Is the Death Penalty Broken or Unfair? Essay

Submitted By DwightHenry2
Words: 898
Pages: 4
Open Document
Throughout countless research they say that the death penalty is the most controversial and most angering topic out there in the news of modern times. The cases range from mass murderers to rapist and robberies, psychotic to religious. All very controversial and twisted due to the state laws and the amendments rights that protect the perpetrator/s accused in each case. There are many states that uphold the death penalty and there are some that just chose life imprisonment instead to be kept alive by taxpayers’ money. It is said that an average death row inmate cost more to sustain than a regular inmate accumulating the value of $92,000 per year ("Costs: Complications of," 2012). One of the most controversial states that abandon the death penalty for life imprisonment without parole seemingly even though that ballet was defeated is California. California has accumulated a value of $4 billion since 1978 ("Costs of the," 2012). This shows sign of a broken legal system towards death penalty and wasteful efforts placed into it bankrupting the state and over all the country. There are many cases that show such corruption and unethical decisions that prolong the perpetrators life and deepening the debt the state is in.
Case 1 Caryl Whittier Chessman Vs California Caryl Whittier Chessman also known as the “Red Light Bandit” is classified as a robber and a rapist in Los Angeles was convicted and sentence to death for flashing a red light that tricked them into thinking he was a police officer and when they opened their windows or exited the vehicle, he would rob and, in the case of several young women, rape them (Richard Bevan, 2012). In July, 1948, Chessman was convicted on seventeen counts of robbery, kidnapping and rape and condemned to death (Richard Bevan, 2012). It was said that Caryl was a deviant and a liar due to the fact that he was his own attorney and claims he was innocent man in a case on false identification and is begin framed (Richard Bevan, 2012). He lost the trail and was sent to death by gas chamber where it toke a 12 year period before it happen, due to the fact of him escaping execution several time (Richard Bevan, 2012). This is a prime example of a case where no murder was committed but instead a series of robberies and rapes were committed and he had a very short sentence.
Case 2 California, sits on 'Symbolic' killer on death row for decades, costing billions On June 28, 1984, Richard Ramirez a 24-year-old man also known as “the Night Stalker” had killed no less than 13 people and viscously raped and blemished numerous more (Ed Barnes, 2010). Ramirez earned the title symbolic killer for the reason the satanic pentagrams he left on his victims along with the sexually abused women who were sometimes forces to sing praise Satan before he raped them (Ed Barnes, 2010). A case of where the full brutality of Ramirez was shown is with the Vincent and Maxine Zazza. Vincent was found with a bullet hole in his head while his wife, Maxine, Vincent’s wife, was found naked in her bed with her eyes gouged out and with stab wounds on her face, neck, breasts, abdomen and groin (Ed Barnes, 2010). That was just a sample of the things that Ramirez did and he showed no remorse for all of what he did. “When he was found guilty of capital murder in 1989, he remarked, "Big deal. Death always went with the territory." (Ed Barnes, 2010)” Ramirez still lives until now in prison on death
Show More

Related Documents: Is the Death Penalty Broken or Unfair? Essay

Hugo Adam The Case Against Capital Punishment

Ahimsa For thousands of years civilizations would resort to death by execution as punishment for serve crimes. The power to decide who should die, should not reside in a humans hand because capital punishment is inhumane. The in-depth web article “The Case Against The Death Penalty” written by Hugo Adam express’s his strong belief against capital punishment; “The death penalty is uncivilized in theory and unfair and inequitable in Practice….Strive to prevent executions and seek the abolition of…

Words 748 - Pages 3

The Death Penalty Is Wrong Essays

The death penalty is absolutely outrageous. There is no real reason that the government should feel that it has the right to execute people. Capital punishment is murder just as much as the people being executed murdered. The is no need for the death penalty and it needs to be abolished. It goes against the Constitution which states that there will be no cruel and unusual punishment. There is nothing crueler than killing a person. A perfect example of the death penalty going awry is the state of…

Words 1096 - Pages 5

Death Penalty Essay

overlooked in any execution. The capital punishment system is brutal, bias, and kills possibly innocent people. It is a system that is broken, terribly wasteful, and requires immediate reformation. Michael L. Radelet states “A central component of the death penalty abolitionists’ argument from the last 250 years has been the problem of erroneous convictions.”(199) Death cannot be undone. Innocent lives can be and have been destroyed permanently. Bruck’s understanding suggests that “The ordeal of…

Words 669 - Pages 3

Pros And Cons Of The 8th Amendment

shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” The 8th amendment is a very important inclusion to the 10 bill of rights. This guaranties the right that you will be punished fairly on the crime you’ve broken. You won’t be hung because you were speeding. The 8th amendment makes it unconstitutional for the jury to give you an unreasonable bail. The bail must meet the crime as well as the fine. These are all stated in the different clauses of the 8th amendment…

Words 1071 - Pages 5

What Was Louis Riel's Involvement In The French Revolution

The leader of the North West Rebellion had been hung after losing an unfair against the government on the 16th day of 11th month in 1885. The trial was first held at Winnipeg but was later moved to Regina as the government had discovered that a Manitoba Jury could be half Metis. Of the six men that made up the Regina Jury, only one of the six men spoke French. The accused Louis Riel was being charged with high treason by John A Macdonald after leading the North West Rebellions. The law John A Macdonald…

Words 814 - Pages 4

How Does Creon Betray Family

would get claim to the throne, it ended in both their deaths. When they had died, I had expected them to get buried. Creon surprisingly had decided not to allow one of them to get buried, Polynices because he was the person who had waged war on Thebes because of his ambition to get the throne.…

Words 1241 - Pages 5

Friendship 9: Unjust Law

It is a non-violent resistance undertaken to make changes to the law or government policies. However, despite the member’s unfair plight that makes civil disobedience morally justified, I would not recommend it. There are two main reasons why this is so. Firstly, in most cases of acts of civil disobedience, there is no immediate change to the law. It often drags over a long…

Words 1023 - Pages 5

Essay On The 14th Amendment

In a war that simply wanted to contain the expansion of slavery, universal suffrage for African Americans quickly become a top priority of the post-civil war political agenda. Following the Union’s victory the Civil War, the 13th Amendment was ratified and officially abolished slavery in the United States. But, the amendment did not grant the former slaves the rights that other white Americans held at the time. In other words, it did not grant them full freedom, simply “free, but free only to labor”…

Words 669 - Pages 3

Oladah Equiano Human Rights

During the colonial times rights for humans were not evenly distributed . This was from the effect of groups having higher standards in governing, infrastructures, and wealth compared to others. Colonialism then began to affect human rights and tensions in society started to expand. Human rights were often handled differently toward select groups of people. The Crucible by Arthor Miller and the autobiography Interesting Narrative of Oladah Equiano both exemplify the harsh effects on human rights…

Words 886 - Pages 4

Grosvenor's Abortion

remained “willing to take the sin and shame to her self,” brandishing her scarlet letter dutifully. (Dayton, 32) Indeed, she endures pain beyond imagination, reaching the “utmost distress”, “trembl[ing]” at the thought that “bone of the Child was broken.” (Dayton, 27) At no moment does she consider the toll these measures will take on her. She does not even resist how little say she has in her own abortion. She selflessly strides forward. Indeed, supposed witches of Salem had the odds stacked against…

Words 1710 - Pages 7