Death: The Ultimate Conviction James Weston, a 46-year-old black male, sat on death row for seventeen years awaiting execution for his murder conviction. He was denied an appeal, and when his day came, he chose to end his life by lethal injection. Two years after Weston’s execution Michael Gibson, a 39-year-old black male, was arrested for murder. During the investigation evidence was found connecting Gibson to the victim in which Weston was convicted of murdering. Gibson later confessed to both murders, and was sentenced to death. Weston spent seventeen years on death row, and was robbed of his life for a crime he didn’t commit. In the online article “The Death Penalty and Public Information on its Use,” Chiara Sangiorgio, a professor,…show more content… According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) there have been almost 1,500 people executed since 1976, and of this number 786 have been white, and 491 were black. The victims are 76% white and only 15% black. Currently on death row there are over 3,000 inmates, and on average between 3-5 inmates per year are released due to new evidence of their innocence. If there are so many people per year that are proven innocent while on death row, wouldn’t this be enough to consider taking it off the table? In Missouri alone there has been a total of 285 executions between 1810 and 1965 starting with the first one in 1810 when Peter Johnson was hanged for murder. Hanging has always been the primary method of execution until lethal gas was staring to be used in 1937, and lethal injection was added in 1987 as a choice to gas. I personally think that there should be a better way to punish people for their wrong doings then put them to death. When someone is put to death, and then later found that they are innocent, as in Weston’s case, there is no bringing him back to life. The justice system is going to have to live with taking innocent victims lives because they simply wanted a guilty verdict to rush and close a
