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The death penalty and race
Causes and effects of capital punishment in usa
Capital punishment in america
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Capital Punishment in America
Capital punishment should be viewed as the stripping away of humanity from a person. The death penalty itself should be "executed" because of racial inequities, the concept of murder, the possibility of error, lack of deterrence, the cost, and an overwhelmed legal system. "The goal of capital punishment is revenge" (Introduction 1). Capital punishment is simply an outlet for the bloodlust of the American people (Introduction 1).
The death penalty is very discriminatory when it comes to racial issues. "The death penalty is fraught with abuses and the potential for abuse" (Moral Arguments 1). Capital punishment is largely "divided along racial lines" (Moral Arguments 1). "A 1990 report released by the Federal Government’s General Accounting Office found a ‘pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty after the Furman decision’" (Moral Arguments 1). In the 1970’s, Professor David Baldus examined sentencing patterns in Georgia. He reviewed over two-thousand five hundred homicide cases in Georgia and controlled for two-hundred and thirty non-racial factors. His conclusion was that "a person accused of killing a white was 4.3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than a person accused of killing a black" (Moral Arguments 1). Imagine the statistics when one adds the rest of the states in our country.
Capital punishment is murder. It really doesn’t matter how you look at it. The end result is still the same. "What is the difference between the state killing and an individual killing" (Moral Arguments 1). It adds up to be the same end result. It is "one more dead body, one more set of grieving parents, and one more cemetery slot. When we execute someone, we are sending a profound message of cynicism" about the value of human life (Moral Arguments 2). "Every time we execute someone," we are sinking to the same level as the killer (Moral Arguments 2). "The American people have blood on their hands, and it will stay there until we finally remove this barbaric practice from our nation" (Moral Arguments 2).
One of the most apparent reasons the d...
... middle of paper ...
... The death penalty is based upon revenge against the murderer. All it adds up to at the end of the day is another corpse to bury.
Works Cited
"Death." http://donlemaire.homestead.com/deathpen~main.html.
"Fight the Death Penalty in USA." www.fp.dk/index-uk.htm.
"Innocence and the Death Penalty." www.essential.org/dpic/innoc.html.
Greenberg, Jack. "Taking Sides." Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc. 1991.
"Introduction." http://pages.prodigy.com/DC/vortex.intro.html.
"Moral Arguments Against the Death Penalty." http://pages.prodigy.com/DC/vortex/moral.html.
"Netmonkey’s Death Penalty Page." www.netmonkey.com/1998/features/death/death8.html.
"Pragmatic Arguments Against the Death Penalty."
http://pages.prodigy.com/DC/vortex/prag.html.
United States. President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. "The
Challenge of Crime in a Free Society." New York: Avon, 1968.
Racial discrimination has been an immense problem in our society for a very long time. The fact that the race of a victim plays a role in his or her sentencing is appalling. Discrimination within our society needs to come to an end. It’s frightening to think that if you are a minority facing a capital punishment case, which you might be found guilty only because of the color of your skin.
. However, this individual always expected to other people to move out of his way. Eventually, the author was sick of his attitude, and they walked right into each other. The other individual was furious – wondering why the author had not moved out of his way. The main point the author is trying to convey to the audience is that privileged people expect other people to cater to their needs; to stay out of their way (Boeskool). Privileged people in America expect everyone to tolerate them, and move out of their way. People in America want their ideas to be catered to – such as Christianity. However, once one begins to question, or not move out of their way, they get angry. Privileged people claim “religious reasons for gay marriage and so many more
Affirmative action doesn't require a company to hire the local percentage of women and minorities, qualified or not. The program determines the percentage of qualified women and minorities available to a company, then sets flexible goals, to be reached in good faith. As a result, numerous studies show that minorities who land their jobs through affirmative action are not less qualified than their colleagues.
What is capital punishment? Capital punishment is defined as “The legal authorization to kill someone as a punishment for a crime.” The death penalty has been a widely debated topic on its moral standing and effectiveness of use. In this paper I will be presenting the thoughts of four people; Austin Sarat, Kent Scheidegger, Jeffrey Toobin, and my own and our perspectives on capital punishment being used.
Affirmative Action is the policies that have been introduced to provide equal opportunities to people who have been historically excluded. The action is implemented by providing equal access to education, salary, employment and respect to the group such as women and minorities. The policies were introduced in 1960’s during the civil rights movement in the belief of providing equal rights to the group that has been ruled out by the society. In 1961 President Kennedy was the first to use the term “Affirmative Action” to make sure that all employees are treated in the same manner without discriminating them with their race, color, and national origin. The main reason to establish affirmative action is to increase the employment opportunities and
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, affirmative action is “an active effort to improve employment or educational opportunities for members of minority groups and women.” However, despite its well-intentioned policies, it has been the source of much controversy over the years. Barbara Scott and Mary Ann Schwartz mention that “proponents of affirmative action argue that given that racism and discrimination are systemic problems, their solutions require institutional remedies such as those offered by affirmative action legislation” (298). Also, even though racism is no longer direct, indirect forms still exist in society and affirmative action helps direct. On the other hand, opponents to affirm...
