One in twenty-five or 4.1% of people sentenced to death are innocent(One in 25). A man named Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongfully sentenced to death. In Texas, during the year 2004 Cameron was accused of killing his three daughters in a fire. Cameron claimed that he was innocent from the very beginning, yet no one believed him. He was found guilty for the act of killing his three daughters in the fire.
Advocates for the death penalty are for it for many; they believe it has a strong deterrent effect, it gives closure to the families and more tolerable someone perceives imprisonment to be, the less deterrent effect life in prison will have. Capital punishment is a system of government that is a complicated area. The reason it is complicated is not all states enforce the death penalty, because criminal punishment is a subject left for the states to decide (Banner, 2002). However, the death penalty has provided to be a punishment benefiting certain crimes, such as murders as it is the ultimate punishment. It has taken harmful elements off the streets as well as acting as a deterrent for both the convicted criminals and other potential criminals.
Judges and others are reluctant - as they should be - to shorten the execution process for fear that hasty procedures will lead to the executions of more innocent people. The death penalty has been imposed most for murders committed during the course of another felony. Aggravating circumstances for murder are defined in the applicable death penalty statute. Bibliography: Works Consulted Flanders, Stephen A. Capital Punishment.
In 1843, testifying that one is insane became a useful defense. When Daniel McNaughtan attempted to assassinate British Prime Minister Robert Peel, he failed. Instead, McNaughtan killed Peel's secretary but was found not guilty by reason of insanity at the trial. The United States criminal justice system quickly adopted this new law of not guilty by reason of insanity, established by the McNaughton Decision. Although he was found not guilty, McNaughtan spent twenty years in a mental asylum until his death.
There is no one consensus for or against the death penalty. Although there have been many studies on the immorality of the death penalty and whether or not to limit the death penalty in some ways or just completely abolish it all together. It appears that more people are leading towards getting rid of the death penalty, but the courts want to keep it because the courts argue that that it is a successful fear tactic and may prevent future crimes. The death penalty is inhumane, biased, arbitrary, and an unsuccessful fear tactic so it should be abolished. The death penalty is inhumane.
Large amount of criminals, have the possibility of being put on death row depending on the level of extremity of the crime they have committed. Although during convicted times, certain individuals are wrongfully accused and placed on the death row. That is why in the United States, the use of Capital Punishment is wrong and unnecessary therefore, it should be banned. Many advocates of Capital Punishment often will put out that the charges of an innocent life being convicted are lower to... ... middle of paper ... ....” CBS News. Web.
When a person is executed, it is done with absolutely no doubt at all. I 'm uncomfortable with the disparity between the levels of certainty in the two situations. In my way of looking at things, it is as much an unpardonable crime to execute an innocent person as it is to criminally murder someone. The death penalty is in America is defined by error. The existence of the death penalty in a situation when there isn 't absolute certainty of guilt always admits the possibility of executing the wrong individual.
From the States side, the prosecutor mainly considers the atrocity of the crime and the mental state of the accused when deciding whether to seek the death penalty. The defense usually tries to get the jury to believe that the death penalty is inhumane and is not a deterrent to ... ... middle of paper ... ...e is not served. Also, the family of the victim must be taken into consideration. The family has suffered greatly and deserves to see justice served. On the anti-capital punishment side, there will always be the argument of deterrence.
Supporters may argue that a serious crime deserves an equally serious punishment, while opponents say that this is revenge rather than punishment. The judicial decree that someone be punished in this manner is a death sentence, while the actual process of killing the person is an execution. Crimes whose outcome is the death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. In the past, many countries have practiced capital punishment. According to Amnesty International, over two-thirds of the countries in the world – 139 – have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice ("Death Penalty Facts”).
Rationalization of the death penalty only equates to judicial murder. The same judges inflict unnecessary pain on the loved ones of the executed. If what we are all striving for is less pain, than we should not be advocating more. There are no easy answers, nor is there a clear line of right and wrong. Individual free will leads to differences within us all.