Punishment For Capital Punishment

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.

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.

Resolution—Execution should not be allowed in the United States, especially given the risk of executing innocent people.

Throughout mankind has been using the death penalty as a form of punishment. Many people argue with this type of punishment because they believe in an eye for an eye. Many people that it is okay to murder a human being due to them having killed an individual over time. There have been many cases that have proven that they death penalty violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, being very expensive, and innocent lives are convicted.

The justice system is filled with opposition. Those who support the use of Supermax, the death penalty and the execution of those who are mentally retarded and juveniles, and those who oppose the above mentioned. The following essay will discuss all mentioned topics.

The risk of innocent people being sentenced is high. About 14% of executions were of the innocent, and they weren’t found out until long after their execution. This supports my claim because too many innocent people are being executed against their will, and most of them aren’t even involved with the murder, just innocent bystanders who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In conclusion, there is just too much risk of innocent bystanders being executed for doing nothing wrong, and we should get the facts and evidence straight before we go kill an innocent

People that support the death penalty argued that death penalty is righteously justified when enforced in murder especially with disturbing elements such as for multiple murder, child murder, serial killing, torture murder, mass murder, terrorism, massacre or genocide. It is said that the death penalty for murder is and should be "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".

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

Every single death row inmates face executions there have been cases that many innocent individuals is waiting to be executed or has been executed. Research lead by Samul Gross, a professor at the University of Michigan Law school stated that “At least 4.1% of all defendants sentenced to death in the US in the modern era are innocent” (Capital Punishment). But not all men and woman run the same faith; there have been many cases where inmates on death row get a second opportunity in life and get exonerated from death row. For example “As of today, 150 individuals have been exonerated from death row” (National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty). Another significant factor that there is a lot of innocent people on death row it has to do with a false eyewitness and authorities pressuring victims. For example, Kirk Bloodsworth from Maryland who was convicted of a crime he didn't commit in 1984, he was sent to death row by a “false eyewitness identification.” (National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty). How about the case of Ruben Cantu a 17-year-old who has never convicted of crimes. On till he was framed with a capital murder case that took place on November 8, 1984, and sentenced of the murderer. One of the victims and only survivor of the crime gave his statement that Cantu was the killer, he was pressured by the authorities to place Cantu in the scene of the crime. “He

"Since 1973, over eighty people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence" (Innocence and the Death Penalty 1). Statistics say that of the three-thousand six hundred people on death row right now, at least one hundred of them are innocent (Capital Punishment 1). When an innocent person is executed, the real killer is still on the streets ready to victimize someone else (Pragmatic Arguments 1). The most important problem is that when an innocent person is executed, they represent another human being who did not deserve to die.

In the statistic stated before, there has been 7,482 people executed in the world. Of that 7,482, there has been 117 people that were innocent. This fact is haunting to some people and raise many questions of the death penalty is justified or not. Numerous amounts of people stand by the idea that violence is never the answer and no person should have their actions cost them their life. Imprisonment is

As revealed in the article, “One in 25 Sentenced to Death in the U.S. Is Innocent, Study Claims,” by Pema Levy, “But if the innocence rate is 4.1 percent, more than twice the rate of exoneration, the study suggests what most people assumed but dreaded: An untold number of innocent people have been executed. (4)” It is alarming to know that there were multiple people who have been executed, yet proven to be innocent afterwards. Not only is this unfair to the person himself/herself, but also to his/her family and friends for allowing people to believe their loved one was a murderer. For example, a man named Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongfully executed by the state of Texas. As stated in the article, “Texas Executed an Innocent Man,” “Eight years after Cameron Todd Willingham was executed for setting a fire that killed his three children, in a case now widely faulted for its use of flawed arson science, his relatives are seeking a posthumous pardon from state officials. (5)” Although evidence proved his innocence eight years later, it will not bring back a guiltless man. Similar to Willingham’s case, people have been accused of crimes they did not commit and received punishments they did not deserve. Additionally, statistics show the murder rate in states without a death penalty decreased throughout the years compared to states with the death penalty. For instance, studies show

“Since 1973, at least 121 people have been released from death row after evidence of their innocence emerged. During the same period of time, over 982 people have been executed. Thus, for every eight people executed, we have found one person on death row who never should have been convicted. These statistics represent an intolerable risk of executing the innocent” (“Innocence”).

“More than 1,000 people executed since 1976 have been innocent.” (Death Penalty Information Center 1). Once a convicted criminal is executed, there is nothing that can be done to make reparations if an error has been made. In 1973, at least eighty-eight people were released from death row, meaning those people were innocent and could have been executed due to the capital punishment process. Currently, there are more than 2,900 inmates that are on death row in the United States and more than 1,400 inmates have been executed since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated (Executions by Year). The risks that state take in order to feel safe brings a large amount of innocent lives lost.

The whole reasoning behind the death penalty is very ignorant and idiotic. John Deer, Jesuit Priest from the Society of Jesus, said, “Behind it lies an illogical maxim: we kill those who kill to show that killing is wrong.” If the government actually believed that killing was wrong, the death penalty would have never been contrived. The only things it does is create vengeance, does not serve the cause of justice, and allows pointless infliction of immoderate punishment while less dreadful punishment can sufficiently reach the same purposes. Not only is it a bad solution but a mindless one as