The Death Penalty: Cruel Vengeance or Justice Served?

By James H. Lilley

Is the death penalty for a savage, cold-blooded act of murder cruel vengeance or justice served? The debate over Capital Punishment has been argued on local, state, and federal levels and still rages on almost daily. Our nation has served up the death penalty in many forms from hanging, to electric chair, to gas chamber, and even firing squad. Over the years each of these methods was damned as cruel and inhumane treatment of the person who had committed a crime of violence. So, along came lethal injection as an alternative to these “cruel” methods of carrying out a death sentence. Suddenly there was an outcry over the way the needles were inserted into the arm of the condemned, because surely they were experiencing pain.

Is the discomfort of lethal injection any more painful than a flu shot, or giving blood? All require insertion of a needle into the arm, or vein. Does the act of voluntarily taking a flu shot, or donating blood make the pin prick less painful than death by lethal injection? Or, does death ordered by the court for a violent crime somehow increase the level of pain for the condemned? Then came the argument over the dosage, the drugs employed, and were they acting quickly enough to ensure the condemned didn’t suffer. Excuse me, but what horrible pain was being inflicted upon this person who’d been sentenced to death for violently taking the life of another?

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Justice Delayed? Time Consumption in Capital Appeals: A Multistate Study

How long do appeals in capital cases take? This final grant report details an NIJ Visiting Fellow's research on how long it takes court systems to process a direct appeal in capital cases. Dr. Barry Latzer, Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, examined data for 1,676 cases resolved between 1992-2002 in 14 States. He found that, measuring from date of death sentence, it took a median 966 days to complete direct appeal. The number of days for an appeal to reach the court of last resort varied greatly between States. Petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court added a median of 188 to 250 days. Factors that affected the number of days required to process an appeal included case complexity, number of dissenting opinions, if there was a reversal of the lower court decision, prior review by an intermediate appellate court, and if there were State laws or rules on expediting capital appeals.

Read the full report Justice Delayed? Time Consumption in Capital Appeals: A Multistate Study (pdf). Data from this study is expected to be available in May 2007 through the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data.

The research resulted from a competitive award under NIJ's Visiting Fellowship Program in 2004. The program supports the investigation, analysis, and development of innovative approaches that enhance justice and advance public policy decision making.

Find additional reports and resource on capital cases and the death penalty at the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.

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