Death Penalty Essay

1500 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Challenges facing the justice system

What if people were executed for a crime they did not commit? It is a very sad but realistic scenario. Innocent lives that are lost are a necessary risk to the government to allow the death penalty to be sought. People put their faith in a government that can one day find them guilty of a crime they may or may not have committed and execute them for it. This is one of the many problems that arise with allowing the death penalty to be used as a form of punishment. Executions have changed drastically over the years by making it non constitutional to execute minors and the mentally disabled, yet many mentally challenged people are still executed today. It is also not a solution to the problem people face with the unjust criminal justice system and the problem with crime people continue to face. The death penalty is far from beneficial to society as it is inhumane and ineffective.
The death penalty is unjust and risks outweigh any of the benefits. Many people believe the death penalty is an effective system and the punishment fits the crime yet so many innocent people have been put to death for crimes they did not commit. Reports show Gary Graham was executed in 2000 solely off the testimony of a witness who claimed to get a quick view of the defendant from 40 feet away through a windshield. The evidence is circumstantial but was enough not only to get a conviction but capital punishment. Troy Davis was executed in 2011 even though witnesses recanted their testimonies. The witnesses that were used in his case to further prove his guilt recanted their testimonies, therefore doing the exact opposite, mores proving him not guilty, but a death penalty sentence was still imposed. Cameron Willington was executed in 2004 for killing his ch...

... middle of paper ...

...nes.” The government should not have the right to decide who lives and who dies as no human being is of a higher power over another. The death penalty places the focus on the legal consequences, not the human consequences. Attention is directed on the crime and the accused, instead of where it belongs, on the family and loved ones of the victim and on the community. Life without parole punishes the criminal without putting him or her in the headlines. Eighty eight percent of the country’s top criminologists don’t believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to crime. Also studies show murder rates in states that don’t have the death penalty are consistently lower in states that do have the death penalty. In the south which carries out over 80 percent of the executions in the U.S has the highest murder rate of all four regions.

To conclude, the death penalty

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Bryan Stevenson's Close To Death: Reflections On Race And Capital Punishment

    1861 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many people are led to believe that the death penalty doesn’t occur very often and that very few people are actually killed, but in reality, it’s quite the opposite. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1,359 people have been executed as a result of being on death row since 1977 to 2013. Even though this form of punishment is extremely controversial, due to the fact that someone’s life is at stake, it somehow still stands to this very day as our ultimate form of punishment. Although capital punishment puts murderers to death, it should be abolished because killing someone who murdered another, does not and will not make the situation any better in addition to costing tax payers millions of dollars.

    Read More

  • In Cold Blood Death Penalty Essay

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    Is it justifiable to inflict the death penalty on individuals who have committed murder? As majority would have it, yes. There are many arguments in favor of capital punishment. Some of these include taking a murderer out of this world once and for all, and saving money that would be spent on them if they were given a life sentence, as well as the majority rule of citizens of the United States wishing it to stay. In Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, Dick and Perry were assigned the death penalty for the cruel murders of four members of the Clutter family in a small town in Kansas. Not only did this pair of men deserve what they got, but it is also better for the state that they were executed.

    Read More

  • Make The Death Penalty Quicker, Cheaper and More Effective

    1672 Words  | 4 Pages

    Thirty-two of the fifty states of the United States of America have capital punishment and in those thirty-two sates there are over three thousand people on death row as of January 1, 2013, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The murderers of today’s society can be assured of a much longer life even after conviction because of the appeals process slowing the implementation of their death sentence. (Oberg) The imposition of the death penalty is extremely expensive because it allows for endless appeals at the expense of the taxpayers. The effectiveness of the death penalty is greatly compromised when it is not carried through. There needs to be a certainty attached to it to make it effective, and that has not happened. There needs to be one trial, one appeal, and then either acquittal, or execution. (Baltimore Sun) The states need to stop pushing for the abolition of the death penalty and start looking for a way to make it more cost-effective.