Race plays a large factor in showing how you are viewed in society. Although there is no longer slavery and separate water fountains, we can still see areas of our daily life clearly affected by race. One of these areas is the criminal justice system and that is because the color of your skin can easily yet unfairly determine if you receive the death penalty. The controversial evidence showing that race is a large contributing factor in death penalty cases shows that there needs to be a change in the system and action taken against these biases. The issue is wide spread throughout the United States and can be proven with statistics. There is a higher probability that a black on white crime will result in a death penalty verdict than black on black or white on black. Race will ultimately define the final ruling of the sentence which is evident in the racial disparities of the death penalty. The amount of blacks on death row can easily be seen considering the majority of the prison population is black or blacks that committed the same crime as a white person but got a harsher sentence. The biases and prejudices that are in our society relating to race come to light when a jury is selected to determine a death sentence. So what is the relationship between race and the death penalty? This paper is set out to prove findings of different race related sentences and why blacks are sentenced to death more for a black on white crime. Looking at the racial divide we once had in early American history and statistics from sources and data regarding the number of blacks on death row/executed, we can expose the issues with this racial dilemma.
Affirmative action in the U.S. started to come about in the early nineteen sixties. It was enacted along with many other anti-segregation laws, as part of the "Civil Rights act of 1964 and an executive order in 1965 (Affirmative, Encyclopedia Britannica par. 2)." Today affirmative action is still going strong. It has many positive aspects, but it also has several negative affects, one of which is "reverse discrimination.
The outlined goals of affirmative action are what we need for this country. The United States society needs to change the way it sees and treats its citizens. The methods that affirmative action uses, however, are not conducive to ac...
Affirmative action creates reverse discrimination upon the opposite races. Ever since the civil war of the 1860s and the civil rights movement of the 1960s in which minorities in The United States of America, who majority are composed of African Americans and Women who were refused the opportunity’s to use public services such as public schools and certain Employment opportunities like promotions. The government of the United States has tried to restore equality and balance the society of this country by passing certain policies that would make those who were denied certain opportunities in the past bad times so they would not be left behind in struggle and failure. Affirmative Action was one of these policies. It was first used by President John F. Kennedy In his effort to restore equality of the country...
Affirmative action is a plan to offset past discrimination in employing and educating women, blacks, and other minorities. It is the government's way of apologizing to ethnic groups for the injustices they have suffered. Affirmative action is supposed to preserve liberty and to improve race relations, but it is actually worsening them. It is not helping poor blacks; it is primarily helping well-to-do blacks. More effective programs should be implemented to take the place of affirmative action.
In the United States, Affirmative Action is a group of policy decisions that provide benefits or some special opportunities to members of underrepresented or underprivileged groups. These policies began in the United States and were aimed at creating an equal opportunity workforce but were also extended to college admissions. These policies were created in 1961 when President Kennedy’s Executive Order 10925 where he wrote that all companies are to, "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." Today, in a country with fairly evolved race relations, Affirmative Action is a topic of hot debate. Many Americans believe that these policies of affirmative action have turned into reverse discrimination against Caucasian Americans, while other Americans believe that we still need these policies.
Since its inception, the US has struggled with implementing affirmative action. Before discrimination was outlawed, women and minorities were not represented in the workforce in the numbers to be expected given their population and availability in the labor force. After the Civil Rights Act passed, minority representation in the workforce still did not show any significant improvement. The ambiguity and limited coverage of the law in addition to lack of enforcement prevented significant change in employment practices or workforce numbers (Chay, 1998, p.610). About 35% of all workers were employed by organizations that were not covered by Title VII; while 40% of African American workers in the South were not covered (Chay, 1998, p.613). ...
Affirmative action is very specific in terms of who it helps. It prevents discriminatory practices that adversely affect certain groups. Racial and gender equity are it...
Saleh-Hanna, a contributer to the book 'The Case for Penal Abolition' has recently done some research and found that, ?research and evidence has shown that most prisoners are poor, they come from minority populations and have faced great discrimination and racism in the community both before they committed their crimes and during the criminal justice process.? The death penalty is racist because there are higher percentages among those of ethical background. Quoted from the book, Death Penalty Cases: Leading U.S Supreme Court Cases on Capital Punishment, Death-penalty opponents respond that the race card plays a role in other ways. When a defendant has been convicted of killing a white person the odds that the defendant will be executed by the state are much higher. Eighty-five percent of those who have been executed since 1976 were convicted for killing a white person, while only 13% were executed for killing a black person. When will people realized that just because a person is of another race that they are more dangerous than another race.