The Death Penalty and Race Essay

2000). This writer?s grandmother retired after more than thirty years as a welfare social worker for Los Angeles County. She has stated on more than occasion that the government is the main reason that most black men are in jail awaiting the death penalty today. In the sixties and early seventies, she says that women on welfare were not allowed to have men in the home, even the father of the children. These fatherless generations of men seem more prone to crime,…

funding to attorneys to represent defendants in the death penalty cases. Some defendants have told stories of their lawyers being drunk or asleep during the trial, never meet with their clients, nor have no legal experience previous to their trial. Often the attorney’s who have been disbarred because of wrong doings take the death penalty cases because no one wants them and they often do them for service to their business. Defending a death penalty case is very time-consuming and usually takes seven…

proper resources during a trial can make the difference between the innocence and guilt of a person. The death penalty does not always show the innocence or guilt of a person. It shows how much he or she is willing to spend to help the trial go his or her way. The death penalty is an unfair system to those who cannot afford the “evidence” they need to help free them. 224 The death penalty is a corrupt form of legal justice. For example, “…Defendants in about one-third of the Texas cases were…

still death penalty states, and 18 non-death penalty states (“Facts About” 1). Majority of the race victims in the death penalty cases are white with 76 percent, the blacks are next with 15 percent, and then Hispanics with seven percent (“Facts About” 1). Race plays a large role when it comes to the death penalty. Being a certain color can in fact either save your life or end it. According to a comprehensive study of the death penalty prepared in North Carolina; “the odds of receiving a death sentence…

But race is still not the only discrimination. "During the 1980s and aerially 1990s, only about 1 percent of all those on death row were women, even though women commit about 15 percent of all criminal homicides" (Bedau). Discrimination is increasingly less if money is a factor. Chances are that one will not get convicted for the death penalty. "…Associate justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said: "I have yet to see a death case…in which the defendant was well-represented at trial" (Shipp). The same if…

today's society. However, very seldom are all people treated equally in any situation, the receiving of the death penalty not being an acceptation. There are hundreds of examples in the United States where the inequality of the death penalty sentence is evident. For example, two people who commit very similar crimes under very similar circumstance and in one case the offender could get death row and in the other case the offender might walk away with just a fine and a few hours of community service…

People opposed to the death penalty also point to the fact that over half of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty, including all other major industrialized, democratic nations. In the five countries with the highest homicide rates that do not impose the death penalty, the murder rate is 21.6 murders per 100,000 people. In the five countries with the highest homicide rates that do impose the death penalty, the murder rate is 41.6 murders per 100,000 people ("Deterrence"). Furthermore…

Against the Death Penalty “Murder is wrong” (“Capital Punishment”). We’ve been taught this indisputable truth since childhood. The death penalty is defined as one human taking the life of another. Coincidentally, that is a classification of murder. There are as many as thirty-six states with the death penalty, and it’s essential that they change it. The United States needs the death penalty abolished because it is filled with flaws, cruel and immoral, and is an ineffective means of deterrent…

Additionally, because the death penalty is such an ultimate decision, the number of court trials required to follow through with the sentence builds up significant costs as well. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, the elimination of the death penalty would be beneficial due to the economic ease it would bring. The death penalty is inefficient means of punishment in both process and methodology. Due process by which criminals are tried is a lengthy and elaborate process. Convicts can make repeated…

shows that murder rates were actually higher in states with the death penalty than in states that did not have the death penalty (Death Penalty Information Center, 2010). If the death penalty is a deterrent, wouldn’t these rates be reversed? In an article published in the New York Times entitled ABSENCE OF EXECUTIONS: A special report.; States With No Death Penalty Share Lower Homicide Rates, states that states who do have the death penalty actually have higher murder rates than the national average…