Capital Punishment Should Be Abolished

The death penalty has had and will always have the danger of judicial errors. As the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center Richard Dieter has emphasized, “every time we have an execution, there is a risk of executing an innocent person. The risk may be small, but it’s unacceptable” (Death to the Death Penalty). According to the Death Penalty Information Center, among all 7,818 people who were sentenced to death since 1977, 1412 people have been executed and 155 people have been proved innocent. Therefore, for every nine people executed, we have found one person is innocent.

Across America a battle of morals rages over the death penalty. Like many other controversial issues that consume our society, the issue of the death penalty is not easily defined. Some people feel that one should reap what they sow. However, the issue is more complex than the eye for an eye standard. With the death penalty in place, our country is stumbling down a twisted path with numerous complications nationwide.

It may have seemed like a clear verdict, but nine years later, he was found innocent and pardoned, the first man ever to be released from death row. Nine years later, he describes his time in prison as “Hell on Earth” (Bloodsworth). Nine years later, he faces a system in which his case is but one of the numerous wrongful convictions that take place or have taken place in this country. Ladies and gentlemen, nine years later, wrongful convictions are absolutely a problem in the United States, one that, every day, costs innocent people their freedom.

Out of the 50 states, 26 of them have had at least one death row execution. American people (approximately 65%) say that they are still strong supporters in the Death Penalty. That is over half of the American population, for the Death Penalty. One may argue that it is a horrible way of giving people what they deserve; however, those people may not see the mistakes these people have made, making them not agree with this act. As this may be a contradiction, capital punishments is one of the life learning punishments known. It is legal in many states, but that doesn’t make it fair to all because its blameful, the cost is outrageous, and it’s time that needs to be spent helping, instead of killing.

The United States of America, one of the most profound and progressive countries in the world, is also the only country in the Americas, to continued to use the death penalty as a punishment and execute its own people to prove that killing others is bad. Death Penalty continues to be a hot topic in the states with many people for and many others against the use of death as a form of punishment for criminals who commit first degree or aggravated murder. There are many factors that can place one at a disadvantage and increase the possibility of being sentenced to death penalty such as race, socioeconomic status, and geographical factors, among other potential reasons for the crimes that have been committed. The further capital punishment is investigated

Even after these devastating facts, the death penalty still isn’t being put down in the United States. Thirty two of the fifty states in America allow for capital punishment. Lethal injections are the number one way to execute a criminal in America, and there are many other methods offered in select states. Texas, a state that strongly supports capital punishment, was the first state to carry out lethal injections on December 7, 1982 for the execution of Charles Brooks. Texas is also the first in the number of executions in the United States. If Texas made the death penalty illegal, the number of executions in the United States would decrease dramatically. Electrocution, lethal gas, a firing squad and even hangings still occur in the United States and are secondary options for many criminals in the country.

Execution of innocent prisoners, does not produce an overall net intrinsic value compared to alternative punishments. According to statistical data collected, as of October 2015, a total of 156 people have been exonerated while on death row- since 1973. A total of 1,414 people have been executed since that time, meaning one out of ten people on death row are innocent. (“Exoneration of Innocent Men and Women”) This data brings forth the scenario of innocent victims being killed, by flaws in the criminal justice system. Murder of an innocent individual is not morally justifiable, because it would fail

The United States is a country whose ideals is founded on protecting the rights of its citizens, making sure each action they take will benefit its people without compromising the liberties America had fought to earn. However, once those liberties are compromised, this may lead to protests and violence which in turn may cause large rates of incarceration and possibly death. The issue of capital punishment has existed since the 18th century BC, and it is an issue that will continue until justice and individual liberties find a common ground that they share. With a growing debate over universally banning capital punishment in the states, as shown by 61% of voters in a 2010 poll, or forcing all states to conform to using the death penalty, the

