Against The Death Penalty Essay, Research Paper

Against the Death penalty

The death penalty is one of the most controversial issues in our time. There are many issues that show and prove the death penalty is wrong and reasons why it should be ceased. Many issues have objections towards the death penalty shows that the death penalty is unfair, irreversible and expensive.

The Death penalty is an unfair system used as punishment to criminals that performed wrong and unmoral crimes. The death penalty is unfair in the way that is discriminatory towards color, and race. For example, in the trials of many court cases, a person who kills a white person is treated much more severely then one who kills a black person. Of the 313 criminals that have been executed between 1997 and 1995, 36 of those killed has been convicted of killing a black person while 249 of those killed has been convicted of killing a white person. From the 178 white people who have been executed, only 3 where convicted of murdering a person of color. This proves that our judicial system executes people regardless of their race who kill white people. These are not the only ones who are discriminated against, gender also determines who receives the death penalty. Between the 80’s and early 90’s, 1% of all those on death row were women even though women commit 15% of all criminal homicides. The death penalty is also discriminates against the poor. Even though all cases require the defendants to have a lawyer, 90 % of all those executed could not afford to hire a lawyer when they were tried. These stats show how unfair the death penalty really is towards the minorities, genders and of those of poor social class.

A big down side to the death penalty would be the irreversibility of situation. Once the life is taken from this earth, there is no way anyone can bring back the dead if the person who was executed is proven innocent later on in life. Events have happen where during the past century about 4 cases a year, an innocent person who was convicted of murder, was sentenced to death. Of these cases, there were people who have been proven innocent after the person was executed. A good example of this type of situtation happened in 1990 when Jesse Tafero was executed in Florida for murdering a state trooper. His wife, Sonia Jacobs was also sentenced to the death penalty but was later reduced on an appeal to life imprisonment, 11 years later her convictions were vacated by federal court. Even though Jesse and Sonia’s conviction was the same, it was all due to an ex-convict who turned in evidence that help prove the couple was guilty which led one of them to be penalized with death. The ex convict who turned state witness testified against the couple so the ex convict could avoid the death penalty. If he were alive in 1992, he would have been released with his wife. Another example of such cases happened in 1992 when Roger Coleman was executed in Virginia even though another person was suspected as the murder because there was evidence that was never summated to his trial. In court, the jury did not take anyone seriously until late in the appeal process, when they found out he or she was about to kill an innocent man. Even though they tried to delay and stop the execution it was to late. Eventually the case was cleared, and he was later proven innocent. These cases clear prove that the death penalty is an irreversible process that has flaws and errors with in the system and has in fact executed innocent persons not responsible with murders they were tried for.

The death penalty was never a more economical alternative than life imprisonment. If anything, it is more expensive. In fact, not only is the death penalty expensive, it is always more expensive to execute some one than it is to put them for life imprisonment. The state of Florida has one of the nations most populous death row. It was estimated that to execute one criminal, it would cost them 3.2 million dollars. This is SIX times the cost of putting a person for life imprisonment. Since the death penalty is so expensive, why not just keep them in prison right? Well, if the congress could only se that and the judicial system would see that it is less economical maybe they too may agree that the death penalty is not the best choice for punishment. Many people are for the death penalty because they feel that they should suffer what they did to the victim. When in fact that the US system was not meant as a way of revenge towards the criminal. A better alternative would be to let the criminal be locked in jail with no parole, which would be less controversial than going forward with the execution.

With all of these issues stated, it can be clearly seen that the death penalty is judgmental, unfair and expensive. There have been cases when innocent people have been executed or in other words murdered because some one made a mistake or there was not enough info to prove him innocent.