In a recent op-ed for The Denver Post, retired corrections officer and military veteran Pete Lister offered a critique of the death penalty, saying it fails as a deterrent, risks executing innocent people, and costs more than life without parole. “Capital punishment has not, in a single state, proven to be a deterrent to capital crime.” Lister said. “Society consists of human beings who make mistakes. There are those who are, occasionally, negligent, and some who are even dishonest or unethical. We are faced with the troubling fact that if we, as a society, err in a capital case, the sentence is irreversible.” Drawing on his experience as a corrections officer, Lister compared capital punishment to life without parole, saying, “involuntary incarceration is not the life of Riley that some would have you believe” and asking whether “life in prison without the hope of parole” may “actually [be] worse than a death sentence.” Discussing the risk or error, he said, “When we, society, wrongfully convict someone, whether through malfeasance or neglect, or whether the technology extant at time of trial was insufficient to prove innocence, then we, society, have a responsibility to release him, to publicly acknowledge the error, and allow that citizen to move past the horror that we, society, have inflicted. How do we do that after we’ve put him to death?” Lister also noted that the cost of capital punishment, which he said “far exceeds the cost of incarcerati[on] even for life, … is more than simply financial. It’s been argued that voting for execution takes a terrible emotional toll on jury members.” He concludes with a question: “Whether you believe the death penalty is justifiable, if you were the one being accused of a murder you had not committed, where would you stand on this issue?”

(P. Lister, “Colorado Voices: Undermining the death penalty,” The Denver Post, January 11, 2016.) See New Voices.

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