Essay on Death Penalty

Death Penalty
Have you ever heard of an individual being wrongfully convicted solely on the basis of his race and not the truth? In 1966 Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, had been charged for a triple murder crime and been sentenced for life, along with another person by the name of John Artis. These were two African-American men that had been mistaken for shootings at a bar, which had killed three people and wounded one who had lost his eye sight. Carter was a professional boxer who was well known, he had received an honorary championship belt from the world boxing council. The night of the crime scene two men stated that they had seen Carter and Artis drive away in a white car, which fit the description of the murders, but they had been cleared because the victim did not succeed by identifying them as the gunmen. There were two eyewitnesses that produced little to no matching evidence, which later on were found to be two petty criminals. They had been involved in a burglary case close to the crime scene it was revealed that they had received a reduced sentence and money for the tainted evidence. The Supreme Court finally decided to end the twenty-two year old case that had continued, “Based on racism rather than reason and concealment rather than disclosure”. In Carter’s case it leads to him losing his wife and upbringing of his children, he also spent twenty-two years fighting his innocence. It is therefore crucial to prove a criminal beyond a reasonable doubt before they are sentenced. There are many cases like this one, but Carter was lucky because at least his life wasn’t taken. There are some cases that have costs people’s lives and later were proven innocent after their life had already been taken. The single handed most obvious problem with the death penalty is the conviction of innocent people who are sentenced many years in prison and then eventually to death, which can be prevented through the use of further developments of evidence.
The death penalty is a sentence received for extremely cruel and brutal crimes one usually gets it if they have committed murder. This sentence has been abolished in all Western countries because it is considered too brutal, but the United States is the only Western country that still has this punishment. There are even some States in the U.S that no longer have this sentence. Today we have this sentence in thirty-eight states and each state practices this differently. There are five different methods in which this sentence can be given, but in California we only use lethal injection and gas chamber. However, the question is if it is even morally right to keep this sentence since so many innocent people die or spend so many years in prison. In California we now have 648 people serving on death row, they are all of different nationalities and only 15 of those are women.
There are many cases in our history that have lead to people being sentenced to die on death row even though in the end those people were found innocent. This occurs due to the lack of DNA testing, racial bias and legal incompetence by attorneys to prove the person innocent. The number of people who are sentenced with a crime that they did not commit is extremely high this is a negative aspect of the capital punishment. This is also illustrated within this quote, “The San Jose Mercury News reported in 2002 that two out of every three death sentences in California are reversed on appeal. Inadequate defense is one of the top reasons leading to reversal”. It is recent that fourteen states started to allow the DNA testing method, this right was not given before to prove the defendants innocence. Due to that a large amount of people have spent decades in prison. The Innocence Protection Act of 2000 was therefore created by Larry Marshall, to give every inmate the right to DNA testing across the country. This Act is being considered and is still discussed by the U.S congress. The other unjust reason that can be a result of an

Show More

Death Penalty Essay

Death Penalty Essay

Death Penalty Essay

Death Penalty Essay

Death Penalty Essay