Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty In The United States

The death penalty in the United States has been controversial ever since the beginning of its usage. Capital punishment may seem fair to others in severe cases, but it has many downsides. The death penalty should not be acceptable because it defeats the purpose of getting justice, it is expensive, and there are many flaws in our justice system that could execute an innocent person.

The death penalty defeats the purpose of obtaining justice amongst other things. Prisoners are not necessarily suffering the consequences of their actions; instead of doing life in prison, they get the death penalty. In some cases, prisoners on death row try or actually commit suicide to get out of their sentencing, which is also not serving justice. The death penalty is more of a form of seeking revenge than it is about seeking justice. For example, a man on death row tried to commit suicide by hanging himself. Officers saved his life and he was taken to the hospital, only to be executed a week later (Evans, 2013). While they are in prison they have time to think about their crimes, being incarcerated would be an actual punishment instead of them committing suicide and not doing any time in prison. It would also give the family some sense of

Lower class and minorities make up the majority of people on death row. In Colorado, 80% of everyone on death row are minorities (“Race and the Death Penalty,” 2016). Biases target these people, even if they are innocent. Over the 139 cases of prisoners that have been wrongfully convicted and given the death penalty, over 61% of them have been African American or Hispanic (Love, 2012). Capital punishment is highly racially biased that lower class and minorities have to prove themselves innocent instead of the other way around. Some could argue that there are more Caucasian prisoners on death row than there are minorities, they just get out of it