Dealth Penalty Is Not a Solution

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Is the death penalty a good solution to crime?
The death penalty is not a good solution to crime. The ultimate purpose of the justice system is to control crime by punishing criminals and protect people by imprisoning them. Compared to the death penalty, life imprisonment not only achieves the same goals but also in many ways it can be more effective than capital punishment. In the Vincent Brothers’ case of 2004, Brothers murdered five of his family members- his wife, children, and mother in law. During his trial, his only surviving daughter Margaret Kerns-Brothers gave a heart-wrenching testimony about how the moment she walks out of this courtroom, she would be resigning from the Brothers’ family. In her eyes, her biological father was only a man handcuffed to a chair. Brothers should have to live the rest of his life with his daughter’s words forever cut into his heart. This punishment is emotionally and mentally far worse than the death penalty. There are many other reasons why death penalty is shown to not be a good solution to crime. One of the problems is racial disparity. Jason Kotowski’s article in The (CA) Bakersfield California reports that, “Some thought Brothers was getting what he deserved (death sentence), while others argued that the jury was racially biased and Brothers didn’t receive a fair trial.” Many people believe that the death penalty is handed out unfairly to minorities. Statistics claim that African Americans make up only 13% of the US population, but nearly 50% ofthe people currently on death row are African American. There are many reported cases that African Americans were mistakenly put onto the death row largely based on their race. Many years later, new scientific evidence exonerated them but the...

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... would have gotten their punishment- without being taken away from their families forever. Saleh would have been received as a hero, but because he acted in excessive “self defense,” he became a killer. In this case, the other men were not killers and probably did not ever intend to kill. Even if Saleh is “justified,” his argument is irrelevant because the robbers aren’t in the equation anymore. They are dead, and it is nearly impossible to judge someone who isn’t alive. The only one to face judgement is the killer. Whether or not they were involved in any physical confrontation, Saleh will never truly and completely be perceived as right. The world will never progress into something great if there is always an excuse for everything, especially murder. The moment there is a reason to justify murder, a justification can be found for every other possible wrongdoing.

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