We are all people and just like justice Thurgood Marshall said, “No matter how careful courts are, the possibility of perjured testimony, mistaken honest testimony, and human error remain all too real. We have no way of judging how many innocent persons have been executed, but we can be certain that there were some.” Make mistakes. (Capital punishment). There have been many occasions where innocent people are sentenced to death without parole and end up executed. This was the case for Cameron Todd Willingham who was sentenced to death for allegedly setting his house on fire and killing his three daughters. He was executed by lethal injection in 2004 but later evidence after his wrongful death proved his innocence. Another case that almost resulted in an execution of an innocent man was the case of Ernest Willis. Willis was freed after the forensic evidence used to convict him was deemed invalid. Thanks to the Innocence Project, these and many other inmates have had their cases reviewed and found innocent of their charged crime, alive or already executed. Without an organization like the Innocence Project, many innocent people would have fallen victim to a wrongful execution without a chance of clearing their name. (Cameron). The deaths of innocent people is just one example of the

The American judicial system is not perfect, and its flaws sometimes bare adversely on the people of this society. For instance, just because someone is labeled a criminal, does not always necessitate the fact that they are a criminal. Brian Gilmore argues this point when he mentioned that within the past 30 years, 102 innocent individuals have been acquitted from death row in America. He says that those individuals were either not released due to legal technicalities or because evidence was lost. “These men and women did not commit their crimes. Yet somehow, they were arrested, convicted, and sentenced to die, and some came awfully close to execution” Gilmore claimed. Unfortunately, it seems as though mistakes such as this one occur far too often; then, they eventually go unnoticed as we forget that those people, criminals or not, are human just like us. Considering the large window of feasible error associated with the death penalty, it is best that Americans make every effort to eliminate the intentional practice of capital punishment on criminals.

Although supporters of capital punishment argue that there has been no proof of an innocent person being executed in the past century, more inmates are being exonerated from the death row (SB). It is evident that the criminal justice system makes mistakes as errors have gone through the process. In “Death Penalty Debates: Is the capital punishment system working?” Kenneth Jost stated that a Texas death row inmate, Anthony Graves, spent nearly two decades in prison for a crime he did not commit, becoming the 139th former death row inmate to have been freed of his alleged crime (AP). Some death row inmates were proven innocent by DNA analysis and some were released based on a reexamination of evidence. “Most of the exonerations, like Graves’,

This usually occurs when an innocent person believed to be convicted of a crime gets executed, due to the fact that the evidence provided in court usually contains some flaws to erroneously indicate that he/she is responsible for the crime. In the short story “Two Fishermen”, the narrator states ‘In the morning, young Thomas Delaney, who had grown in the town, was being hanged: he had killed Mathew Rhinehart whom he had caught molesting his wife when she had been berry picking in the hills behind the town. Thomas Delaney had taken a bad beating before he had killed Rhinehart.’ This demonstrates that Thomas was innocent because he tried to save his wife from Rhinehart’s approach. But when Rhinehart starts beating Thomas very badly, Thomas had to react quickly and was forced to kill him in order to defend himself from the bad beating. Hence penalties on innocent can be avoided, only if the right to defence is protected and capital punishment is banned from the

The fight and controversy behind capital punishment is not a new idea. The death penalty has divided America down the middle, with half against and half pro the punishment. Due to the sensitivity of capital punishment, the Supreme Court has dictated which states capital punishment is legal. Despite it being legal in these states, it is up to the prosecutor’s discretion to vie for this punishment as opposed to other forms such as life in prison, rehabilitation, etc.

Despite all the pros and cons of capital punishment, society must think about what is truly correct and most practical for our world. Capital punishment is not functional in today’s legal system. There are countless amounts of evidence that proves these legal killings to be ineffective. We, as Americans, must correct this irrational practice before it does anymore permanent damage.

Capital crime is something that is meant for people that are found guilty of committing a serious crime, such as murder, rape, or theft. These are offences that should not be taken lightly but by killing the offender, the government is carrying about the action that they are trying to prevent. Also, the wrong person may be sentenced to death. After this person is executed, there is obviously nothing that can be done for the terrible mistake to be reversed. The death penalty should be abolished because it is more expensive than life imprisonment, numerous innocent people are condemned to death row, and it is cruel and inhumane.