Steven P. Grossman, a for­mer New York City pros­e­cu­tor and a pro­fes­sor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, recent­ly wrote in The Baltimore Sun that the death penal­ty is ​“not worth the soci­etal effort it requires and the wounds it caus­es.” The case of Maryland death row inmate Vernon Evans,who received a stay jsut pri­or to his sched­uled exe­cu­tion this month, prompt­ed Grossman to exam­ine cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as it relates to vic­tims’ fam­i­lies and whether exe­cu­tions deter future vio­lent crimes. He not­ed:

The aver­age cap­i­tal case in this coun­try takes 12 years from crime to pun­ish­ment, and a stag­ger­ing­ly small per­cent­age of mur­ders ever lead to exe­cu­tions. Further, can it real­ly be argued that the dif­fer­ence in poten­tial sen­tences between life in prison with­out parole, if they are caught and con­vict­ed, and the even small­er like­li­hood of being exe­cut­ed will stop poten­tial mur­der­ers from tak­ing a life?

I don’t know the answer as to whether the death penal­ty is just or just cru­el. But I do know that it is not worth the soci­etal effort it requires and the wounds it caus­es.

Finally, what about the best inter­ests of the fam­i­lies of the vic­tims?

I pros­e­cut­ed mur­der cas­es in a state that had no death penal­ty at the time. When my office obtained con­vic­tions that led to life sen­tences, the fam­i­lies of the vic­tims got some clo­sure and could return to their lives, although not with­out per­ma­nent wounds.

But where there is cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, as in the Evans case, the fam­i­lies will wait, get close to the end and only find them­selves hav­ing to wait again and again for the clo­sure they need.

We have long debat­ed whether cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is just. It is time we ask whether it is worth the price that we pay for it.

(The Baltimore Sun, February 12, 2006). See New Voices, Victims, and Life Without Parole.

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