Standardized Testing and the Death Penalty

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Two events this week reminded me of how much distance there is between myself and many other Americans.

In the wake of the death sentence imposed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (the younger “Boston Bomber”), I’ve heard numerous anti-death penalty screeds. Even many so-called “Conservatives” (Bill O’Reilly is staunchly anti-death penalty) have argued for “life-without-parole.”

While I can begrudgingly accept the likes of O’Reilly’s, and other religious people’s objection to the death penalty, but there is absolutely no basis on which atheists and agnostics can oppose it. ALL morality is rooted in religion. The West’s moral code is based on Judeo-Christian canons, while Sharia’s moral code is rooted in Islam’s holy books, the Quran, the Sunnah and the Sira.

The primary argument against the death penalty has been that too many innocent people have been condemned to death over faulty eye witness and other circumstantial evidence.

THAT is a rational argument.

Of course it is NOT an argument against the death penalty itself, merely in favor of much more stringently applied standards of evidence.

Today, with ubiquitous video evidence (surveillance cameras are virtually every) and DNA evidence, we can be substantially assured that those convicted under such standards of evidence are guilty.

Another argument against the death penalty is that “It is NOT a deterrent to murder,” but that is wrong on its face.

Obviously, the death penalty deters THAT particular criminal from ever murdering again. Moreover, properly applied draconian punishments (like the very public and often horrific punishments meted out under Sharia) very much DO seem to deter violent crimes, as those countries have some of the lowest violent crime rates on the globe...far lower than America’s, even lower than places like Belgium and Japan.

In short, the death penalty works.

Moreover, once properly convicted (via video &/or DNA evidence) appeals should simply be strictly limited and ONLY to appeals that offer new evidence or incontrovertibly challenge existing evidence.

Oddly enough, many of the SAME people who so strongly and inanely oppose the death penalty also oppose standardized testing and with the same “damn the facts” kind of faith-based zeal.

One very obvious truth is undeniable. There are NO reliable subjective criteria (interviews, outside activities engaged in, even grades – which can and HAVE BEEN often manipulated by unscrupulous educrats), absolutely NONE.

Many opponents of standardized testing have looked to a single 2008 study that claims that “grades are a better indicator of College success than SAT exams,” going against decades of other studies that showed the reverse.

Moreover, the 2008 Study commissioned by the College Board found high school grades are sometimes a better predictor of first-year college grades than SAT scores (previous studies have shown that SAT scores accurately predict a student’s overall College performance). But the study also found that looking at the combination of SAT scores and high school grades predicts college outcomes better than either measure does alone.

Florida’s disgraced education commissioner, Tony Bennett’s misdeeds didn’t only occur in Florida, but in Indiana, where he was commissioner in 2012. According to stories in the Associated Press, which Bennett did not refute, he wrote an email to one of his agency colleagues demanding a higher grade for a school run by one of his major campaign donors. “Anything less than an A for Christel House,” Bennett allegedly wrote, “compromises all of our accountability work.” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/tony-bennett-resigns-florida-education-post-amid-scandal/2013/08/01/3082416a-faef-11e2-a369-d1954abcb7e3_story.html)

The founder of Christel House, philanthropist Christel DeHaan, had donated $130,000 to Bennett’s campaign for re-election as state school superintendent. The grade was quietly changed from a C to an A.

While unscrupulous educators can also look to circumvent standardized exams - 11 Atlanta teachers were arrested over correcting answers on their students standardized testing (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jillian-carter-ford/the-wheels-of-the-prison-_b_7026558.html), in Philadelphia, PA., a Principal and four teachers were arrested over the SAME issue, changing their student’s answers on standardized exams (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/08/philadelphia-test-cheating_n_5288140.html). All that proves is that incompetent teachers, like most incompetent workers, will do anything to avoid looking...incompetent.

Grades are far easier to manipulate, far more difficult to quantify and therefor to uncover such abuses. Standardized testing makes it far easier to uncover and prosecute incompetent teachers who are doing a deliberate disservice to the children they educate.

Moreover, standardized testing DOES NOT require “teaching to the test,” and otherwise abandoning “holistic, interdisciplinary educational methods.” An effectively EDUCATED student will be able to handle a standardized exam. Poorly educated students are generally NOT able to articulate, or otherwise demonstrate a basic comprehension of the subjects they are taught.

In effect, the anti-standardized exam movement is a pro-incompetence movement.

In a world where grades cannot be trusted and incompetent educators actively seek to circumvent standardized exams that show how poorly educated their students really are, we NEED more standardized testing, not less.

A recent study done in New York State by Achieve and the Collaborative for Students Success shows that New York’s math and reading exams very much mirror the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is considered the gold-standard in student assessment.

