View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Santa Clara University School of Law Santa Clara Law Review Volume 36 | Number 4 Article 5 1-1-1996 Death Penalty as the Answer to Crime: Costly, Counterproductive and Corrupting [Advocate in Residence] Stephen B. Bright Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/lawreview Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Stephen B. Bright, Death Penalty as the Answer to Crime: Costly, Counterproductive and Corrupting [Advocate in Residence], 36 Santa Clara L. Rev. 1069 (1996). Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/lawreview/vol36/iss4/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Santa Clara Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Santa Clara Law Review by an authorized administrator of Santa Clara Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ADVOCATE IN RESIDENCE THE DEATH PENALTY AS THE ANSWER TO CRIME: COSTLY, COUNTERPRODUCTIVE AND CORRUPTING Stephen B. Bright* I appreciate the opportunity to make some remarks about capital punishment and about the crime debate in our country today. Unfortunately, what is called a crime debate is really no debate at all, but an unseemly competition among politicians to show how tough they are on crime by support- ing harsher penalties and less due process. The death pen- alty and long prison sentences are being put forward as an answer to the problem of violent crime. This approach is ex- pensive and counterproductive. It is corrupting the courts and diverting our efforts from the important problems of ra- cial prejudice, poverty, violence and crime.