The death penalty no longer serves as a deterrent for citizens and is plagued by systematic racism, critics argued during a Senate hearing Monday on a bill to repeal capital punishment. But defenders of the death penalty countered that it's the most effective and accurate form of justice for those who intentionally murder.
Sen. Paul Wieland, R-Imperial, is sponsoring his fifth bill to repeal capital punishment for those who commit a premeditated murder. There are currently 40 inmates on death row in Missouri, according to Missouri Death Penalty website. One of the death penalty's major purposes is general deterrence, meaning it prevents a certain crime from ever being committed, according to the National Policy Committee.
But some Missouri legislators said criminal punishment does not fulfill its purpose and should be repealed.
"Is it really a deterrent to tell somebody, "Ok, in 20 years, we're going to put you to death?' If we convicted somebody on a Friday, and Saturday hung them in the public square, maybe," Wieland said. "But what we have as a system, I don't see it in any way as a deterrent."
Sen. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar, said going to prison at all is not a deterrent if the same criteria are used. Parson worked in law enforcement for 20 years and was involved in just as many violent homicide cases.
"It's almost as though we're talking about victims, but what we're really talking about is killers," Parson said. "There's a part of it that is premeditated, don't forget that. Do I think someone should have the rest of their life after they've taken someone else's life? No, I don't."
Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, and a former prosecutor, said citizens have a duty to face heinous crime situations as jurors.
"I had to get into every single detail of what happened, second by second, physical injury by physical injury," Schaefer said, waving a thick stack of jury reports from the victims of murderers on death row. "I don't think this chamber is ready to have that conversation."
Multiple legislators argued the death penalty is proven to be applied disproportionately amongst race and class.
Homicides involving white victims are seven times more likely to result in an execution than those involving African Americans, according to the Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty 2015 report. Between 1976 and 2014, white males and females made up 81 percent of victims in execution cases, according to the report.
Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur, is a co-sponsor to the bill and said the best way to prevent future crimes is to educate, especially before they commit their first crimes.
"For kids who do get into trouble as teens, throwing them in a prison population, from everything I've read, just teaches them how to become better criminals," Schupp said.
This legislation is coming from both a moral and monetary standpoint.
"I'm a devout Catholic, and the sanctity of life is of the upmost importance to me, and that's from the moment of conception until natural death," Wieland said.
The cost of the death penalty was also debated by the Senate. In Kansas, capital cases are 70 percent more expensive than comparable non-death penalty cases, according to the Death Penalty Info website.
Parson and Schaefer both said they believe cost should not even be a part of the debate.
Schaefer said the real question should be, "What is the value of the life that was intentionally taken?"