Pros And Cons Of Wrongful Punishment

In March of 1985, Bloodsworth was sentenced to death. Through it all Bloodsworth maintained his innocence and in 1993 with the help of a new technique used to test for DNA, Bloodsworth got his chance to prove he was innocent. Bloodsworth became the first person ever to be exonerated from death row by DNA evidence. (Jain, 2001) In one

According to capital punishment supporters, many of these reasons of the anti-death penalty movement are false and are now wrongly accepted as fact. The argument that the death penalty does not deter crime is debatable. By executing murderers you prevent them from murdering again. If these people no longer exist then they obviously cannot commit more crimes. In addition, criminals have admitted, in thousands of fully documented cases, that the death penalty was the specific threat which deterred them from committing murder (Pro-Death Penalty, 2014). The opponents of capital punishment claim that the death penalty has caused and can cause the execution of innocent people. However, according to the supporters, no evidence indicates that innocent people have been executed. Upon reviewing 23 years of capital sentences, a Wall Street Journal study indicated that they were unable to find a single case in which an innocent person was executed (Eddlem, 2002). Furthermore, advocates note that the

Keeping a prisoner in jail for life will be very expensive considering that it costs $80,000 a year; and the bad news is that the money comes from the taxpayer's pocket. Thousands of people will attack the death penalty. They will give emotional speeches about the one innocent man who might be executed. However, all of these people are forgetting one crucial element. They are forgetting the thousands of victims who die every year. This may sound awkward, but the death penalty saves lives. It saves lives because it stops those who murder from ever murdering again (Bryant). These opinions represent some of the strongest and most influential views that proponents hold. However, if our prison system could rehabilitate more effectively, perhaps those who murdered once, could change.

In the last several years, too many people in the United States have been wrongfully sentenced with the death penalty. Several accused have their sentence overturned or they have been totally exonerated. There are at least 8 people who were executed by United States and later proven innocent (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org). Over a 20 year period, 68% of all death sentences were reversed (http://karisable.com). A noteworthy example is of Jerry Banks who was convicted and sentenced with the death penalty for two counts of murder in 1975. Five years later, in 1980, Banks' conviction was overturned on the basis of newly discovered evidence which was allegedly known to the state at the time of trial. Another example was the case of Lawyer Johnson who was sentenced to death in 1971 by an all white jury for the murder of a white victim. Later in 1982, Johnson’s conviction was overturned and Johnson exonerated when a previously silent eyewitness identified the state’s chief witness as the real murderer. (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org) Human error is inevitable, particularly

The mandatory minimum sentencing is about a fixed ruling of a crime that a judge is expected to deliver. Congress has enacted mandatory minimum sentencing laws. It was to impose the mandatory sentencing an offender would receive for crimes that were committed. The mandatory minimum punishment guidelines would require for judges to hand down judgement for a certain length of time. This would mean that for crimes that are committed there are criminal sentencing guidelines, this would give judges a certain discretion on how to proceed in sentencing an offender. These minimum sentencing apply to many of the crimes committed on society, such as violent, drug-related crimes and for those habitual offenders. In cases where the offender commits a crime and is a repeat offender then it should be left up the presiding judge to serve out justice. People who commit low level crimes should be punished but not to the extent of going to prison for a long period of time. Congress has enacted these guidelines so that the criminal justice system would not be burden with smaller crimes or be overwhelmed. Lengthy sentencing hearings seldom are necessary, the disputes about sentencing elements must be resolved with sensitivity concern and carefulness. A dispute exists about any factor important to the sentencing determination then a judge will use his discretion to hand down equal and fair judgement. Legislator statements during debates on mandatory

“Since 1973, more than 155 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence” (the death penalty information center). The lives of many innocent people are being put at risk when prosecutors would “think” that a person have committed a certain crime and he/she is guilty for it, without even having enough evidence that points out they did it. This shows that our justice system is not as strong as we think it is. The death penalty is irreversible. Once a

In the law a sentence is forms the final explicit act of judge rule process the sentence can generally involve a decree of imprisonment, a fine and or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime. We all have known this for years that this is that is how prison sentencing is done. Even though people should go away for the same crime, in reality prison sentencing is not fair because of people of different backgrounds, genders. and ethnicities face different sentences for the same crime. When it comes to society has high expectations for the criminal justice system. People expect a murderer, for example, to have the same sentence as another person. When a celebrity such as Bill Cosby gets put away for a rape he may go away for a shorter time than average Joe. The minimum sentencing for certain crimes, in this case, are longer than they should be. Why should people be sentenced to unlawful sentences and end up in jail until they are elderly and not a danger society?Unfair sentencing is a form of the unequal treatment often unexplained cause of why. We see a person go away for x amount of years and then someone else comes along and performs the same crime and gets less or longer than the other person.

