Capital Punishment: Against
More money is spent executing humans than keeping them in a penitentiary for life. Compared to capital punishment, life in prison is far worse. Mistakes may be made and no one can bring another human back to life.
Juries are often white and this may lead to racial decisions. Of the 144 executions since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty in the U.S., not one white person has been executed for killing a black. Of the 16,000 executions in U.S. history, only 30 cases involved a white sentenced for killing a black.
Therefore, no one, including the government, should have the power to tell another human that they must be put to death, no matter what they commit.
Today's government and justice system is not as efficient as it should be. If a mistake is made in an execution sentence and an innocent person dies, no one can bring their life back. Now, if the death penalty did not exist, the person would still have their life. Juries also have to think about the families, both of the victim and the suspect. What if the suspect did not commit the murder and was executed? How would the suspect's family feel? A close relative had just died due to the fact that another mistake was made in our justice system. This in fact would send a rush of anger through my body. The justice system killed somebody's family member. The death penalty should not even exist, due to the fact that many mistakes can be made, and a life can never be brought back. Juries have been and still are mostly consisted of the white majority.
Racism and money is a big part of our everyday lives. With the majority of people in the jury consisted of whites, racism might in fact be involved. Now, if a black family is poor and does not have much money, the suspect may then be issued a racist attorney. Many cases have been recorded of this happening, both of innocent and guilty men. Innocent men again were put to death, this time due to their skin color. This is just another reason leading to how poor our justice system is, and why it should not be in effect.
There are few oppositions to not having the death penalty in effect.
The main concern with not having the death penalty in effect is that people would not care as much when they committed a crime. Now, if the death penalty was in effect, people would think twice about their mistake before committing it.
If the death penalty was abolished throughout the United States of America, then we would know that no injustices are being served that cannot be reversed.
Dieter, Richard C. "Innocence and the Death Penalty: The Increasing Danger of Executing the Innocent." DPIC. Death Penalty Information Center, 1 July 1997. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. .
issues in the court system. Studies show that most victims in the criminal justice system are poor
The cost of the death penalty is extraordinary. California has spent more than $4 billion administering the death penalty since 1978, or more than $300 million per person for each of the 13 people who have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated. Conversely, it costs approximately $200,000 to $300,000 to convict and sentence an individual to life without the possibility of parole. If those sentenced to death received life sentences instead, we accomplish the same deterrent effect of the death penalty: criminals remain off the streets for the rest of their lives. The money saved could be spent on improving the criminal justice system such as increasing
Racism is a very popular thing to fight about today. People actually can make a lot of money if someone says something that offends someone such as being racist toward that person. This is why ...
throughout the whole world--the last murderer lying in prison ought to be executed before the resolution was carried out. This ought to be done in order that every one may realize the desert of his deeds, and that blood-guiltiness may not remain on the people; for otherwise they will all be regarded as participants in the murder as a public violation of justice.” (Rachels, 2010)
There are a few reasons why African Americans are discriminated by the legal system. The primary cause is inequitable protection by the law and unequal enforcement of it. Unequal protection is when the legal system offers less protection to African Amerians that are victimized by whites. It is unequally enforcement because discriminatory treatment of African Americans that are labeled as criminal suspects is more accepted.
Murder, a common occurrence in American society, is thought of as a horrible, reprehensible atrocity. Why then, is it thought of differently when the state government arranges and executes a human being, the very definition of premeditated murder? Capital punishment has been reviewed and studied for many years, exposing several inequities and weaknesses, showing the need for the death penalty to be abolished.
The death penalty continues to be an issue of controversy and is an issue that will be debated in the United States for many years to come. According to Hugo A. Bedau, the writer of “The Death Penalty in America”, capital punishment is the lawful infliction of the death penalty. The death penalty has been used since ancient times for a variety of offenses. The Bible says that death should be done to anyone who commits murder, larceny, rapes, and burglary. It appears that public debate on the death penalty has changed over the years and is still changing, but there are still some out there who are for the death penalty and will continue to believe that it’s a good punishment. I always hear a lot of people say “an eye for an eye.” Most people feel strongly that if a criminal took the life of another, their’s should be taken away as well, and I don’t see how the death penalty could deter anyone from committing crimes if your going to do the crime then at that moment your not thinking about being on death role. I don’t think they should be put to death they should just sit in a cell for the rest of their life and think about how they destroy other families. A change in views and attitudes about the death penalty are likely attributed to results from social science research. The changes suggest a gradual movement toward the eventual abolition of capital punishment in America (Radelet and Borg, 2000).
On March 29, 1971, a thirty-seven-year-old male was convicted of killing seven people and suspected in killing another thirty-five. His methods of killing included gunshots, stabbing with forks, knives, or swords, dissecting, and battering with clubs. He showed no remorse for what he had done, but instead created a media circus in which he had a starring role (Blundell 124-30).
When a person of color is being sentenced the unjustness of sentencing is blatantly shown such as in the article Race Sentencing and Testimony which stated, “ These scholars conclude that black male arrestees “face significantly more severe charges conditional on arrest offense and other observed characteristics” and attribute this primarily to prosecution charging decisions” (Mauer 4). This piece of writing explains that for no other reason than race do these people get convicted far more significantly than others who have the same charge but are white, which continues as far as giving a person of color the max sentence that they can have on a certain charge just for the color of their skin. The justice system has turned into the opposite of what it claims to be and continues to grow as a racist overseer, bashing down on those that they believe should be punished as harshly as possible simply for the color of their skin. The system has gone as deep as to making it so that even if a person has not committed a crime, but are being charged for it they can agree to a plea bargain, which makes it so even though the person did not do it the system is going to have them convicted of it anyway (Quigley 1). “As one young man told me ‘who wouldn’t rather do three years for a crime they didn’t commit than risk twenty-five years
“Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, 138 innocent men and women have been released from the death row, including some who came within minutes of execution. In Missouri, Texas and Virginia investigations have been opened to determine if those states executed innocent men. To execute an innocent person is morally reprehensible; this risk we cannot
This quote provides details of why the finality in the decisions regarding death may not accurately represent the justice the accused deserves. It augments the ultimate overarching point made by Scheck and Rust-Tierney that we should not determine
"Common sense, lately bolstered by statistics, tells us that the death penalty will deter murder... People fear nothing more than death. Therefore, nothing will deter a criminal more than the fear of death... life in prison is less feared. Murderers clearly prefer it to execution -- otherwise, they would not try to be sentenced to life in prison instead of death... Therefore, a life sent...
...t on them, and they were “caught” doing these wrong things, they would most likely change. With this change, those 100+ executions from last year, can become a lower number. In my eyes, no one deserves to die, especially if they/we aren’t even sure that the person committed the accused crime.