Why Do White Americans Support The Death Penalty

As Robert Blecker, a Professor of Economics and American University, says, “An unpleasant life in prison, a quick but painful death…can help restore a moral balance” (Blecker). Some people agree with the death penalty because of moral fairness; however, some people oppose the death penalty because of family relationship, financial costs with education, false conviction, bias and religious perspective. In the article “With the Death Penalty, Let the Punishment Fit the Crime,” the author Robert Blecker argues about which method of execution would best fit the crime and the unequal situation in prison. Although Blecker explains the reason of death penalty and discusses about choosing better method of execution, based on the research, I oppose

The public opinion within the United States on capital punishment has fluctuated since its early establishment during the colonial era. The debate about the use of capital punishment has been shaped by factors such as class, gender, age but most importantly race.

Kent McKeever a white male, husband, father, attorney and youth minister, whose home is in Texas thought that he lived a pretty privileged life and wanted to experience how harsh and real, those who were underclass and less fortunate lived and the struggles that they had to deal with on a daily basis. Being privileged has some very positive outcomes and he really never had to deal with anything that would hold him back. He would always do very well and try hard, he just wanted a better understanding of why these people get treated so poorly. By doing this he would have a clearer understanding of the shame and humiliation that these people hold with them everywhere.

This article is a scholarly article because it cites off of the information and anyone can easily look up where the author got her information. The article is also 15 pages long and goes into depth about every topic that is covered. The final hint that shows that the writing is a scholarly article is that a professor of cultural and social geography at Queen’s University wrote it. In this article, the author talks about Troy Davis, a man who was sentenced to death after he was found guilty of murdering a police officer. However, it was revealed that much of the evidence and the witnesses were corrupted, but it was too late and Troy Davis was killed. Kobayashi talks about how the United States is one of the few countries in the world to still have the death penalty. Kobayashi then goes into detail about how a majority of the people sentenced to death by the Federal court were African American, just like Troy Davis. Kobayashi also says that there is no correlation between states with high murder rates and number of people sentenced to death. Kobayashi then talks about how public support is decreasing and how this is a good thing, especially since race plays so heavily into who is executed. Kobayashi looks deeper into the Troy Davis case and how many people were opposing his executing due to lack of

The article that I read about the racial bias of the death penalty in the U.S. by David Love explained how southern states are responsible for the vast majority of African American executions in the United States. Love explicitly stated that “the application of the U.S. death penalty is unfair, arbitrary, and racially biased.” Most disturbingly, the article explained that whether or not a capital punishment defendant receives the death penalty does not depend on the facts of the case but more so on the race of the defendant and the race of the victim. Moreover, even the county in which the case was prosecuted can play a role in capital punishment sentencing.

The death penalty, or capital punishment, has always been a topic of much debate in the United States. There are those who support it and those who oppose it, and each side has their fair share of points being made, backed by supportive evidence. The topics range from the morality of this punishment, including the methods of execution as well as fairness issues in regards to sex and race. The first issue that will be addressed is in regards to the death penalty working to prevent violent crimes.

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

Studies have also been carried out to explore whether the state’s chronological use of the death penalty to control African Americans has differentially affected African American and White support for capital punishment beyond a possible geographical divide. Past studies have shown that public opinion on national policy issues is shaped by distrust and opposition to government power (Hetherington and Globetti, 257; Kinder and Sanders; Kinder and Winter, 441). Various studies have concluded that groups are much less likely to support policies enacted by a government that they distrust, principally if past policies have negatively affected them (Hetherington and Globetti 259). In addition, Zimring argues that distrust of government should be

Capital Punishment is used in the judicial system unfairly and as a weapon against minorities. This is mostly due in part to racism in the courts by the lawyers and judges. Race continues to plague the application of the death penalty in the United States. On the state

Forty-Five years ago, Arthur Goldberg and Alan Dershowitz described death penalty as "unusual" under the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, saying, "Most commentators describe the imposition of the death penalty as not only haphazard and capricious, but also discriminatory. "' Noting that capital punishment impacts "disadvantaged minorities,"' Goldberg and Dershowitz delivered a prescient message:

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).

My initial assumption on how racial bias affects the capital punishment. Racial bias has a major factor in capital punishment case. We have to take into consideration on how society sees and feels about the individual race and skin color. For example, we have Jose who did not commit the crime, but he belongs to a race that society see them as thugs, criminals, people who break the rules and hurt other people. On the other hand, we have Billy an individual who committed the crime, but he belongs to a race that society see them as the good people, people who follow the rules and help others. Jose will have a bigger opportunity to be sentenced to death than Billy just because society sees his race as criminals. Racial bias does have a significant

While supporters of the death penalty thought that the death penalty could be applied without racial and class disparities, research conducted through the years have indicated that race and class disparities have shown not in isolated cases, but in many cases. The authors argue that “Public opinion on the death penalty show that while most Americans recognize the problem of race and class bias, they do not view such discrimination as a reason to oppose the death penalty” (Radelet & Borg, 2000, page 5).

In this argumentative essay I’m going to analyze the topic of death penalty through the lenses of Communication and Religion disciplines which I’m studying right now and argue that death penalty needs to be abolished. I’m going to use to support my view religious and non-religious arguments, such as belief in God and psychological aspects of this hard and controversial question as well as discuss how race, class and other factors are influencing on the person’s perception of the death penalty.

Four major issues in capital punishment are debated, most aspects of which were touched upon by Seton Hall’s panel discussion on the death penalty. The first issue stands as deterrence. A major purpose of criminal punishment is to conclude future criminal conduct. The deterrence theory suggests that a rational person will avoid criminal behavior if the severity of the punishment outweighs the benefits of the illegal conduct. It is believed that fear of death “deters” people from committing a crime. Most criminals would think twice before committing murder if they knew their own lives were at stake. When attached to certain crimes, the penalty of death exerts a positive moral influence, placing a stigma on certain crimes like manslaughter, which results in attitudes of horror to such acts.