.

You see, I think the specter of the DP has an effect on murderers facing trial. An effect that gets them to plea bargain rather than take their chances with a trial. Unlike TV, the vast majority of murder cases are pretty clear cut. There's little mystery involved. The culprit (or culprits) are pretty much known early in the investigation. Only a handful or two are not clear cut.  In 2010, there were a total of 104 death sentences handed out nationwide. According to Wiki there were 12,996 intentional homicides in the U.S. in the most recent year for which data were available (incidentally Mexico, which does not have the DP, had over 25,000 murders).

I do not see studies covering this aspect. I understand why, though. It would undermine the economic arguments against the DP if it turned out the penalty induced a great number of plea bargains, thereby saving the state huge amounts of money for trials and appeals.


One other point I'd like you to consider: Do we do sloppier investigations and run sloppier trials for cases where we are not seeking the DP?