Argumentative Essay On The Death Penalty

The death penalty is a controversial subject, just as is abortion is a difficult topic as well to discuss. People are most likely not going to change their opinion based on others opinions. The issue with the death penalty is that innocent lives are sometimes taken due to being granted guilty when innocent. As stated by the newsletter The Guardian, “At least 4.1% of all defendants sentenced to death in the US in the modern era are innocent, according to the first major study to attempt to calculate how often states get it wrong in their wielding of the ultimate punishment.” The death penalty is geared towards those that have committed a crime, so why should the state be so quickly to accuse an innocent person as guilty due to evidence that fits the defendant’s description enough to go ahead and make him guilty. Some say that race plays a role in the death penalty process, “In 1990 a report from the General Accounting Office concluded that "in 82 percent of the studies [reviewed], race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty, i.e. those who murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks (Death Penalty Focus).” There are many factors that play a role in the death penalty such as: race, sex, and innocent

Some questions remain unanswered such as: why don’t we sentence these criminals to a lifetime in a cell, instead of sending them to death row where there is a risk that they may be innocent? Do the families of these victims feel better knowing that the life of the individual that murdered their loved one is dead? As stated on deathpenalty.org, “many family members who have lost love ones to murder feel that the death penalty will not heal their wounds nor will it end their pain.” What is the honest reason for the death