One defendant kills a victim in the midst of a robbery and gets the death sentence.
Another defendant kills two people in a fit of drunken rage and gets life in prison.
Why did one man get death and the other life imprisonment?
What is the real difference between the death sentence and life in prison?
The death sentence in America gets it start all the way back with the first settlers in
the 17th century.
Back then hanging was the most popular form of execution, and the event would draw quite
a crowd.
People would dress in their best fineries to attend an execution, and a condemned criminal
might follow suit as well.
Of course, the condemned may also choose to dress in rags so that the hangman would be
cheated of his prize- the now dead felon's clothing.
Following the common ideology of the time, public executions were meant to not just serve
justice, but act as a deterrent.
In England, where they made execution the default penalty for a shockingly high number
of crimes, it wasn't enough to simply hang the condemned.
Their bodies would then often be put on display, in an effort to deter other criminals.
Today we have the data to prove that tough punishments do nothing to deter crime- even
if people don't want to believe it- and crime actually increased during the times England
attempted to deter it the most with grisly displays of 'justice'.
Here in the United States though there would be no public display of corpses for months
on end.
Instead, a trial would be held almost immediately after apprehension, so that the memory of
the crime in the local community wouldn't fade.
Then a gallows would be erected as close to the actual scene of the crime as possible,
where throngs of people could gather.
A sermon would be delivered, usually followed by a final statement from the condemned.
Then, the execution was on and within minutes the condemned was dead.
Much unlike their colonial masters, the early Americans actually placed great emphasis on
limiting the use of the death penalty.
Clemency would be shown in cases of good personal character, youth, or extenuating circumstances
surrounding the crime committed.
Governors and other local leaders would also often intervene on the behalf of the condemned
in the case of overzealous judges or harsh laws.
At the same time back in England, children were regularly put to death for the act of
stealing food.
After the successful revolutionary war, the death penalty was abolished for most of the
lesser crimes that English law still assigned it.
Most of the new states would choose to exercise the death penalty only for murder, though
even back then a budding movement for the complete abolishment of the death penalty
was already growing.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, in the south the number of crimes the death penalty could be issued
for was increased for crimes committed by slaves.
The creation of state prisons, or penitentiaries, led to an increased investment in reforming
criminals rather than simply attempting to deter crimes by punishment.
Penitentiaries were exactly that- places criminals were meant to go and repent of their crimes.
They also allowed the authorities to put an end to the public spectacle of executions,
instead holding them in private inside the walls of a penitentiary.
Entering into the 20th century, the United States was slowly becoming one of the most
progressive countries in the world in the use of the death penalty, reserving it for
only the most heinous crimes.
Often, even then criminals were likely to receive life imprisonment over the death penalty.
A strong desire for more humane executions also led to experimenting with the process
of taking life.
Hangings had been popular for hundreds of years, and were considered very humane- but
hangings could, and often did, go terribly wrong.
For starters, a proper hanging required the precise calculation of an individual's height
and weight- down to the pound.
The goal of a good hanging was to have the individual fall through the trap door and
have their neck broken by the thick rope, thus bringing nearly instant death.
Without precise measurements of height and weight, a hanging would go very wrong.
If the rope was too short, the condemned would not build the velocity needed to physically
snap their neck.
They would be left to dangle and kick helplessly, sometimes for up to ten minutes as they slowly
choked to death.
If the rope was too long however, the individual might achieve too great a velocity and have
their head popped off like a cork.
This would be a particularly grisly affair, with the torn-off head flying several feet.
This could also happen if the condemned's weight wasn't correctly calculated.
In one particularly grisly case, the rope snapped and the condemned fell to the ground-
but not before the rope had torn through part of the condemned's throat.
Surely modern science could offer a better solution- and that solution came in the form
of the electric chair.
Delivering thousands of volts directly to the brain, the electric chair promised quick
and efficient death.
And much like hanging, when it went right it certainly seemed to achieve that aim- though
it's doubtful it was a very pleasant way for the condemned to die.
When the electric chair went bad though, much like hanging, it went spectacularly bad.
The condemned would often catch on fire, flesh would melt from the extreme current and heating.
Teeth could even pop right out of the gums like popcorn.. and even after half a minute
of voltage the condemned might still be alive.
The gas chamber was seen as a humane replacement to the electric chair, until unsurprisingly
it too was soon creating horror stories of its own.
One prisoner condemned to die by the gas chamber was asked to nod his head if the gas caused
pain.
For fifteen minutes he nodded his head in the affirmative before finally succumbing.
Today lethal injection is the method of choice for executing the death penalty.
You're not going to be surprised to hear that this too has serious problems.
