Should the Death Penalty be abolished?

• Position: Debate

In January, Dylann Roof, 22, received a death sentence for the 2015 hate crime killing of nine African-Americans in a South Carolina church. Overall, however, the use of capital punishment in the U.S. has declined in recent years as opposition to it has grown. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled (in Atkins v. Virginia) that the death penalty for mentally disabled defendants violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. And in 2005, the justices barred the execution of those who'd committed their crimes as minors (in Roper v. Simmons).

Here, two experts argue whether the death penalty is too harsh a punishment for any crime.

YES When the United States was founded V Hi m more than two centuries ago, capital punishment was commonplace in the 13 colonies, as well as in England and across Europe. Today it's becoming increasingly rare.

More than two-thirds of the world's countries, including virtually all of Europe, have abolished the death penalty. This trend away from capital punishment can be seen In the United States as well. New death sentences and executions in the U.S. continue to decline. In 2016, there were approximately 30 new death sentences--down from a record high of 315 in 1996. Twenty people were executed in 2016, compared with 98 in 1999. The decline in death sentences and executions reflects a growing discomfort with capital punishment.

Support for capital punishment is at a 40-year low. According to some polls, less than half of Americans favor its use. Since 2007, the death penalty has been eliminated in six states, bringing the number that have the death penalty down to 31. And actual use of the death penalty is Increasingly limited to a small geographic slice of the nation: Four states--Florida, Georgia, Missouri, and Texas--are responsible for 90 percent of America's executions.

We all benefit from a criminal justice system that creates a safer society with less crime. That's not what the death penalty is doing. Murder rates are lowest in the Northeast--the region with the fewest executions. The South carries out the most executions and has high murder rates.

Finally, there's the fact that the system is prone to human error and discrimination. Since 1976, at least 156 people have been freed from death row after evidence of their innocence emerged. And death sentences are more likely to be given if the murder victim Is white or if the defendant is poor.

There are better ways to punish the guilty and keep our...