Capital Punishment Dbq

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Imagine being wrongly accused of a crime. It is a truly nerve wrecking feeling. Better yet, imagine being wrongly accused of a capital crime in which a guilty verdict would result in the loss of life. Although certain crimes merit the punishment of death, Congress should still put an end to all forms of capital punishment throughout the United States since it is an unfair, irrevocable, and costly practice. When someone is convicted of a capital crime their life depends on their ability to defend their innocence, an ability which can be altered based on unfair factors such as wealth, class, or level of education. Capital punishment is a very risky practice since the punishment of death is irrevocable, once someone is put to death there is no …show more content…

The unfair imbalance between the capabilities of the prosecution and the public defense is a recipe for a guilty verdict to whoever cannot afford adequate representation. The obvious issue being that the most commonly accused lower class citizens will have the most difficulty proving their innocence. Two out of three convictions are overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct or serious incompetence of court-appointed defense attorneys showing the public defense system is a broken and does not provide equal justice(Source 1). The capabilities of the defense is based on the defendant's status since better lawyers cost more money, therefore a poor innocent man would have a higher chance of being put to death than a wealthy man who was guilty but had a strong defense. Race also plays a role in the sentencing of capital punishment. A ACLU study has shown that people of color are far more likely to be executed than white people(Source 2). Although white people make up about fifty percent of murder victims, they are about seventy five percent of the victims of cases resulting in execution(Source 2). African Americans also make up fifty percent of the population on death row even though they …show more content…

Capital punishment is much more expensive and time consuming than life imprisonment without parole since the constitution requires an extensive judicial process for capital crimes(Source 3). Cases of capital punishment require more pre-trial time, more experts, more attorneys, and are often followed up with a series of appeals(Source 1). The cost per each death row prisoner compared to a life imprisonment inmate is ninety thousand dollars more expensive per year(Source 3). Enforcing the death penalty in Florida has cost about fifty one million dollars more that it would have for life imprisonment without parole.The death penalty is an economic burden which we would be better

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