    Read More

  • Death Penalty Essay

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    Main Point 1: Imagine someone that has been accused of murder and sentenced to death row has to spend almost 17-20 years in jail and then one day get kill. Then later on the person that they killed was not the right person.

    Read More

  • Capital Punishment Essay: Enforcing The Death Penalty

    833 Words  | 2 Pages

    The capital punishment has been cited as a reasonable sentence by those who advocate for retribution. This is essentially when it comes to justice so that people take full responsibility for their individual actions. Studies have proved that the decision to take away life of a person because they committed a certain crime serves to perpetuate the crime in question. It also serves to enhance the progress of organized and violent crime. It has been noted that various flaws in the justice system has led to the wrong conviction of innocent people. On the other hand, the guilty have also been set free, and a plethora of several cases has come up when a critical look at the capital punishment has been undertaken. Killers hardly kill their victims deliberately, but they probably act on anger, passion, or impulsively. In this regard, it is not proper to convict them exclusively without

    Read More

  • The Unjust Reality of Capital Punishment

    1241 Words  | 3 Pages

    If an error occurs in the procedure, the criminal will face a painful and cruel death. Even more horrifying, an innocent person can be placed on death row. “The reality is that there are few innocent people on death row; the vast majority of these inmates did, in fact, commit the crimes for which they were found guilty. These killers brutally took the lives of innocent victims. By not recognizing the lives of their victims as sacred, they cannot claim their own lives are sacred. In the end, the death penalty is an individual punishment for an individual crime” (Bowman and DiLascio). Although this quote tries to offer a counterpoint to the argument that the death penalty should be abolished, it still admits that there are innocent people on death row. An innocent man placed on death row results in two casualties of innocent men while the brutal murderer sleeps peacefully each night. Errors in the death penalty can destroy families, terminate friendships, and disintegrate love and companionship. Since there is no guarantee that every person on death row is guilty, it is too dangerous to risk more innocent

    Read More

  • The Death Penalty

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    The death penalty continues to be an issue of controversy and is an issue that will be debated in the United States for many years to come. According to Hugo A. Bedau, the writer of “The Death Penalty in America”, capital punishment is the lawful infliction of the death penalty. The death penalty has been used since ancient times for a variety of offenses. The Bible says that death should be done to anyone who commits murder, larceny, rapes, and burglary. It appears that public debate on the death penalty has changed over the years and is still changing, but there are still some out there who are for the death penalty and will continue to believe that it’s a good punishment. I always hear a lot of people say “an eye for an eye.” Most people feel strongly that if a criminal took the life of another, their’s should be taken away as well, and I don’t see how the death penalty could deter anyone from committing crimes if your going to do the crime then at that moment your not thinking about being on death role. I don’t think they should be put to death they should just sit in a cell for the rest of their life and think about how they destroy other families. A change in views and attitudes about the death penalty are likely attributed to results from social science research. The changes suggest a gradual movement toward the eventual abolition of capital punishment in America (Radelet and Borg, 2000).

    Read More

  • Capital Punishment Essay - Benefits of the Death Penalty

    1419 Words  | 3 Pages

    Have you ever thought about if the person next to you is a killer or a rapist? If he is, what would you want from the government if he had killed someone you know? He should receive the death penalty! Murderers and rapists should be punished for the crimes they have committed and should pay the price for their wrongdoing. Having the death penalty in our society is humane; it helps the overcrowding problem and gives relief to the families of the victims, who had to go through an event such as murder.

    Read More

  • The Cons of the Death Penalty

    461 Words  | 1 Pages

    The death penalty can lead to the death of innocent people. For example, “…According to a new study, serious errors occur in almost 70% of all trials leading to the death penalty…”(Leibman). This shows that if 100 people were put on death row, 70 would have serious mistakes in their cases, enough mistakes to have them executed even if they were innocent. This unacceptable amount of errors is the number one cause for mistrust of the legal system. In addition, “…dozens of inmates have been put to death in Texas despite unreliable evidence…”(The Chicago Tribune). This statement alone shows the truth about the death penalty. Innocen...

