Why the Death Penalty Should Be Abolished Why should the death penalty be abolished? The death penalty should be abolished because of many reasons. Many people believe the saying, 'an eye for an eye'. But when will people realize that just because someone may have killed a loved one that the best thing for that person is to die also. People don't realize that they are putting the blood of another person life on their hands. This makes them just as guilty as the person who committed the crime: the only difference is that they didn't use weapon except their mouth to kill them. The death penalty should be abolished because it is racist, punishes the poor, condemns those who are innocent to death, and is a cruel punishment. …show more content…
A Georgia study found that killers of whites are 4.3 times more likely to receive a death sentence than killers of blacks. More than 75 percent of those on federal death row are non-white. Of the 156 federal death penalty prosecutions approved by the Attorney General since 1988, 74 percent of the defendants were non-white (governmentguide.com) . This shows that there is something definitely wrong with the judicial system. If this isn?t enough to convince you that the death penalty is wrong. Then people may need to look at other reasons. The death penalty, does not only show unequal rights, but it also punishes the poor. It shows in recent studies that if an inmate can afford good legal representation, they might can get a lesser charge than death row. It also shows that ninety percent of defendants cannot afford to hire an experienced criminal defense lawyer. Since they cannot afford to hire one, they are forced to use inexperienced court-appointed attorneys that are being underpaid for their services. The less the court-appointed attorneys make, the less they want to make their defense so that they can get rid of this case, and start back making their usual amount of money. There has been many inmates sentenced to death row that innocent. Since 1973, more than 99 people have been released from prison after being sentenced to death despite their innocence, The Social Psychology of Police Interrogation: The
The death penalty was established in the eighteenth century BC, two main reasons the death penalty was put into place was with the hope of reducing capital crime because of the result being in death and the believe that criminals who did a crime so bad that qualify for death row did not deserve to live, but that system is no longer believed to be effective anymore. According to U.S Newswire fifty seven percent of police chiefs agreed that the death penalty does little to prevent violent crimes because perpetrators rarely consider the consequences when engaged in violence(2). The death penalty is also ineffective because ninety percent of offenders can not afford an adequate criminal defence lawyer. This shows that only ten percent of offenders are getting the right defence against higher punishments and charges. Some people argue that the death penalty is effective because people who qualify for death row deserve to die, but many can also argue that the death row violates the constitution by using inhuman and crucial punishments. People also use the quote “An eye for an eye” but would anyone really be left on earth if that was the case? Times are different now then they were back in the eighteenth century, slavery was abolished in 1865, segregation was abolished in 1964, why have we not abolished a system that was put into use when segregation and slavery were believed to be
There are many variables that go into deciding if a person will or will not get the death penalty. I feel that there are too many bias and variables to say that the penalty is dealt out fairly. The people who are up for capital punishment and cannot afford their own attorney are assigned one by the state, which may be of much lower effectiveness than one could afford with much financial backing. According to the Michigan State webpage: "Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 158 black defendants have been executed for the murder of a white victim, while only 11 white defendants have been executed for the murder of a black victim". This is a clear indication that the penalty is racially bias.
The federal government has an obligation to make just laws. Currently, US laws allow for the death penalty for certain heinous crimes. The supporters argue that the 5th Amendment, which guarantees that no one shall be deprived of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” implies that depriving someone of his or her life is permissible under the constitution as long as there is due process. However, there are several reasons why the federal government must abolish the death penalty - it weakens US moral authority over other nations; there have been too many wrongful convictions for death penalty in the US; the death penalty is in conflict with the 8th amendment of the US constitution; and finally, the cost of death penalty
In fact, the death penalty is considered immoral for it goes against the Constitution and ethnic code. The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution states that the use of “cruel and unusual punishment” is considered unconstitutional. However, majority of the capital punishments are filled with discrimination and injustice. The fact that the majority of prisoners who are sentenced with the death penalty are African Americans, reflect the cons of our society. Aside from racial discrimination, socio-economic discrimination also contribute to the flaws within our justice system. One of the top reasons why innocents are being executed or accused, allowing the guilty to get away with their crimes is that criminals who are exceptionally
In this paper, the authors examine how the death penalty argument has changed in the last 25 years in the United States. They examine six specific issues: deterrence, incapacitation, caprice and bias, cost innocence and retribution; and how public opinion has change regarding these issues. They argue that social science research is changing the way Americans view the death penalty and suggest that Americans are moving toward an eventual abolition of the death penalty.
