“If it bleeds, it leads,” is the motto of many mainstream media outlets as stories of murder and rape fill the headlines and bylines. Interest in these topics tends to build up and generate discussion, especially when it comes to the morality of the transgressor’s sentence and possible capital punishment. People take different sides of the issue, with one side saying that the death penalty is justified because it is a deterrent against further murders. However, the current system of capital punishment is stricken with flaws and should be abolished because it preys on minorities and has a unacceptable record of killing innocent people.
America is known for its racial history and tensions that divide the country to this day and is also known …show more content…
These states, according to the U.S. national census, where less than one third of the population is reported to be Hispanic or African American, have over fifty percent of the death row inmates (“Capital Punishment: Cruel and Unusual”). Here, minorities are grossly overrepresented and have a higher chance of receiving the death penalty than their white counterparts. This exemplifies a major blunder in the U.S. justice system, which prides itself to be equal for every man. Instead, it shows instead the racial disparity between minorities and the majority of the population. While others may argue that the death penalty is colorblind and is not racist, these people fail to realize that the contrast between the amount of white prisoners that receive a lesser punishment is undeniable when compared to the …show more content…
Killing people for their crimes is wrong, but killing the wrong person is an even more heinous crime. Prosecutors, judges, and jurors can all be subject to bias and different forms of prejudice, no matter how thoroughly vetted they are. In this case, the ramification of their human errors serves no balance of justice. People make mistakes, and lives should not be at stake for their blunders. Ten percent of people who have committed capital crimes have been exonerated due to technological advances in the field of forensics (Dieter). However, these advancements have only occurred in the last ten years, which means possibly hundreds of innocent lives were lost before the advent of DNA
America is known for its racial history and tensions that divide the country to this day and is also known …show more content…
These states, according to the U.S. national census, where less than one third of the population is reported to be Hispanic or African American, have over fifty percent of the death row inmates (“Capital Punishment: Cruel and Unusual”). Here, minorities are grossly overrepresented and have a higher chance of receiving the death penalty than their white counterparts. This exemplifies a major blunder in the U.S. justice system, which prides itself to be equal for every man. Instead, it shows instead the racial disparity between minorities and the majority of the population. While others may argue that the death penalty is colorblind and is not racist, these people fail to realize that the contrast between the amount of white prisoners that receive a lesser punishment is undeniable when compared to the …show more content…
Killing people for their crimes is wrong, but killing the wrong person is an even more heinous crime. Prosecutors, judges, and jurors can all be subject to bias and different forms of prejudice, no matter how thoroughly vetted they are. In this case, the ramification of their human errors serves no balance of justice. People make mistakes, and lives should not be at stake for their blunders. Ten percent of people who have committed capital crimes have been exonerated due to technological advances in the field of forensics (Dieter). However, these advancements have only occurred in the last ten years, which means possibly hundreds of innocent lives were lost before the advent of DNA