A lethal injection works in sequence, with one injection serving to knock the condemned
unconscious, so that they aren't aware of what's coming next.
The second injection paralyzes the lungs so as to stop the condemned from breathing.
Finally, the third injection shuts down the heart.
On paper, it's a humane and efficient way to end life.
In reality, lethal injection is plagued by problems.
For starters, the injection is administered by prison guards who have at best, two weeks
training.
This is because no doctor- who's hyppocratic oath forbids them from causing harm- will
accept assignment in executing the death penalty This leaves mostly untrained prison guards
to try and find the condemned's veins, correctly insert the IV lines that feed the drugs in,
and then administer the drugs in the proper doses and order.
Unsurprisingly, investigations into lethal injections find that serious mistakes happen.
Most worryingly of all though is the belief by many doctors that the barbiturate meant
to knock the condemned unconscious doesn't actually do its job right.
Instead, the victim is left in a paralytic state, fully aware of the effect of the other
drugs but unable to speak or otherwise signal their extreme distress.
Doctors also affirm that the effects of the other drugs are without a doubt, extremely
painful and distressing.
For better or worse, lethal injection is for the moment, here to stay, as is the death
penalty.
Once, one of the most progressive countries on earth in the elimination of the death penalty,
the United States now comes well in the rear of modern nations- with most European nations
having abolished the death penalty in favor of life imprisonment.
The real question is why though.
For one, life imprisonment is seen as the more moral option in exercising punishment
for the most heinous of crimes.
The act of killing someone- no matter their crime- is seen as intrinsically making the
state no better than the killers it may be trying to punish.
Life imprisonment completely avoids this moral pitfall.
There's a more practical reason for life imprisonment though.
As forensic technologies have increased in capabilities, more and more sentences are
being overturned.
If a criminal is condemned to die, then there is no chance of redemption once the sentence
has been carried out.
Life imprisonment meanwhile allows for the possibility of new evidence or forensic techniques
to be discovered, and either the freeing of an innocent victim, or a commuting of a much
more harsh sentence to something more befitting the new level of guilt.
In many countries were the death penalty remains in use, executions can often take years- here
in the United States it can even take decades.
This isn't just government bureaucracy moving slowly, it is also meant to allow ample time
for new evidence to come to light.
Lengthy stays on death row are thus seen as a compromise of sorts- though most condemned
report that instead it only makes their punishment worse by dragging out the inevitable end they
expect to face.
But there's also a matter of money.
Often proponents of the death penalty will say that they rather see the most monstrous
amongst us die instead of living on at the tax payer's expense.
At first glance, this makes good sense- however, diving into the data we see that the death
penalty is often much more expensive than life imprisonment without the possibility
of parole.
The cost of a trial alone can be upwards of three times as expensive as a trial where
the death penalty was not sought.
This is largely because in the US, the defense is allowed many opportunities to appeal the
sentencing, seeing as it is a very permanent punishment.
The actual trial itself is much longer than a normal trial, due to the exacting amount
of evidence that must be gathered by both the prosecution and the defense in order to
earn, or beat, the death penalty.
Death sentence trials are also granted an automatic appeal at state appellate courts.
Once more, because of the severity of the death penalty the US government wants to ensure
as fair a trial as possible.
Often though, motions for new trials are immediately filed even before getting to this point.
Once the death penalty is approved by the state appellate court though, the case goes
to the state's supreme court.
If it passes the state supreme court, then a federal judge reviews the case one final
time.
Once on death row, the costs keep on adding up.
Running a death row requires additional staff versus a similar-sized segment of the general
population.
There are also more costs in the observation and oversight of death row inmates, greater
maintenance costs, and surprisingly, greater healthcare costs.
As most death row inmates will spend around 15 years awaiting their execution, the death
row population is on the whole more elderly than general population, which leads to a
greater increase in healthcare costs due to age-related illnesses.
In one study, a death row inmate cost the US government $1.12 million more than a general
population inmate.
With approximately 2,500 inmates on death row today, this comes out to $2.8 billion
in extra costs to both state and federal governments.
So when can you expect the death penalty or life imprisonment?
That is a tricky question to answer.
Currently all across the US, only crimes resulting in a victim being killed is punishable by
death.
But each state's legislature can set specific circumstances that make murder eligible for
the death penalty.
In one state, the murder of a minor may automatically earn you the death penalty, while in a state
next door it may be up to the body count- how many victims there were.
Then, after a trial, the jury must come to agreement on the application of the death
penalty after it fulfills their state's legal requirements.
Now go check out Last 60 minutes of being on death row, or click this other video instead!