Capital Punishment : A Deadly Mistake

The death penalty is a cruel, ineffective and a morally confusing method used to punish a criminal. For many years the death sentence has been a controversial topic. Many agree that it is wrong and unconstitutional, however, others disagree and say that it is well deserved and that one who kills should, themselves, be killed as well. I stand firm in my belief, opposing the death sentence, for many reasons and research and studies done also support my idea.

Capital punishment, otherwise known as the death penalty, is a controversial subject which has been argued for decades due to the ethical decisions involved. People believe the death penalty is the right thing to do and that it is the perfect example of ‘justice’ while others believe that it is immoral and overly expensive. The death penalty is not a logical sentence for criminals, it doesn’t give them the right type of justice and it is immoral.

Statistics prove that for many years the death penalty has fallen disproportionately on racial minorities in the United States. For example, since 1930

Racism is often an excuse people use to say how unfair the death penalty is against African Americans. This excuse has been proven false in a few studies. More white murderers have been put to death since 1976 then black murderers, showing that the death penalty is not unjust to African Americans and minorities (Fisanick 26).In contrast, almost half of the criminals, on death row are black. Even though that is the case, blacks commit more murders than whites making it proportional (deathpenaltycurriculum.org). Criminals should not be given a lighter or harsher sentence due to their race, but due to the crimes that they committed and the severity of them.

The injustice that comes from this prosecution isn’t taken as seriously as it should be, with it ruining lives of loved of victims and the victims themselves. A study by Katherine Beckett, details how jurors in Washington State were 3 times more likely to impose the death penalty to a person of color than a white person. Deaths that have included white victims make up 80% of Capital cases, while these victims only make up one half of all murder cases. By 2002, 12 cases of the defendant being white and the murder victim being black have been sent to the death penalty, while 178 cases of the defendant being black have been executed. Discrimination in a court of law that relates to the death penalty correlates directly with the prosecution and defense provided. 94.5% of elected prosecutors that reside in death penalty states are white, even going as far as 100% white in 9 states like Washington and Tennessee. These statistics showcase how the legal system is much more harsher and likely to punish people based on their skin

The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) found “a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty.” Moreover, the study reached the conclusion that a defendant in a capital case was much more likely to be given the death sentence if the murder victim was white. Sadly, “the single most reliable predictor of whether someone will be sentenced to death is the race of the victim.”

Life is precious and should not be taken for granted. In the United States capitol punishment has been abolished or overturned in 20 states. According to Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, the nation's opinion is split right down the middle. The death penalty has been the topic of discussion in recent years, it has been very controversial primarily based on how it is permanent. Once action is taken and the punishment of death has been dealt wrongful execution of an innocent person would be an injustice that can never be rectified.

The role of race in the history of American politics is important, as a country with a longstanding legacy of racial inequality. This legacy seems to continue to modern day through the use of the legal system, with people of color far more likely to be imprisoned than their white peers. In fact, “African Americans represent 39.4% of the incarcerated population, yet only 12.6% of the total population; whites represent 34.2% of the incarcerated population, but 72.4$ of the total population” (Shuford, Nationwide Empirical Findings 4). Specific to capital punishment, “the victim’s race is the single best predictor of whether the death penalty will be imposed,” with the African Americans up to twenty times more likely to be executed for killing a white person than the reverse (Shuford, Nationwide Empirical Findings 4). In the same way, black Americans are ten times more likely to be imprisoned for a drug charge than are white Americans (Shuford, Nationwide Empirical Findings 4). This may be related to a “racial empathy gap” which leads people to assume that “relative to whites, blacks feel less pain” (Silverstein).

The death penalty had consistently been one of the United States’ most divided and controversial issues since the the sixteen hundreds. In 2015, twenty-eight people were executed in the United States. The use of the death penalty should be abolished. The death penalty in the United States is too expensive, inconsistent in rulings, and its popularity has declined in recent years. The death penalty is too final of a punishment for the United States to be using.

Twenty two years after the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was constitutional, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) released a study examining the trials and sentences of 667 Murder convictions in Philadelphia between 1983 and 1993. The data shown above is a comparison of the races of the criminals and their victims.The DPIC found that around 15% of all black defendants were sentenced to the death penalty whereas, only 2.6% of white defendants were sentenced to the death penalty. That is a substantial difference that leads a reader to believe that our criminal justice system is in fact not colorblind. In our country we have a strong prejudice against the black community. The study shows that when a white person is murdered,

The death penalty was implemented to punish those deserving of such a punishment, however according to Cohan and Smith “race based arbitrariness “could inhibit the fairness of the administration of punishment” (Cohen and Smith). The statistical study suggested that defendants had a higher probability of receiving the death penalty for a case involving a white victim than a black victim. The Death Row Report U.S.A.,

A law professor from the University of Iowa, David C. Baldus and two colleagues published a study not long after the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 (Dow, 2011). In this study it looked at over 2,000 homicide cases just within Georgia alone beginning in 1972, what they found was startling (Dow, 2011). Baldus found that black defendants were 1.7 times more likely to be given the death penalty than white defendants and those who murdered white victims were actually 4.3 times more apt to be

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.

I believe that every human being is put on earth for a reason, and no individual or state has the right to take away a life. When a crime of death row caliber is committed, that criminal should not be killed, rather, that individual should be placed in prison without parole. States who continue to apply this punishment must realize that the cons outweigh the pros and abolishing capital punishment is morally correct, can save people thousands of dollars, and will ultimately end a useless punishment. Nothing good comes of hate, and nothing good can ever come of capital

In Stephen Bright’s article, “The Death Penalty as the Answer to Crime: Costly, Counterproductive, and Corrupting” Bright asserts that capital punishment does not work because it is racially biased, the quality of the lawyers and attorneys supplied by the state to poor defendants is unfair, and that the law system currently in place does not accomplish its true goals. Bright defends his claim with logos and ethos by examining the opinions of judges and district attorneys, and by describing experience within the fields of human rights and law himself in order to persuade the reader to take up more cases for those on death row. Given the language used in this article Bright is writing to an audience with intermediate to professional experience within the field of law, and a willingness to adopt a new idea on the constitutionality behind the death penalty.