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Banning Capital Punishment In The United States

Decent Essays

Capital punishment in the United States is becoming more and more of a topic of conversation and controversy; eighteen states have outlawed the death penalty and the governors of three other states declaring a moratorium, meaning they will not sign executions during their time in office (Lovett). The national trend of banning the death penalty should definitely continue. Many criminals on death row are exonerated, making it an unreliable system of punishment. Also, capital punishment is not used equally in cases. The death penalty can also be considered cruel and unusual punishment, which is against the 8th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The death penalty should be abolished because it is not the right way to deal with …show more content…

This law proves that the death penalty is more important to some legislators than justice. The death penalty must be stopped. According to John McAdams of Marquette University, another point of inequality is that inner city suspects are less likely to be charged on the death penalty level because prosecutors are less likely to take on the case. This means people in the inner city are not being prosecuted on the same level as people in more rural areas; no matter the race, this is still inequality, which is an inherent flaw in our justice system.
The eighth amendment bans “cruel and unusual punishment,” but the definition changes over time. According to Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, what the courts consider “cruel and unusual” vary with the “current standards of decency” (Dieter). If the national trend of banning the death penalty continues, it will become more and more rare, meaning it will be more and more unusual. The Supreme Court could then constitute the death penalty as cruel and unusual punishment; illegal under the eighth amendment. Another argument is the Supreme Court could consider something cruel and unusual if it is applied unequally to a certain race or region of people, as previously

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