NCJ Number
80436
Journal
Angolite Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Dated: (July/August 1981) Pages: 23-82
Editor(s)
W Rideau,
B Sinclair
Date Published
1981
Length
60 pages
Annotation
This feature story from a magazine published by inmates of Louisiana State Penitentiary focuses on capital punishment through a discussion of attitudes in Louisiana, the deterrent effect, and racism, as well as interviews with death row prisoners and families of victims.
Abstract
The opening article characterizes capital punishment as a Southern phenomenon and explores the prevailing mood in Louisiana favoring a return to the death penalty. In spite of resistance from State and Federal judges and condemnation from the religious community, five execution dates have been set and it is likely that the electric chair will be used in 1982. A review of arguments against the death penalty as a deterrent emphasizes that executions have no impact on murder rates, are never directed at the most violent criminals (youthful offenders) and have no effect on murders committed in passion or by psychopaths. Statistics on violence and law enforcement in the South are presented to show that racial discrimination is rooted in capital punishment in that area. Interviews with two death row inmates in Louisiana are the basis for an examination of the alternative to execution, life imprisonment. Men who demanded that the State execute them, such as Gary Gilmore, are strongly condemned because this situation forces society to turn a criminal nobody into a respected somebody. Also discussed are the desires of most victims' families for revenge and the inequities of a capital punishment system which sends persons who commit repulsive, heinous crimes to mental hospitals rather than death row. The concept of revenge-punishment is questioned by examples from cases where the criminal justice system convicted innocent persons. Finally, death cells in the Louisiana penitentiary and death in the electric chair are graphically described. The feature includes photographs and over 70 footnotes.