Various attitudes and passions like racism, revenge, religion and political power have

supported the imposition of the death penalty.

The aim of this paper is answer the question whether the media, Christian religion and the

policy of the United States of America bear full responsibility for the existence and the ongoing justification of the death penalty. These three institutions possess huge influence on the peoples´ opinions and form the three pillars of US pride. I will try to find my personal

answer through isolating these pillars and explaining their efforts to evade the often required abolition of the death penalty.

There is no execution in the USA that is not accompanied by demonstrators - opponents as well as proponents.

So it was only a matter of time until the popular press recognized the controversial topic “death penalty” as their new pecuniary resource. “When citizens are confronted with the issue

of capital punishment, be they jury members or other by – standers, they decide if death as punishment is applicable in that single case, or, more broadly, if it is in the interest of society

at all. By – standers are not, in fact, neutral or impartial. As human beings they are shaped by

their world outlook.” 1 As we all know the media plays a major role in this outlook and it is easy for them to

indoctrinate peoples´ minds with their conviction of right and wrong.

The media tells us, some times subtly, sometimes directly, what clothes to wear, what car to

drive, what music to like and maybe also what “monster” to send to death row.

Murder, hate and death have always been topics that interest human beings – and it is

unfortunately a part of everyday – life. News, reports and messages concerning these issues are broadcasted nationwide and through this they effect and influence public opinion. Today many even call for the return of open executions through television coverage. Reasons

for this are not only human desire for sensations but also the media that keep criminals at an emotional distance through verbal degradation that involves labelling the condemned as sub –

human species, such as “monster”, “animal”, “savages” or even “murderous Negro” (if a black man is accused of murdering a white woman). Therefore the “by – standers cannot transfer fellow –feelings to the accused because certain (…) passions like revenge, hate and

abhorrence are so powerful that they block the formulation and transferral of compassion.

1 See : Gary Anderson, The Competing Attitudes, Passions and Interests of the Death Penalty ( Aachen : Shaker

Verlag, 1996) 9.

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This compassion, if it could be transferred regularly to condemned felons, would cause the

end of the death penalty.” 2

But punishing criminals, or even taking their lives, is made easier when they are categorized as “outsiders”, “non – patriots” or “atheists”. “Once this climate is established, transferral of

pity and sympathy is impossible owing to the criminal´s degraded status.” 3 As a result of this the existence of the death penalty, despite all efforts, can be explained in liberal democracies and it is not astonishing that public support for the death penalty is still

remarkably high in the United States.

And unfortunately it is up to the media if a criminal is “justly” degraded because of his act or because of his race, ethnicity or other factors which makes him an outsider. One can argue

about the question if this is freedom or arbitrariness of the press.

The peoples´ opinion is mostly d ominated by emotions which lead immediately to the injustice of racism and that again to an unfair practice of the death penalty. This topic is seen

in black and white – hate against murderers turns into hate against black murderers, often through the “help” of inflammatory speeches by politicians during election campaigns. Statistics show that the United States applies the death penalty differently to people of

different races. Look at the numbers: “Although African-Americans constitute only 13 percent of the American population, since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in

1976, African-Americans account for 35 percent of those executed and 43 percent of those who wait on death row nationwide. Although only 50 percent of murder victims are white, fully 84 percent of the victims in death penalty cases were white. Since 1976, America has

executed 11 whites for killing a Black, but has executed 144 Blacks for killing a white.” 4

Capital Punishment is obviously seen as a tool to “keep the niggers in their place.” 5 The ghosts of institutional racism still haunt American cour thouses. They intrude when lawyers select jurors during the presentation of evidence, when the prosecutor contrasts the

race of the victim and defendant and when juries deliberate.

2 See footnote 1.

3 Anderson, 10.

4 Russ Feingold used these statistics in his speech at Columbia University School of Law in April 2000

5 Francis Simpkins and Charles P. Roland, A history of the South (New York : Alfred A. Knopf Publishers,

1972) 498.

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The skin colours of the victim and the perpetrator, the accused 's financia l resources or lack thereof and the identity of the judge are all capricious matters that determine whether the accused will live or die.

But it is also about money, power and reputation :

Many elites and political leaders resisted change in the area of punishment and even prominent elites like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George Bush have voiced strong support for the death penalty.

The issue “death penalty” is gladly used as a political tool in US election campaigns : For example pictur es of Richard Allen Davis, the murderer of the12- year old Polly Klaas, were posted all over California because a district attorney was facing reelection and tried to gain public sympathy through this strategy.

Especially in cases of media hype when crimes are exaggerated in newspapers and magazines, the prosecutor cannot afford a judicial defeat. In this case defendants are useful instruments used to push forward somebody´s career – especially if the death penalty is involved. Jack B. Weinstein, senior U.S. District Court judge in the Eastern District of New York writes in his article “Death penalty : The Torah and Today” :

Conditions change. Our view what is required of a humane and caring people should change with the times. What was required and permitted in biblical times is not necessarily what decent people should approve of today. The argument that “ the Torah says it, therefore it is right for us,” is no excuse for unnecessary cruelty and inhumanity. We can and should reject capital punishment.” Politicians, prosecutors and judges like Jack B. Weinstein who are turning against this brutal kind of punishment are blamed by their opponents for their lack of hardness in the war against crime.

It seems as if the death penalty is just a means to an end, the ace up in every judge´s, senator´s or president´s sleeve that is used as soon as they face reelection. It is all about winning public sympathy which can be reached easily through the “help” of the death penalty and the belief in God, the Almighty.

Death penalty and God ?

It seems as if these two “institutions” have nothing in common really, but the truth is, there is not only a connection – they are directly intervowen :

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