    Read More

  • Death Penalty Thesis

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Death Penalty should be discontinued to the families, human rights, and statistics.     The families of the victim and the family of the one, who committed the crime, have no closure at all. The death penalty is killing a human for being convicted of a terrible crime one family may think its right but both suffer by their lost ones. “Although true closure is never really possible for the families, studies have shown that the continual process, along with the returning to court for many years, force families to confront the gruesome details of the crime many times over, making it impossible to get on with their lives. As difficult as that is the question is weather the victims needs are met effectively by killing someone else and causing another family grief and pain as well as adding to the cycle of violence.”  (Progress) As both families do not want to see each other because they all have pain and hate for one another. They both relive the last memories of their loved one and they can’t help but cry and stare at the pictures they were once happy in. The families both have sadness when its their loved ones birthday. If the victim is married or have kids, their kids suffer and the husband/wife suffer as well. Although the families will never get there loved one back they still suffer on what had happen. Both families blame one another for having to take flowers, to their dead family member or visit their family member in a cemetery because of what happen. None of them is truly happy that they lost a family member. The families miss the person who seemed so happy, and also know that they are in a better place watching over them. Although the families aren’t happy about losing them, but are relieved to know that nothing else can hurt them. As one family feels sorry for the other family, there could be the family that doesn’t care what happens but wants everyone to suffer the way they are suffering about the tragic death of one family member.

    Read More

  • The Death Denalty, An Annotated Bibliography To The Death Penalty

    1346 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jacoby believes the death penalty protects society by threatening future murders with fear. Gaes believes the death penalty is necessary because the overpopulation in prisons causes emotional and physical distress. The stronger side of the debate seems to be that the death penalty does not discourage crime at all nor does it help the victim’s family heal. It would be useful to know whether or not death-penalty states as a whole have lower rates of crime than non-death penalty states when arguing for the death penalty.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Death Penalty

    1306 Words  | 3 Pages

    A death penalty is the sentence of execution for murder and some other capital crimes. Capital punishment can also be applied for treason, espionage, and other crimes. The death penalty, or capital punishment, may be prescribed by Congress or any state legislature for murder and other capital crimes. The Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty is not a per se violation of the Eighth Amendment 's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

    Read More

  • The Ethics of Capital Punishment

    1503 Words  | 4 Pages

    Americans have argued over the death penalty since the early days of our country. In the United States only 38 states have capital punishment statutes. As of year ended in 1999, in Texas, the state had executed 496 prisoners since 1930. The laws in the United States have change drastically in regards to capital punishment. An example of this would be the years from 1968 to 1977 due to the nearly 10 year moratorium. During those years, the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment violated the Eight Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. However, this ended in 1976, when the Supreme Court reversed the ruling. They stated that the punishment of sentencing one to death does not perpetually infringe the Constitution. Richard Nixon said, “Contrary to the views of some social theorists, I am convinced that the death penalty can be an effective deterrent against specific crimes.”1 Whether the case be morally, monetarily, or just pure disagreement, citizens have argued the benefits of capital punishment. While we may all want murders off the street, the problem we come to face is that is capital punishment being used for vengeance or as a deterrent.

    Read More

  • Capital Punishment Essay - Opposition To the Death Penalty

    2434 Words  | 5 Pages

    During the spring semester I read Evangelium Vitae: The Gospel of Life. Paragraphs 27 and 56 of this encyclical prompted a discussion of the death penalty with other students. Their first reaction was that the Pope was against it and that he was saying that the penalty has no justification. There was general resistance to the suggestion that while the Pope's attitude toward the death penalty is, to put it mildly, unfavorable, he did not flat out say that it was immoral, wrong, without justification.

    Read More

  • Capital Punishment Justified

    1152 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Common sense, lately bolstered by statistics, tells us that the death penalty will deter murder... People fear nothing more than death. Therefore, nothing will deter a criminal more than the fear of death... life in prison is less feared. Murderers clearly prefer it to execution -- otherwise, they would not try to be sentenced to life in prison instead of death... Therefore, a life sent...

    Read More

More about Death Penalty Essay

Open Document