Use Of The Death Penalty example essay topic

The Death Penalty has been, undeniably, one of the most controversial issues of our society. The Death Penalty is barbaric. This form of punishment truly shows the level to which society has sunk. When people stand outside prisons and cheer as prisoners are murdered, there is a problem. When human life is assigned a value and weighed against other's, there is a problem. Truly there is no purpose to the Death Penalty other than revenge, yet it seems that our society has come to think that even revenge is acceptable.

The state, though, does the same thing as the murderer does. When a murder committed in anger is punished with an execution committed in anger, there is something wrong with that. How can one form of murder be right and another be wrong? The Death Penalty cannot prevent crime form happening again. The purpose of the Death Penalty lies in anger and hatred. How can one justify something through anger and hatred?

The Death Penalty is a simple solution to a complex problem. It seems people like to complain about problems, but do not want to go to the trouble of finding reasonable solutions. People want to jump to a quick resolution, the death penalty. This however, does nothing to address the problem. A 1995 poll of police chiefs shows that 67% do not believe that the death penalty significantly reduces the number of homicides. Another good statistic is the following: Murder rates are 45% lower in states without the death penalty, than in states with the death penalty.

Similarly, the U.S., with the death penalty, has a higher murder rate than the countries of Europe or Canada, which do not use the death penalty. There are many more reasonable methods of dealing with a serious crime. Life imprisonment without parole serves the same purpose as capital punishment at less cost. Life imprisonment is also less controversial. You cannot argue that it is unjust.

The death penalty makes is too easy on the criminal. In our days, the criminal doesn't experience any pain. Life imprisonment, on the other hand, would cause the criminal to suffer more. The criminal would have to think more about his murder.

Life imprisonment without parole also protects society form ever encountering with the victim. Bias amongst the jury is also an issue when employing the death penalty. For example, the novel A Lesson before Dying by Ernest J Gaines, portrays an innocent black young man being wrongly accused of a crime that he did not commit. He is convicted of killing a white man. The reader could clearly realize that Jefferson was an innocent man that was at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Because Jefferson is black, he receives the death penalty. The jury is made up of all white people. Here racial injustice was the reason Jefferson received the death penalty. The novel is set in the 1940's at the heart of racial Injustice: the South.

At the trial, for example, Jefferson is treated as an animal. Even his own lawyer calls him an animal. The entire trial is unfair and Jefferson's side of the story is not taken seriously. The fact that is clear is that the jury had already made up a decision, in advance to the trial. People tend to be bias among certain issues. A bias jury cannot be trusted with a person's life.

Recent studies have repeatedly shown that a death sentence is far more likely where a white person is murdered than where a black person is murdered. The death penalty appears to count white lives as more valuable than black lives. Since 1930, over 50% of the 3,859 persons executed have been African Americans. Until race and other factors can be eliminated as a cause of who lives and who dies, the death penalty must not be used. One cannot be certain that the trial is fair. So there is always a risk that an innocent person might be found guilty and receive a death penalty.

Since 1970, more than 60 innocent people have been discovered on death row. Another important argument against the death penalty is the criminal's economical status. Many inmates do not receive the death penalty because they have a good lawyer. Almost all defendants facing the death penalty cannot afford his / her own attorney. This means that they are dependent on their lawyers. Many of these lawyers lack experience and do not investigate the case properly.

A poorly represented defendant is much more likely to be convicted and given a death sentence. In the movie, "Dead Man Walking", the inmate doesn't receive a good lawyer. He doesn't have any money and is convicted easily. He receives the death penalty. He claims that he is innocent and tries to get a nun to listen to him.

He asks her for another lawyer. While watching the movie, one cannot be certain if the inmate is guilty or innocent. Receiving the Death Penalty is not a joke. At the conclusion of the movie, the inmate does get executed. After watching the movie, I wasn't happy with the punishment that the inmate received. He should " ve received life imprisonment.

One reason for that is that he might be innocent. The other reason for that is that he received the same thing that he originally did to kill the couple. According to the ACLU, "virtually all" of the people on death row today are poor. In the movie, the same case was present. The inmate didn't have money to afford a good lawyer. Many victims' families are against the use of the death penalty.

For example, Bud Welch's daughter, Julie, was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Although his first reaction was to wish that those who committed this terrible crime be killed, he realized that such killing "is simply vengeance; and it was vengeance that killed Julie... Vengeance is a strong and natural emotion". There is no point of the death penalty when you could give life imprisonment. Take Martin Luther King Jr., for example. He refused to use violence, even though he saw how much African Americans were being abused.

It turned out that he was successful of using this theory. There is also always a risk that you would kill an innocent person. The world could also be more successful, if it abandons the death penalty and uses life imprisonment without parole instead. 1) web 2) web 3) web 4) Book: A Lesson Before Dying written Ernest J Gaines 5) Movie: "Dead Man Walking" produced by Tim Robbins.