Mandatory sentencing is a set penalty approved by parliament for committing a criminal offence. This sentence can involve any type of consequence, it normally refers to prison sentencing. All Australian states and territories have mandatory sentences, most of them introduced life imprisonment for murder after the death penalty’s abolition but, over time, most jurisdictions adjusted the minimum penalty. (Roche, 1999)

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported 6.7 million people were supervised by adult correctional systems in the United States at year end 2015. President Obama has conveyed tax payer pay $80 billion dollars to house incarcerate individuals yearly. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 limited federal judge sentencing discretions. In 1980 the USA had 500k people incarcerated, the population of prisoners has more than doubled the last two decades. The United States Mandatory sentencing requires offenders receive a predetermined minimum sentencing for some offenses. Since the implementation of mandatory sentencing, prison populations have risen sharply with sky rocking costs. On certain offenses, Federal judges no longer have discretion on the sentence length. Mandatory sentencing laws have shifted the power of punishment to the prosecutor as they have the discretion of charges brought against offenders. According to Peter Wagner and Bernadette Rabuy in their article “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2017,” the United State criminal justice leads the world in the percentage of its citizens incarcerated. Mandatory minimum sentencing has led to large prison populations, skyrocketing costs and social family challenges.

Mandatory sentencing is another form of structured sentencing, deserves special mention. Mandatory sentencing is just what its name implies: A structured sentencing scheme that man-dates clearly enumerated punishments for specific offenses or for habitual offenders convicted of a series of crimes. Mandatory sentencing, because it is truly mandatory, differs from presumptive sentencing, which allows at least a limited amount of judicial discretion within ranges established by published guidelines.

Supporters of the capital punishment system penalty argue that when enforced, the death penalty saves lives. The fault placed into the opposing side for using the system with new trials to postpone execution. The problem with that argument is that in Florida, a total of twenty-five death row prisoners had been released due to erroneous convictions and were able to prove innocence, not a strong argument when lives are at risk.

The death penalty can lead to the death of innocent people. For example, “…According to a new study, serious errors occur in almost 70% of all trials leading to the death penalty…”(Leibman). This shows that if 100 people were put on death row, 70 would have serious mistakes in their

There are many injustices that plague the United States Justice System. The death penalty is a prime example of this. A major problem associated with the death penalty is the unavoidable fact that potentially innocent people are being executed. Researchers estimate that over 340 executed inmates, could have been exonerated; which means that over 340 people were wrongfully killed! With the arrival of DNA testing in the mid 80’s, by 1992, 17 death row inmates in the US where acquitted and released. The sad fact remains that all capital punishment cases don’t have DNA evidence, in fact many do not. It is terrifying to contemplate that whether a person lives or dies can be determined based on eyewitness testimony. The innocence Project researchers report that 73% of 239 convictions reversed because of DNA, were based on eyewitness testimony. The only effective way of using the death penalty is to ensure the certainty of guilt amongst the inmates on death row; which is inherently unrealistic or impossible. The injustice does not stop there. Approximately 3% of all executions are botched, meaning that the inmate was conscious, in excruciating pain, or the death was prolonged beyond the intended speed. In cases like Allen Lee Davis’ or Romell Broom, the death penalty is proven to be an inhumane way to punish inmates. The American Civil Liberties Union believes “the death penalty inherently violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment and the

According to a 1987 study published in the Stanford Law Review, at least 23 non-culpable individuals have been executed from 1900 to 1987, which is more than one innocent execution every four years. These miscarriages of justice are often due to evidence that was not discovered or made available until after the execution. Although recent scientific improvements, such as forensic DNA evidence, have enabled investigators to more accurately pinpoint guilt in a suspect, no current amount of scientific or technological advancement can completely guarantee that errors will never be made. In an issue such as the death penalty, where the stakes are so high – human life – any margin of error, no matter how minuscule, is unacceptable.