Don’t prosecutors need the death penalty to secure plea bargains?
Using death as a billy-club to secure plea bargains is not only unnecessary, it’s dangerous. The vast majority of murders are resolved by plea bargains – whether or not the death penalty is on the table. States without the death penalty rank among the highest in the country for securing life without parole sentences. Further, the threat of death increases the risk of executing the innocent. There are documented cases of innocent people confessing to crimes they did not commit simply to avoid a death sentence. They often spent years in prison before the truth was uncovered. Maintaining a death penalty simply to force a plea bargain has serious ethical questions. Life and death are too important to be used as a bargaining chip – and the evidence suggests that plea deals are frequent even without such coercion.
