Brian Ellexson

The next time midnight comes around you could be almost anywhere. Maybe you're playing pool in the Student Union Memorial Center, out on North Fourth Avenue with friends or studying down in the ILC. Regardless of where you are, a sobering thought may just cross through your mind as the clock moves to 12 a.m.: "Someone just died, and I have a hand in it."

America's capital punishment system is one fraught with error, inequality and chance. Moratoriums should be placed on it at the federal and state levels until these problems can be eliminated.

Many have argued that we as a nation cannot continue to meet out absolute punishments while we work within a justice system that is far from absolute in its determination of guilt. A recent study by Columbia University Law School found that two-thirds of capital cases contained serious errors. Two out every three cases had major problems. When re-tried, only 13 percent maintained the death penalty; 80 percent of the sentences were commuted to sentences other than death and 7 percent were acquitted altogether. A system in which only 33 percent of cases stand up to review is not one that is functioning properly; it is one that needs to be fixed. A moratorium gives us time to fix it without the possibility of unfairly punishing more in the meantime.

Opponents of a moratorium regarding capital punishment will claim that the race of the criminal is not a factor in who receives a death sentence, that it is not racist. They are absolutely correct. What they will fail to mention is that while the race of the criminal does not play a role in the determination of who receives the death penalty, the race of the victim plays an enormous part.

Since the reintroduction of capital punishment in the 1970s, 178 African-Americans have been put to death for the murder of a Caucasian, whereas only 12 Caucasians have been executed for the killing of an African-American. Recent cases have also brought forth the issue of racism in jury selection in several capital cases. Regardless of whether you believe that these numbers are somehow doctored or that allegations of racial bias in jury selection are accurate, we are all against racism in our legal system. It is the hope of those of us in favor of a moratorium that everyone would take these claims seriously enough to endorse a halt on capital punishment until these claims can be looked over.

Imagine the following scenario: You are facing homicide charges in the middle of any state in America and the district attorney is pursuing the death penalty against you; in a county in that very state, a similar crime has been committed but the perpetrator of that crime does not fear capital punishment and the district attorney is pursuing life in prison without the opportunity for parole. The two of you are remarkably similar, not only in physical characteristics but also in age and in the details of your crimes. As far as you can tell there's absolutely no reason why you have to fear the taking of your life while the second criminal does not.

And the joke (if one could call it that) is that there is no reason. In this nation, the decision whether or not to seek the death penalty is not one that is standardized, but left to the discretion of the prosecuting attorneys. The same crime in two different states or even in two adjoining counties within the same state can be prosecuted in completely different ways. Allowing some people to die and allowing others to receive life in prison based on the location of their crimes is illogical and inherently unfair. Until true national and state guidelines can be drawn up and applied universally regarding the seeking of capital punishment, I propose capital punishment be removed from the list of criminal punishments in this country.

The death penalty ought to be free of racial bias, free of legal errors and free of chance in its application. There is plenty of time to resolve these problems, or decide that these are problems that cannot be resolved, but they are issues that beg to be dealt with.

It is time to reexamine the capital punishment system in the United States. It is time to pose a moratorium before more Americans are punished.

Brian Ellexson is a senior majoring in Spanish and family studies/human development and the president of the UA Capital Punishment Political Action Committee.