Is Anthony Graves To Blame For A Magnificent Murder?

Such as in the case of Anthony Graves, who was wrongfully convicted of a brutal murder in the year of 1992 and therefore sentenced to death. In fact, Graves had no connection to the crime, including a lack of evidence, no plausible motive, and only one witness to place him at the scene, who turned out to be the actual perpetrator. Overall, a total of eighteen years of Graves’ life was spent behind bars and twelve of them on death row for a crime he had no relation to. Graves was failed by not only the district attorney, but also the entire United States justice system, that didn’t allow him to be innocent until proven guilty. In the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, he was convicted in the year 1992 and executed twelve years later for starting

In other words, “Four percent of defendants sentenced to death are innocent” and “If all innocent people who were given death sentences [were] to be cleared of their offenses, the exoneration rate would rise from the actual rate of those released – 1.6% – to at least 4.1%” (Pilkington). Often times in death penalty trials, prosecutors withhold exculpatory information or include false testimonies and unreliable witnesses in order to comply with the public's desire to blame a scapegoat in a timely matter. America’s legal system lacks the ability to function flawlessly on all accounts. Every defendant and every case differentiates in such large extremes that it is impossible for one system of death to justly exist, especially with the state governments abusing their judicial

Especially for the protection of law enforcement that is dealing with inmates on death row that can’t be deterred by anything less than the death penalty, it clearly is the only deterrent believed to prevent further crimes (Death Penalty Curriculum). On the contrary, as stated by Dr. Jonathan Groner, "The psychological mindset of the criminal is such that they are not able to consider consequences at the time of the crime. Most crimes are crimes of passion that are done in situations involving intense excitement or concern. People who commit these crimes are not in a normal state of mind -- they do not consider the consequences in a logical way" (Death Penalty Info Center). Thus meaning that individuals in their right mind would fear the thought of death row, but a criminal in the heat of passion cannot be deterred or if the person is thinking irrationally. A deterrent would be more effective if the punishment awarded was both obvious and immediate, unlike month-long trials and years sitting on death