Philip Holloway, a CNN legal analyst who has been both a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, says in a recent op-ed that “it is hard not to question the rationality — indeed the sanity” of the death penalty. Holloway says “there are several practical reasons why the death penalty just doesn’t make sense any longer, if it ever really did in the first place,” and outlines five reasons why he believes the United States should reconsider capital punishment. First, he says that life without parole is actually a harsher punishment than the death penalty, citing the harsh conditions of maximum-security prisons on the state and federal level. Second, Holloway points to the ongoing trial of James Holmes in Colorado as one instance of the excessive cost of the death penalty. The Holmes trial is expected to cost about $3.5 million, compared to an average of $150,000 in cases without the death penalty. Third, he notes the toll of capital cases on victims’ families: “family members and loved ones of murder victims often find themselves entangled in the justice system for a very long time” because of lengthy appeals after a death sentence is handed down. His fourth point is the uneven application of the death penalty, which he says is the result of prosecutorial discretion in whether to seek a death sentence. Finally, Holloway says, “Despite safeguards, innocent people do wind up on death row.” He mentions the 154 people exonerated from death row, highlighting last year’s exoneration of Henry McCollum, who spent 30 years on death row before being cleared by DNA evidence. “Our criminal justice system — and those caught up in it, including the families of victims — would be the biggest beneficiaries should we choose to end capital punishment in the United States,” he concludes.

(P. Holloway, “Time to question sanity of death penalty,” CNN, July 22, 2015.) See Costs and Innocence.

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