The Negative Aspects Of The Death Penalty

2) Approximately 5900 persons have been sentenced to death and 358 executed (from 1973-96). An average of 0.2% of those were executed every year during that time. 56 murderers were executed in 1995, a record number for the modern death penalty. This represented 1.8% of those on death row. The average time on death row for those 56 executed - 11 years, 2 months ("Capital Punishment 1995", BJS, 1996), an all time record of longevity, breaking the 1994 record of 10 years, 2 months.

The state of Texas has executed 510 people from 1982-2014 out of more than 1,300 executions nationwide since 1977. In 2013 sixteen executions were carried out which was a slight increase the fifteen executions that took place in the year 2012. Texas accounted for forty two percent of U.S. executions in 2013 and twice as many as any other state in the United States. By the end of 2013 there were two hundred seventy four people on death row in Texas. Nine of which were women.

Death Penalty and Issues of Deterrence For members of society who are retentionists and want to keep the death penalty, its deterrent effects are one of their primary arguments. But there is no conclusive evidence that the death penalty deters would-be criminals from their act of violence. Countless studies have shown that the murder rate in the United States has not gone down since the states were allowed to kill in 1976. In reality, the murder rate has increased, due to the brutalization factor that the punishment creates. There should be no doubt that the death penalty is an expensive, brutal, and ineffective deterrent to crime.

“Since the 1977 resumption of capital punishment in the United States, nearly 1,100 convicted prisoners have been put to death in the thirty-eight US states where the practice remains legal. As of the beginning of 2007, approximately 3,350 people remain on death row in American prisons” (Ballaro). 1987 was the first time DNA evidence was used in a criminal trial. That is ten years after capital punishment was reopened for use. Who is to say that in those ten years DNA evidence could have exonerated any of the prisoners that were put to death.

This decision was switched when a new method of execution was formed. Capital punishment is a difficult issue and there are many opinions as there are people on this earth. Since the beginning of the United States there has been over 13,000 legal executions. Texas has executed the most people since the death penalty has been reinstated in 1976. There are only about 30-60 prisoners killed yearly.

That person can be send to jail, even to death by executed. During the past 23 years there are more than 2000 cases of wrongful convictions have been exonerated. Nowadays, in prison, there are many innocence people still have to serve for what they did not do. According to law.umich.edu website of University of Michigan law school, in the article “Causes of wrongful convictions”. There are five majority causes of wrongful convictions.

There were 4.7 murders for every 100,000 people in 2012. The murder rate went up 0.4 percent from 2011 to 2012. It went down in 2008 by 12.8 percent and dropped 16.9 percent from 2003. The majority of offenders were over the age of eighteen and they accounted for 9,096 of offenders in 2012. According to the Uniform Crime Report, the number of offenders who murdered in 2012 totaled 14,581.

There are tens of thousands of homicides in this country every year, and only a tiny fraction of these criminals are sentenced to death. What makes a crime so unacceptable that the result is capital punishment? Well it seems that rather than based on the crime, the decision is based on politics, the jurisdiction, and the quality of the legal counsel. “The death penalty is a lethal lottery: of the 22,000 homicides committed every year approximately 100 people or less are sentenced to death” (working for an alternative to the death penalty). The statistics speak for themselves.

This "cleaner" way is death by lethal injection, which is quick and painless if administered right (Cole 450). Since capital punishment has been reinstituted many people have argued for and against capital punishment. Some say the death penalty is what the criminal deserves while others object to it because death is irreversible. I feel the death penalty is a good form of justice because only about 250 people a year get the death penalty and they are guilty beyond a doubt and don't deserve living with the possibility of parole. The sentencing judge or jury are ordered by the Supreme Court to look for "specific aggravating and mitigating factors in deciding which convicted murderers should be sentenced to death" (Cole 451).

During the same period, the U.S. Army executed 160 people, including 106 exections for murder, 53 for rape, and one for desertion. The U.S. Navy has executed no one since 1849. One of opponents' popular false claims is that it is the race of the victim which determines who is on death row. 82% of the murder victims in death penalty cases are white. 13% are black, a 6:1 ratio.