The Cost of Retaining the Death Penalty: Some Lessons from the American Experience

111 South African Law Journal 55 (1994)

15 Pages Posted: 6 Feb 2017

See all articles by Mike Hintze

Mike Hintze

Hintze Law PLLC; University of Washington School of Law; Future of Privacy Forum

Date Written: 1994

Abstract

The United States and South Africa stand alone as the only two western industrialized nations that retain the death penalty. In order to analyze how the death penalty, if retained, is likely to operate under a post-apartheid constitutional structure that contains a bill of rights, it will be useful to compare it with how the death penalty currently operates in the United States under a similar system. Such an examination will show two things. As in the United States, a death penalty scheme that meets the minimum requirements of a criminal justice system that protects fundamental rights of the accused will burden the entire criminal justice system by calling into question the ability of that system to guarantee a just result in judicial proceedings. Moreover such a system will exert a great cost, in terms of both judicial and other resources. The conclusion to which this analysis will lead is that any societal benefit that may come from the existence of the death penalty will be greatly outweighed by the problems and expenses that it will inevitably create.

Keywords: Death Penalty, Capital Punishment, South Africa

Suggested Citation

Hintze, Michael, The Cost of Retaining the Death Penalty: Some Lessons from the American Experience (1994). 111 South African Law Journal 55 (1994), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2911576

Michael Hintze (Contact Author)

Hintze Law PLLC ( email )

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Seattle, WA 98102
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University of Washington School of Law ( email )

William H. Gates Hall
Box 353020
Seattle, WA 98105-3020
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Future of Privacy Forum

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