Wisconsin State Journal

USA: Students argue against death penalty

Although public opinion polls still show that a majority of people believe in capital punishment, that belief is starting to waver.

Perhaps one of the reasons is that young people are taking a closer look at the issue. Dana McKenzie of New Glarus is one of them.

Now an 18-year-old UW-Madison freshman, Dana did a lot of research on capital punishment in teacher Paul Burk's class at New Glarus High School last year and that led her to write an essay for a contest sponsored by the Wisconsin Coalition Against the Death Penalty. We've been notified that she's the statewide winner.

The daughter of Ken and Marla McKenzie, Dana was among hundreds of junior and senior high school students who wrote stirring essays about why the death penalty is wrong, especially for a country with the values of United States. Here is Dana's first-place entry:

"Capital punishment is punishment by death. Capital punishment has been present in what is now the United States since it was first colonized and has been used in other areas of the world since the 18th century B.C.

"I believe that capital punishment should be abolished in the United States for a variety of reasons. I believe that capital punishment may be racially, sexually and economically biased. Minorities are over-represented on death row, as are males.

"Only 2 of the 85 inmates executed in the U.S. in 2000 were women. There seems to be some proven bias based on victim race, supported by the statistics that show that of the inmates on death row, over 80 % of their victims were white.

"The race of the jury, prosecution or district attorney may also have an effect on who receives the death penalty. Of the nearly 1,850 district attorneys in death penalty states, 1,794 are white.

"I don't believe that all of these DAs would put someone to death simply based on their race, but there may be some who are harsher with minorities and are more likely to put them to death than a white person who committed a similar crime. Also, criminals who cannot afford good attorneys are more likely to get the death penalty since their defense will be lacking. This makes economics a reason that someone could receive the death penalty.

"All of these things make the entire system unjust. People in favor of capital punishment may also argue that an execution will save lives by acting as a deterrent, but there is no proof that this is actually the case. The execution of a person demonstrates a devaluing of human life. It also shows us that revenge is OK and shows that our government condones payback. This may cause more murders by changing the mind-set of people from thinking that the human life is sacred to thinking that it is just something to be tossed away.

'There should be consequences for the actions that people take. I don't believe that a person has a right to take another person's life, and if a person does do this, I believe they should have to pay the price. I do not, however, believe that this price should be killing them.

"We can take away their lives in other ways, like putting them in prison without a chance of parole. We should punish those people who murder others, but we should not, as a society, commit the same crime we are trying to punish.

"Human life is too precious, even the lives of those who commit awful crimes."