New York State tops the list of states that honestly measure student progress. Recently, N.Y state Chancellor for Education, Merryl Tisch has said that this new report bolsters New York’s rigorous testing of public schools students (http://www.pressreader.com/usa/new-york-daily-news/20150515/281801397540153/TextView).

Chacellor Tisch is right, just as the opponents of standardized testing are hopelessly wrong.

Like the death penalty deters murder, standardized testing works, in fact, it’s the only way to truly measure what a given student has learned over the course of their education.

A Botched Execution?…

Clayton Lockett      Stephanie Nieman

How do you “botch” an execution?

Oh yeah, IF the goal is a sterile and painless death, then anything less seems, “botched.”

Fact is, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were geniuses – BOTH of them (as well as a few of their friends) were far smarter men than any we have around today. If either of them were around today, all modesty aside, they’d tell you so. Neither was at all shy about proclaiming their brilliance…and rightly so. They wrote and very clearly defined the phrase “cruel and unusual punishment,” which meant that NONE of the various penalties of THAT day were considered either “cruel,” or particularly “unusual,” which included hanging, shooting (firing squads), usually reserved for soldiers, as it was considered a more honorable death than hanging.

It was Thomas Jefferson who helped institute the first reforms of the death penalty between 1776-1800. Thomas Jefferson and four others, authorized to undertake a complete revision of Virginia’s laws, proposing a law that recommended the death penalty for only treason and murder. After a stormy debate, the legislature defeated their bill by a single vote.  At the time, there were at least 13 crimes that one could be given the death penalty for.

TODAY, we seek to entitle those convicted of the most cruel and unusual acts a death that most cancer patients would pray for. THAT, seems cruel and unusual, at least in so much as it debases the victim, by elevating the concerns and treatment of the murderer.

Without question, the death penalty has, in numerous cases, been appallingly misapplied in this country. A cursory look at the files of the Innocence Project, or even a quick read of fiction-writer John Grisham’s NON-fiction work, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town(http://www.amazon.com/The-Innocent-Man-Murder-Injustice/dp/0345532015/ref=sr_1_3_bnp_1_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=1398878324&sr=8-3&keywords=An+Innocent+Man) about the incompetent investigation of the murder of  Debra Sue Carter and the malicious prosecution of  Ron Williamson (using the actual killer’s testimony to convict the innocent Williamson), proves that, BUT the answer to prosecutorial misconduct and incompetence should NOT be an indictment of a legitimate form of punishment, but INSTEAD, the reforming of the rules prosecutors must operate under, even requiring DNA evidence in all such death penalty cases. If the goal is to eradicate prosecutorial misconduct, abuse and incompetence, then THAT and NOT the penalties meted out should be the focus.

In the most recent “botched” execution, that of Clayton Lockett, in Oklahoma, there is no question of his guilt. The crime he was justly given the death sentence for was horrific. In 1999 Lockett and two accomplices conducted a home invasion on the home of a guy he claimed owed him money. During that home invasion, 19 y/o Stephanie Neiman and another 19 y/o woman approached the house, as they’d been staying there. Miss Neiman’s friend was dragged into the house and hit in the face with a shotgun. Under duress, the friend then called Miss Neiman into the home and she was also hit in the face with the gun. Ms. Nieman’s friend was raped by all three men before both the homeowner and the two women were taken to a rural part of Kay County, Oklahoma.

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Lockett told them that he was going to kill them all, and shot Miss Neiman twice when she refused to give him her keys and pickup’s alarm code. When she was shot, she was dragged to a shallow grave that had been dug by one of Lockett’s accomplices, Shawn Mathis. When Mathis told Lockett that Miss Neiman was still alive, Lockett ordered Mathis to bury her. She was subsequently buried alive.

Some have argued that the state should not be involved in the act of killing people. On that I can agree...with reservations. I’ve long supported a system whereby a person is convicted, with DNA evidence required for a sentence of death, but when that sentence is delivered, independent contractors or bounty hunters would track down, incapacitate and ultimately deliver an “appropriate” death sentence. In a case like this, Mr Lockett would be severely beaten and buried alive. It is NOT “cruel and unusual,” as it was no more “cruel and unusual” than what Clayton Lockett himself subjected his victims to. Moreover, the state is NOT directly involved in the meting out of the actual penalty, it would merely pay the independent contractor a fee, or reward for carrying out that service.

Such a system would provide jobs to many existing for former mercenaries, professional hunters, even many former Special Forces members who come back from military engagements and still “miss the action.” Moreover, it would much more efficiently eradicate the plague of violent felons like Mr Lockett, while keeping the state’s hands relatively clean.

The system would, of course, be very structured. Those convicted would have their travel curtailed. Once basic guilt is firmly established, NO further “Appeals” on behalf of the condemned would be allowed.

