In the case against the death penalty, Ben Franklin once said, “It is better 100 guilty persons should escape than one innocent person should suffer”. Since 1973, 1583 men and women have been executed by the death penalty and at least 190 of those have been proven innocent. While the death penalty might discourage crime, it should be abolished because it poses a risk of executing innocent people, hasn't been proven to effectively reduce crime, and shows signs of unfairness in how it's applied to different ethnic groups. Roughly 1473 people have been executed since 1976, when the death penalty was reestablished. 1473 executed, 160 plus released. Over ten percent of those who could have been put to death were proven innocent. As little as this…show more content… While thousands of people have been put to death, it is found that roughly 42% of those that have been executed are Native American. The case of Julius Jones, an African American man sentenced to death for a murder he maintains he did not commit, has garnered widespread attention due to concerns about racial bias in his trial. Jones's case highlights the systemic injustices faced by Black defendants within the criminal justice system.Jones's experience also shows broader patterns of racial discrimination in capital cases, further underscoring the need to abolish the death penalty to address systemic racism and ensure equal treatment under the law. The Scottsboro boys were nine black teenage brothers, all falsely accused of raping two white women. In the first set of trials in April 1931, an all-white, all-male jury quickly convicted the brothers and sentenced eight of them to death even though there was no medical evidence that rape had even taken place and the testimonies of the accusers were inconsistent and…show more content… Hill's case exemplifies the inherent injustices in executing individuals with intellectual disabilities, emphasizing the need for policies that protect the rights of marginalized groups within the criminal justice system. The racial and social inequalities in death penalty cases show why the death penalty should be abolished to treat everyone equally. Despite claims of deterrence, evidence suggests that the death penalty is not consistently effective in preventing crime, casting doubt on its justification and utility in the criminal justice system. Representative Jack Minor told his colleagues that studies show that crime rates are lower in states without the death penalty as others claim that “revenge” would not help victims’ families. To add on, the average murder rates per 100,000 population in 1999 among death penalty states was 5.5, whereas the average murder rates among the non-death penalty states was only 3.6. According to the Times, ten out of the twelve states without the death penalty have homicide rates below the national average, while half of the other states that enforced the death penalty have homicide rates above average and over the past two decades, states with the death penalty have experienced a 48% to 101% higher homicide rate compared to states without