Along with the Moral and Ethical problems the death penalty has monetary problems too. The cost of housing inmates on death row and the extra cost of appeals results in a total extra cost of 65 million dollars a year. All of that money is being wasted on a criminal who isn’t even worth the time to kill him. If
The death penalty can be summed up entirely in one word, bias. For a country that prides itself on “justice for all” and “all men are created equal”, the death penalty falls short of such boast. The subsequent arguments are not formulated to defend the individual and their horrific crime, rather they are presented in order to support why the death penalty is unfair and should be eliminated. If such brutish punishment if seen as just for the crime committed, should it not apply equally to all, regardless of race? The debate of whether the death penalty is inappropriate has been been thoroughly investigated for many years by scholars and journalists alike. I shall defend my position against this sanction based on erroneous convictions, racial biases, and the the high costs associated with the prosecution and detention of death row inmates.
Not only is the death penalty unfair in terms of race, background, or mental state, but it also unfair in terms of the cost it brings to the nation. The death penalty is really expensive. It is even more expensive than life without parole since the Constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases. This process is needed in order to ensure that innocent men and women are not executed for crimes they did not commit (however, even with these protections, the risk of executing an innocent person can not be completely eliminated). “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
There is a lot of controversy about whether the death penalty should be legal or not. It is widely used, with only 18 out of the 50 states having abolished it, but should it be permitted, regardless of the popularity of it? The answer is no. It should be abolished because it demeans life, is cruel, prison is a better punishment, and it is not effective.
Almost all nations in the world either have the death sentence or have had it at one time. It was used in most cases to punish those who broke the laws or standards that were expected of them. Since the death penalty wastes tax money, is inhumane, and is largely unnecessary it should be abolished in every state across the United States. The use of the death penalty puts the United States in the same category as countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia which are two of the world’s worst human rights violators (Friedman 34). Lauri Friedman quotes, “Executions simply inject more violence into an already hostile American society.”
Today, there are over three thousand prisoners on death row. “Between 1972 and 1996, 68 death row inmates were released because proof of their innocence was found” (Acker, Bohm, and Lanier 232). Only after struggling
The Death Penalty, also termed capital punishment, is the legal process in which a person is put to death by the federal or state government based on having committed one of 43 capital crimes, such as first-degree murder, espionage or treason. The death penalty is enforced based upon the idea that law abiding members of society will no longer have to worry about convicted criminals being able to carry out even more heinous crimes within their lifetimes. However enforcing the death penalty has also created a huge uproar, as some believe that taking the life of fellow human being is one of the worst, irreversible offenses one can do to another person. These naysayers believe that putting someone to death denies a person his or her basic, human right to life. Capital punishment should therefore be illegal primarily because it infringes upon this basic human right. It should also be illegal because it is an extremely expensive procedure that costs taxpayers a huge amount of money to maintain. As well, when the death penalty is enforced, the victim is never given a chance for rehabilitation, which is a very unfair way to punish someone. Finally, the death penalty should not be legal because there are race disparities among those who are put to death, which raises questions of equity and overall fairness of its enforcement.
“Any last words?” is the sentence that is given to the people who are about to be put to death.
In California, two proposiitons about the death penalty will be voted on Noverber 8, 2016. The first one is Propostion 62, which requires to repeal the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Another one is Proposition 66 that claims to reform death penalty system by limiting processes of appeals and appointing attorneys to accept capital cases. Although whether repealing or reforming death penalty is still controversial, the current debate reflects that the death penalty system in California is dysfunctional and should be changed as soon as possible.
Death penalty should be scrapped because it can lead to the execution of innocent people. The justice system is bound to make mistakes and so, the accused people should be given a chance to appeal, and prove their innocence other than being murdered because of mistakes made by judges. There are many cases whereby individuals are imprisoned and