Death Penalty Case example essay topic

... d from death. One out of every seven people sentenced to death row is innocent. The numbers are disturbing. Innocent people are becoming victims of the United States judicial system by its overlooked imperfections. A former president of the American Bar Association (ABA), John J. Curtin Jr., said it best when he told a congressional committee "Whatever you think about the death penalty, a system that will take life must first give justice. Execute justice, not people".

Though some of the innocent death row inmates have managed to escape their execution, there are numerous others who are unable to overturn their sentence through appeals. Many cases of innocence go unheard and result in the unfortunate fatality of an innocent bystander. When the death penalty in 1972 was ruled unconstitutional in Furman vs. Georgia, the Justices expected that the "adoption of narrowly crafted sentencing procedures would protect against innocent persons being sentenced to death". But the chances that innocent persons have been or will be executed remain astoundingly high. The United States justice system was formed on the premise that it should protect society's general well being from any harm. Processes and procedures have been formed and created in order to ensure that everyone receives fair treatment, but the system has flaws that have let criminals back out on the streets and put innocent people in jail and on death row.

How can the nation's people put trust into an institution, which has reportedly failed them again and again? The system can and will, and has in the past, falsely accused someone and wrongfully sentenced him to terminal punishment. Once a convicted prisoner meets the executioner, the prisoner has reached the point of no return. Death cannot be reversed once it has occurred. Now, there are actually some safeguards guaranteeing protection of those facing the death penalty, the defendant cannot be insane, and the man's real or criminal intent must be present. For example, In September 1998, the Illinois Supreme Court delayed the execution of Anthony Porter just two days before it was scheduled to occur.

Porter, who was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in 1982, had been determined to have an intelligence quotient (IQ) of 51. A person registering an IQ below 70 is often considered mentally retarded, and the court wanted more time to consider whether the Constitution permits the execution of such an individual. Unlike some other states that use capital punishment, Illinois does not have a law specifically prohibiting executions of the mentally retarded. During the delay, David Protess, a journalism professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., investigated Porter's case. Working with a private investigator, Protess and his students dug through police and court records until they located another man who confessed -- on videotape -- to the murders for which Porter had been convicted.

After the confession became public, the sole eyewitness who testified against Porter recanted. In February 1999, more than 16 years after Porter was first imprisoned, he was pardoned by Illinois Gov. George Ryan. Also, minors rarely receive the death penalty because they are not fully mature, not knowing the consequences of their actions. Though, to their credit, the courts must require very high levels of proof of criminality before they would order the death penalty. Lastly, the mentally retarded are very seldom executed. The reason for not in this case is that they often have difficulty defending themselves in court, such as problems remembering details, locating witnesses, and testifying credibly on their own behalf.

Technologies also are very helpful in solving crimes. Some observers have called 'DNA fingerprinting' the answer. In recent years, scientists have learned how to identify an individual by his or her genetic makeup, as encoded by deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Every person has a unique configuration of DNA, and that code is imprinted on each cell in the human body. Police often gather bodily materials such as hair, semen, blood or fingernails at a crime scene, since those materials can be analyzed to determine whether the 'DNA fingerprint' of a person accused of a crime matches the DNA samples recovered at the crime scene. If the defendant's DNA does not match that found at the crime scene, it becomes more difficult to prove that he or she was involved in the crime.

These safeguards are to try to insure that justice will be served without having it suffer. Life imprisonment is a more cost-effective method. Abolitionists contend that the death penalty is more expensive because of the multiple appeals that inmates request from behind bars. And since most death row inmates are indigent individuals, the money needed for appeals cases are funded with government tax money.

In California, capital trials are six times more costly than other murder trials; simply because of the complex pre-trail motions, lengthy jury selections, and expenses for expert witnesses, and the pursuit by most death row prisoners to overturn their sentences through appeals are also very costly. Criminal sociologists, argues that since the death sentences puts the prisoner's life at stake, death penalty cases are especially complicated from pretrial motions through sentencing and appeals, with the state usually having to pay for all the costs. They estimates that the cost of each death penalty case is 2 to 3 million dollars. Studies of the deterrent effect of the death penalty have been conducted for several years, with varying result. Most studies have failed to produce evidence that the death penalty deterred murders more effectively then the threat of imprisonment. The reason for this is that few people are executed and so the death crime deterrent is not a satisfactory deterrent.

If capital punishment were carried out more often it would prove to be the crime deterrent it was intended to be. A major purpose of criminal punishment is to conclude future criminal conduct. The deterrence theory suggests that a rational person will avoid criminal behavior if the severity of the punishment outweighs the benefits of the illegal conduct. It is believed that fear of death deters people from committing a crime. Most criminals would think twice before committing murder if they knew their own lives were at stake. When attached to certain crimes, the penalty of death exerts a positive oral influence, placing a stigma on certain crime like manslaughter, which results in attitudes of horror to such acts.

Too often, we are confronted with wanton acts of violence that cry out for justice. The World Trade Center bombing and the murderous rampage on the Long Island Rail Road by Colin Ferguson are but two examples. The slaying of a police officer in the line of duty is another. To kill a police is to commit an act of war against civilized society. A person who knowingly commits such a heinous act poses a serious threat to us all, for government cannot protect citizens without doing everything it can to protect those charged with our safety. Police officers put their lives on the line, not knowing whether their next traffic stop or call of duty will be their last.

Contract killers, serial murders, those who torture their victims, or those who have murdered before also can be sentenced to death. In determining whether the death penalty should be imposed on anyone convicted of first-degree murder. "An eye for an eye", many people believe that capital punishment dose not belong in a civilized society. I believe a form of it is needed because we do not live on a civilized society, whereas mass murders and those who create such devious and heinous crimes will surface at different time, and there needs to be a way of ending their madness. We live in a day and age where killing happens everyday though, and first time offenders, for example, should receive a life sentence, teaching the individual, and those around the individual that if "you do the crime, you pay the time.".