Of course, there would be strict “rules of engagement” for the hunters in public areas. Perhaps they’d have to first tranquilize a target before taking him to an appropriate place for the execution, which would then be required to be filmed. The victim’s family could have a copy, so they could have some real closure on the event, if they so desired. Another caveat, ANYONE who offered any aid and comfort to a condemned becomes a legitimate target upon that act. This way, the hunters couldn’t be sued over “collateral damage,” occurring to those who may have offered a condemned person sustenance and sanctuary.

There ARE better ways of dealing with such issues. Without question, prosecutorial rules NEED to be reformed and the state probably shouldn’t be directly involved in the execution business. BUT prosecutorial abuse, misconduct and incompetence DOES NOT condemn the death penalty, any more than it condemns ANY other penalty given out under such flawed circumstances. YES, require the state to PROVE guilt, and with DNA evidence so readily available, coupled with ubiquitous surveillance cameras, that’s become easier and easier to accomplish with each passing year, THEN let the state simply “contract out” the actual retrieval (we already pay bounty hunters to track down bail jumpers) and execution of the condemned.

Like any idea, this one would require a bit of fine-tuning, but I think it preserves both the honor & integrity of the state and the respect & dignity of the VICTIM, the person who most often gets lost in the existing process.

What Global Homicide Rates Are Telling Us...

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A quick look at the countries with the top 15 murder rates in the world today tells an interesting tale.

The world’s top 15 violent places are;

Colombia 61.1 per 100,000 people
El Salvador 56.4 per 100,000
Cote d'Ivoire 45.7 per 100,000
South Africa 39.5
Lesotho 37.3
Angola 36
Burundi 35.4
Congo, the Dem Rep of the 35.2
Sierra Leone 34
Jamaica 33.7
Venezuela 32.5
Brazil 30.8
Belize 30.1
Russian Federation 29.7
Central African Rep 29.1

OK, right off the bat, you can see that 7 of the top 10 and 8 of the 15 nations with the world’s highest murder rates are located in sub-Saharan Africa, a region beset by racial and tribal/ethnic violence.

The top two (Colombia and El Salvador), like numbers 11, 12 and 13 (Venezuela, Brazil and Belize) are all suffering through waves of violent Leftist guerilla terrorism and massive drug cartel wars!

In most of the rest of the cases, certainly in almost all those outside South America, the widespread violence is due to primarily to ethnic/racial strife.

In the Russian Federation, at least according to Amnesty International, “Racist attacks and killings of foreigners and ethnic minorities are reported with shocking regularity in Russia and disturbingly, their frequency seems to be increasing.(1) Victims whose cases have come to the attention of Amnesty International include students, asylum-seekers and refugees from Africa and Asia, as well as people from the south Caucasus, from South, Southeast and Central Asia, from the Middle East and from Latin America. However, citizens of the Russian Federation are no less at risk of physical attack. Anyone who does not look typically ethnic Russian, for example, individuals from ethnic groups of the North Caucasus, in particular Chechens, as well as members of the Jewish community, Roma and children of mixed parentage are at risk. Even ethnic Russians who are seen as sympathizing with foreigners or ethnic minority groups, for example, fans of rap or reggae music, members of other youth sub-cultures, and campaigners against racism, have also been targeted as they are perceived as "unpatriotic" or "traitors". Attacks have been reported in towns and cities across the Russian Federation.”

The countries with the lowest violent homocide rates also tell an interesting story.

Of the countries with the lowest 10 murder rates;

Qatar 0.8
Austria 0.7
Egypt 0.7
Fiji 0.7
United Arab Emirates 0.7
Hong Kong 0.6
Japan 0.5
Morocco 0.5
Singapore 0.5
Luxembourg 0.4

Well, clearly 4, or 40% of them are Middle Eastern, Muslim states and three others (Singapore, Hong Kong and Fiji) all employ equally draconian punishments for crime.

I guess draconian punishments really ARE viable deterrents to violent crime after all!

In fact I could only find three Muslim nations with murder rates higher than the United States’ 5.6 per 100,000. They were Indonesia (with the highest murder rate for a Muslim country at 8.9/100,000, Iraq with 6.7/100,000 and Albania with 6.6/100,000.

Another among those nations with the lowest murder rates in existence is also one that consistently ranks among the freest economies in the world – Hong Kong!

Another thing that the lowest 10 also have in common is a set of nearly homogeneous populations, which, of course, serves to limit that pesky “ethnic/racial violence.”

In other words, it would seem that a homogeneous population is generally a less violent one, as are nations that mete out draconian punishments for violent crimes...and economic Liberty and the prosperity it delivers also seems to reduce violence, as witnessed by Hong Kong’s infinitesimal 0.6/100,000 violent crime rate and its corresponding 6.0 Misery Index!