The Ineffective Use of Capital Punishment

Well, in nearly 25 years since post-conviction DNA evidence has been used to demonstrate criminal innocence, even in cases that landed defendants on death row or in prison for life. Eyewitness misidentification, forensic science errors, false confessions, government misconduct and bad lawyering are many of the reasons wrongful convictions occur. Eyewitness being the most common. Sometimes it can be done by error and other times it is actually done intentionally. In seventy-seven percent of the DNA exonerations, eyewitness misidentification led to wrongful convictions (The Innocence Project- How wrongful conviction happen).

False confessions in incarceration rates are a current flaw in the justice system. Just in one state there has been hundred of false confessions. " A study in the North Carolina Law Review documenting 125 false confessions" (Why the innocents confess).The number continues to grow as time continues on even when the evidence says otherwise. DNA has exonerated 175 people, 1/5 of the people confessed to the crimes. But most people use confessions as a way to sentence someone instead of using DNA (why the innocents confess). Even though DNA is present most people will still use a confession to determine of someone is guilty or not.

Using the death penalty cost more than life in prison. Having to execute someone costs about 1.26 million dollars while life in prison costs 740,000 thousand dollars. 31 states out of 19 still use the death penalty. There is a noticeable difference between the states that use and those that do not use the death penalty like lower homicide rates and the effects it has on society. The death penalty is a tool that people say helps stop crime and makes the world a safer place but studies show that the death penalty has bad effects. The death penalty actually increases crime and has bad effects on society. There have been studies and statistics used to see how the death penalty affects people and if it is actually helping or increasing crime. There

Well, in nearly 25 years since post-conviction DNA evidence has been used to demonstrate criminal innocence, even in cases that landed defendants on death row or in prison for life. Eyewitness misidentification, forensic science errors, false confessions, government misconduct and bad lawyering are many of the reasons wrongful convictions occur. Eyewitness being the most common. Sometimes it can be done by error and other times it is actually done intentionally. In seventy-seven percent of the DNA exonerations, eyewitness misidentification led to wrongful convictions (The Innocence Project- How wrongful conviction happen).

What is Capital punishment? Capital punishment is the death penalty. It is used today and was used in ancient times to punish a variety of crimes, Even the bible supports death for murder and other crimes like kidnapping and witchcraft. The Death Penalty is a controversial issue because there are people that state the Death Penalty is wrong and good in some way.

Capital punishment has been recorded since colonial times. The first death sentence by firing squad was carried out at the Jamestown colony on an alleged spy. The practice was suspended by the Supreme Court in 1972. The last execution before this period was in 1967, before being reinstated in 1976. The new death penalty was tweaked, barring execution for rape, and now mitigating and aggravating factors were considered. While imposition of the death penalty was now less common than before, it should never have been brought back. Life without parole is a more viable option. It costs millions less and also ensures that the public is protected while eliminating the risk of any fatal mistake in the judicial process. Proponents seek capital punishment in more emotionally charged trials than anything. It is more of a witch hunt than the pursuit of justice. An eye for and eye is revenge, and nothing more. Revenge sometimes looks like justice, but these two things are not interchangeable.

Capital Punishment, the process by which the government takes the life of an offender for crimes committed against humanity. Capital Punishment also referred to as the “death penalty” has played a role in the correctional process dating back to 1608 in Jamestown. Over the years the use of Capital Punishment has fluctuated. Like most areas of corrections the death penalty has become reformed and altered to needs of modern day society. Like most controversial issues the majority of people have a firm stance, either supporting or opposing.

in the United States because it is a financial burden on the American people and not an

The death penalty is defined as the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime. The death penalty goes as far back to the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of Hammurabi. In the Code of Hammurabi it had a death penalty for 25 different crimes. Back then methods of execution were crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. (Source #1).

The death penalty is the lawful execution of a person for a crime. The first death penalty law goes back to the eighteenth century and has been used in many cultures. It was also used in Greece as the punishment for all crimes, Rome also adopted the death penalty. The methods of execution in these times were crucifixion, drowning, impalement, and even burning alive.

Capital punishment has been around in the U.S. since the colonial times. This is a form of punishment given to a criminal who committed brutal crimes such as rape, murder, or torturing of others. Capital punishment first involved someone to be hanged, then in the 1950s to be killed by the electric chair, and now lethal injection is the only form of execution used by the government to get justice.

Ever since there has been crime, there has been punishment. One form of punishment that has existed since the beginning of society is capital punishment. As crime and societies have evolved over time, so have capital punishment, its forms, and its reasons for use. Capital punishment is defined as the execution or death for a capital offense. (Hill & Hill 1995: 75) A capital offense is defined as being any criminal charge that is punishable by the death penalty. (Hill & Hill 1995: 75) A capital offense usually means that no bail will be allowed.

Although the death penalty is legal in some parts of the United States, it has no place in our quest for justice and needs to be abolished. In particular, the death penalty is ineffective because of the time gone to waste from the salaried guardsmen being paid overtime, to the innocents being put on row. Due to the crucial time being lost, the United States is not spending money adequately, resulting in the downfall to debt. Not only is money being lost, but racial bias exhibited during trial is inadmissible and has a huge effect on how people in the society are portrayed, as well as treated. Abolishing the capital punishment will take the United States one step closer in recovering lost money and

Capital punishment is a method of retributive punishment as old as civilization itself. Both the Greeks and the Romans invoked the death penalty for a wide variety of

I believe that capital punishment should be abolished, but not for the subjective reasons just mentioned. It should be abolished because it is objectively ineffective. The purpose of the death penalty and incarceration in general, is to act as a deterrent, to prevent, or at least to reduce the frequency of a specific type of crime. However, sending criminals to death row has not been proven to decrease the number of homicides, and in some cases, data suggest that it has actually increased it. A survey in 2009 of the United States’ top criminological societies showed that “88.2% of the polled criminologists do not believe that the death penalty is a