In March of 1985, Kirk Bloodsworth was convicted and sentenced to death for viciously killing and raping a 9 year old girl. Several eyewitnesses claimed to have all of the evidence the prosecution would need for a conviction and death sentence. However, 9 years later DNA evidence proved that Bloodsworth had not actually committed a crime at all. After being forced to waste 9 years of his life in prison, Bloodsworth was finally released. The Guardian reports that “at least 4.1% of all defendants sentenced to death in the US in the modern era are innocent” (Pilkington). This is a compelling statistic when lives are in the balance. The death penalty has posed countless problems to the United States’ judicial system that could easily be avoided …show more content…
If the death penalty were to be abolished there would be several different programs that the governments could invest in to improve communities. This would provide a win-win situation for both justice and local community organizations. People would still be held forced to serve the appropriate sentences for the crimes they committed (short of the death sentence), and states would be able to provide more funding to organizations that could benefit …show more content…
A large argument in support of capital punishment is the idea that the death penalty will deter people from committing crimes. According to the Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty organization, or OADP for short, no scientific studies have been able to successfully conclude that the death penalty deters crime and “states without the death penalty [actually] have a lower murder rate than neighboring states with the death penalty” (The Facts). How can this practice even be justified? One of the most common offensives that can result in a death sentence is murder. So, how is it logical to kill someone for killing someone? Capital punishment is not justice and is an embarrassment to the United States’ judicial
deter crime? A study into the effect of Capital Punishment said, 'the presence of the death penalty in law and practice has no discernible effect as a deterrent to murder.' How does this serve as a deterrent to crime? It offers the convict an easy way out with no reflection on what they've done. They don't learn from their mistakes and although there is obviously no risk of re-offence, the criminal cannot give anything back to society.
To abolish capital punishment on this basis would be way off base. You would also have to get rid of prisons because they do not keep people from committing crimes. Texas A&M University collected data and the results are horrifying. In 1960 there were 56 executions and 9,140 murders in the past. In 1964 there were 15 executions and 9, 250 murders.
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.
Proponents of capital punishment believe that killing criminals is a moral and ethical way of punishing them. They feel there is justification in taking the life of a certain criminal, when in fact that justification is nothing more than revenge. They also feel that the death penalty deters crime, although there have been no conclusive studies confirming that viewpoint (Bedau).
The death penalty is much more expensive than life without parole because the Constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases. If the death penalty was replaced with a sentence of Life Without the Possibility of Parole, which costs millions less and also ensures that the public is protected while eliminating the risk of an mistake, the money saved could be spent on programs that actually improve the communities in which we live. Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter people from committing crime anymore than long prison sentences. Moreover, states without the death penalty have much lower murder rates. The South accounts for 80% of US executions and has the highest regional murder rate (Death Penalty
While one person lays with their wrists circumscribed to the worn leather of the gurney, another person holds two skin-piercing needles. The individual holding the needles is an inexperienced technician who obtains permission from the United States federal government to murder people. One needle is held as a precaution in case the pain is too visible to the viewers. Another dagger filled with a lethal dosage of chemicals is inserted into the vein that causes the person to stop breathing. When the cry of the heart rate monitor becomes monotone, the corrupt procedure is complete. Lying in the chair is a corpse when moments ago it was an individual who made one fatal mistake that will never get the chance to redeem (Ecenbarger). Although some people believe that the death
According to deathpenatlyinfo.org, currently there are 32 states with the death penalty and 18 states without the death penalty. Society has always punished people that do unlawful actions. Being that murder is the most is in highest interest of preventing, the strongest punishment available, the death penalty, is used. People may think when states sentence murderers to death that it would prevent future murderers from doing the same actions seeing that they will receive the same punishment. Deathpenaltycurriculum.org reports, “Moreover, even if some studies regarding deterrence are inconclusive, that is only because the death penalty is rarely used and takes years before an execution is actually carried out”. Not only that but some states that don’t have the death penalty have lower crimes rates than those that do. In my opinion the death penalty should be abolished due to many purposeful reasons including: financial costs, the process slowing down the court system, life in prison being far more effective, possibility of convicting and killing an innocent person, and violating “cruel and unusual” punishment clause.
It has been demonstrated the one in seven people, or fourteen percent, who are put on death row were innocent of their convicted crimes. The American society is outraged when an innocent person is killed, the fourteen percent would not have to suffer if the death penalty was illegal throughout the country. There is no way to tell how the more one thousand people, possibly more, executed since 1976 may also have been innocent, courts do not generally entertain claims of innocence when the defendant is dead. Wrongful convictions and executions can be made from many of the following factors: mistaken eyewitness testimony, faulty forensic science, fabricated testimony or testimony from jailhouse informants, grossly incompetent lawyers, false confessions, police or prosecutorial misconduct and racial bias. Many of the people who are resentenced from death to life imprisonment may be innocent and rotting behind bars, since without the imminent threat of death, no one will take up their case to exonerate them. Along with the con of the death of innocent people, the elimination of the death penalty proves as a more effective way to deter
Throughout the years the death penalty has been a very controversial aspect when it comes to punishment. Some groups of people believe that is should be abolished and other think that America should keep it. I’m here to say that I am not for the death penalty at all. To me the death penalty has a couple of flaws that I have an issue looking past. The death penalty is very unconstitutional for anyone who is put through it and it is very bias on who it chooses for the punishment.
One of the most repetitive and controversial topics discussed in the criminal justice system, is the death penalty. Capital punishment has been a part of our nation’s history since the creation of our constitution. In fact, as of January 1st, 2016, 2,943 inmates were awaiting their fate on death row (Death Penalty Information Center). Throughout my life, I have always been a strong advocate for the death penalty. During the majority of my undergraduate degree, I was a fierce supporter of capital punishment when discussing the topic in classes. However, throughout many criminal justice courses, I found myself in the minority, regarding the abolishment of the death penalty. While debating this topic, I would always find myself sympathetic to the victims and their families, as one should be, wanting those who were responsible for heinous crimes to
The death sentence has become a huge controversy in the United States over the past forty years. Over those forty years there has been a lot of less tax payers and donators willing to pay money to the justice system to execute a criminal. These types of people that have helped to pay in the past for these executions have stopped due to them not wanting a death connected to them in any way, or because they simply see life in prison a more suitable punishment. Without the funding needed, the criminals on death row are not able to receive their proper punishment within a reasonable amount of time. A lot of times the criminals never get their proper punishment due to lack of funding. Also, criminals that commit extreme crimes may not get the death penalty due to it not being registered as capital murder. These are all issues that have affected the death penalty over time.
“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
There are many reasons why capital punishment is a good thing, and should be enforced and used more. First off, capital punishment is a good thing because it deters crime. For example, in the 1960s while the number of executions was decreasing, the homicide rate was increasing. As execution started to increase, statistics show that the homicide rate slowly decreased or stayed the same, but it did not increase. Fear of death deters people from committing crime. The...
However, this is only an assumption. Statistical information hasn’t conclusively managed to show the actual deterrent effect of the death penalty. But even so, capital punishment makes sure that the person, who gets executed, at least, is deterred. This again, is a form of incapacitation, where logic puts forth that the executed person will be prevented from committing any further crimes, inflicting any further harm upon the society.
The first reason why it should not be abolished is because the death penalty will reduce crime rate. Opposers say that the death penalty does not reduce the crime rate, but in my opinion it does reduce the crime rate. I believe if people actually think twice before committing a crime, and realize that they could hurt themselves or their family then they are going to slow their role and better themselves. The second reason