Capital Punishment In Steve Earle's A Death In Texas

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Capital punishment is the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime. The death penalty is a complex issue, and can understandably be argued from both sides, those opposing the death penalty, and those who feel capital punishment should still be an option. Capital punishment should be abolished because, people are capable of change, the penalty puts innocent lives at risk, and we pay millions for each death penalty case. Firstly, people are capable of change; in other words, the guilty adept to rehabilitation. Although most inmates end up waiting up to twelve or more years until execution, a human being is capable of change in a decade’s time. Accordingly, in Steve Earle’s “A Death in Texas,” Jonathan Nobles who spent …show more content…
There have been several people wrongly accused of a crime, and are sentenced to death for it. For example, the Texas conviction of Carlos DeLuna in 1983, “New evidence uncovered by reporters Maurice Possley and Steve Millis casts doubt on DeLuna’s guilt and points towards another man, Carlos Hernandez, who had a record of similar crimes, and reportedly confessed to the murder.” (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executed-possibly-innocent), in this case an innocent man was executed for a crime he did not commit, which could have been prevented if in fact the evidence was handled correctly and if the death penalty had not been an option. In fact, as technology advances in evidence collection and analysis investigations will be more accurate. An example of this is the discovery of DNA. Which when applied to cases before it was available many times showed the person was innocent. In addition, this shows us that our methods can always be improved upon as technology advances and more importantly, that we could be executing innocent people that could be cleared by more advanced technology and analysis in evidence. Accordingly, as stated “Since 1989 there have been tens of thousands of cases where prime suspects were identified and pursued until DNA testing (prior to conviction) proved that they were innocent, or wrongly accused.” (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/FactSheet.pdf …show more content…
What has been seen in several cases of people sentenced to death row is, change. Concluding from what was seen in Jonathan Noble’s story, and Jose Briseno’s. Both who were convicted of a serious crime, and still sought to change how they were portrayed. This being said, the criminal justice system needs rehabilitate someone for once, not execute one after one. Also, the reason that is greatly essential behind abolishing the death penalty is to end risking innocent lives. An illustration of this is Carlos DeLuna how was convicted in 1983 for a crime he did not commit but still led to his execution. After further evidence Carlos DeLuna was proven innocent, but it was too late. In addition, getting rid of capital punishment would prevent cases like Carlos DeLuna’s and thousands of others wrongly convicted on death row. However, an influential reason to abolish capital punishment is how costly trying each penalty case is. The process is longer and complicated therefore, increases the cost for tax payers. As a final point, those in favor of the death penalty deny one’s capability to change, continues the risk of executing innocent lives, and furthers the millions of dollars we spend trying death penalty

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