What if Arizona repealed the death penalty?
A botched execution in Oklahoma, following similar incidents in Ohio and Florida, reignited the debate on capital punishment.
We asked two experts: What if Arizona repealed the death penalty?
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REPEALING WOULD BE POSITIVE
Pope Francis has done an excellent job of reminding the world to respect the human life and dignity of each person. He realizes that there are many injustices today and that we are called to halt them wherever possible.
Like other parts of the world, Arizona is not immune from the prevailing cultural influences devaluing respect for human life from the moment of conception until natural death.
Every day, large numbers of innocent lives are snuffed out through abortion and euthanasia. But the execution of the guilty through the death penalty does not help to overcome a culture of death. The way we treat criminals says a lot about the value we give to every human person.
There are certainly significant differences between the taking of an innocent human life, which is intrinsically evil and can never be justified, and the use of capital punishment for a convicted murderer. Nonetheless, they are both harmful to the fabric of a culture that easily forgets that all life is a gift of God.
If Arizona were to repeal the death penalty, it would be a positive step forward in promoting a culture of life and it would benefit us by strengthening the moral tone and texture of our society.
Having said that, let us never forget to pray for all those involved with such cases: certainly for the victims of violent crimes and their families, but also for the forgiveness and conversion of criminals.
The Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted is bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix.
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NO JUSTIFICATION IN REPEAL
Other than ending one debate and appeasing opponents of capital punishment, there is not much to justify repealing the death penalty. We would not see reduced criminal justice system costs nor diminished litigation. Defendants would simply shift from trying to avoid a death sentence to seeking to avoid a life sentence.
Defendants would use the same arguments and experts to advocate against life sentences and object to incarceration for the rest of their lives. There would be no cost savings for litigation because defendants would have all the time necessary to file motions attacking their convictions and sentences as they do now.
We would have to deal with dangers of increased inmate violence since no matter how brutal their crime(s), "the worst of the worst" would no longer be necessarily segregated on death row from the general population.
Families of murder victims would receive discounted justice for the taking of their loved ones. Repealing would also trigger calls to adjust the rest of our sentencing terms downward to "realign" with the new, lesser ultimate punishment.
The result would be shortened incapacitation of violent offenders, an overall weakened deterrent effect from our sentencing laws, decreased public safety and a reversal of the decline in violent crimes over the past three decades.
How about another what if: what if we reduced the time and expense of imposing the death penalty for a more swift, sure and certain sentence?
Bill Montgomery is Maricopa County attorney.