Reasons For Abolishing The Death Penalty

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The death penalty is cause for many arguments. There are many people who are against it and many for it but it should come down to what is best for the society. The death penalty is a conviction that criminals get for committing heinous crimes. The problem with the death penalty is that it is permanent. Once someone is sentenced to the death penalty and is killed, their conviction cannot be overturned, if they are later found innocent. As stated by Dieter (1997), the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, “the danger that innocent people will be executed because of errors in the criminal justice system is getting worse”. According to his article, a total of 69 victims have been released from their death penalty convictions, …show more content…
There are many reasons to abolish the death penalty. The biggest reasons would be the potential loss of innocents. The people of America do not want to see an innocent person executed. Seeing that makes them think that it could have been them. The anger at the criminal justice system for not finding the actual culprit and the shame that they were forced to pay for the execution would be enough to change their minds on whether the death penalty should be abolished or not. According to Garrett (2011), he reveals that due to the incompetence, abuse and errors of the criminal justice system, there has been “Evidence corrupted by suggestive eyewitness procedures, coercive interrogations, unsound and unreliable forensics, shoddy investigative practices, cognitive bias, and poor lawyering illustrates the weaknesses built into our current criminal justice system”(Garrett, 2011, p367). He proposes that “practical reforms that rely more on documented, recorded, and audited evidence and less on fallible human memory”(Garrett, 2011, p367). He explains that DNA exonerations have “shattered the confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free” (Garrett, 2011, p367). Educating the public about alternatives, such as, life in prison, instead …show more content…
(“About us,” 2016). Donating to the cause and signing their petition help implement the change they are fighting for. There are already over 90 million people who back this organization up with their donations and

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