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Racism And Racism Essay

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The death penalty discriminates and marginalizes minorities and the poor in our society. Legal systems are unfair therefore the death penalty is imposed unfairly since equals are not treated equally. The richest man alive is not treated the same as a homeless individual on the streets of downtown Toronto. There are many flaws in the justice system mostly because it is made up of individuals and as individuals we are prone to making mistakes. Witnesses, prosecutors and jurors can create the smallest error and their collected testimonies determine the result of an individual on trial and whether they shall live another day. It is clearly inevitable that innocent people will be convicted wrongly based off of human testimony hence it is …show more content…

Fifty-five percent of those on death row in the US, currently awaiting execution are people of colour while they merely account for twenty-seven percent of the population. In 2006, the UN Human Rights Committee suggested the US, “assess the extent to which [the] death penalty is disproportionately imposed on ethnic minorities and on low- income population groups, as well as the reasons for this, and adopt all appropriate measures to address the problem”. There are various goals of punishment yet many believe in a retributive perspective where the consequences of the punishment are considered unrelated when it comes to the reasoning and validation. This signifies that punishment is morally justified as long as it is allocated as retribution for the felony committed. This theory ultimately believes that once an individual has committed a crime, they deserve to be punished and it must be proportionate to the offense. In many cases, prison time or a large fine can equally justify the punishment however murder is a rare exception. A literal interpretation of lex talionis otherwise known as “an eye for an eye” is meant to be taken in these cases because there is distinctiveness in the worth of what has been knowingly destroyed. It is believed that there is no other comparable punishment for murder except the destruction of the life of the murderer. The idea of treating people the way they treat others, may be supported by

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