The death penalty should cease to exist within our day and age. This form of punishment is barbaric and is not warranted as a successful decline of crimes being committed.
The death penalty has taken 80 lives in 2014. Since this statistic appears to be of minimal proceedings resulting in the death penalty there is not a fathomable reason as to why the death penalty should be deemed as a worthy criminal punishment. Some of these lives that have been taken have not committed the crime they were prosecuted for. In 2012 the Lincoln Journal Star posted an editorial arguing that DNA evidence is not error proof, nor 100% accurate in convicting suspects of said crimes. This particular case that involved murder occurred in Nebraska where the evidence …show more content…
Majority of the people who are given the death penalty are those who are individuals in poverty or within the minority populations. This fact is based on the statistics that “approximately 3,350 people on death row as of 2007, nearly all are impoverished, and many belong to minority groups (more than 40 percent are African American)” (Ballaro). Those who are apart of these discriminated groups are lucky if they have money because the chances of them not receiving the death penalty is slim; especially if they don’t have lawyers or private investigators. This brings me to another reason why we should not have the death penalty because the guilty verdict as to why a murderer would be receiving the death penalty has less to do with the innocence of the offender and is solely being based upon the race, social, and economic class of the prisoner and victim. In Robert Levinson and Danielle Young’s Empirical Study of Implicit Bias on Jury-Eligible Citizens in Six Death Penalty States, it was found that African American individuals were stereotyped as being aggressive, lazy, and worthless, while Whites were seen as being virtuous, hard-working, and valuable. It was also denoted that the race of the victim takes precedent over the race of the offender. If the victim was …show more content…
I don’t think there is enough activists surrounding this issue to eliminate this olden day punishment within the next few years. I have learned through my research that within just this year some states are submitting bills to nullify the death penalty and are having luck, while other states are asking to reinstate the death penalty. The states that have gained passage for the nullification are Arkansas, Delaware, and Nebraska. However, this is just the beginning stages of bills. The states that have received a resounding no to abolish the death penalty are Indiana, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming. There is a total of 18 states that have abolished the death penalty thus far. I believe it will be a superlative day when all states have ceased killing of others as a form of justice. Since this arbitrary punishment is so biased, expensive, riddled with errors our great nation should repeal the death penalty once and for all and instead implement life in prison without parole. This jail sentence saves innocent offenders from being executed for crimes they did not commit, is cost effective, and keeps guilty offenders off our
The death penalty has taken 80 lives in 2014. Since this statistic appears to be of minimal proceedings resulting in the death penalty there is not a fathomable reason as to why the death penalty should be deemed as a worthy criminal punishment. Some of these lives that have been taken have not committed the crime they were prosecuted for. In 2012 the Lincoln Journal Star posted an editorial arguing that DNA evidence is not error proof, nor 100% accurate in convicting suspects of said crimes. This particular case that involved murder occurred in Nebraska where the evidence …show more content…
Majority of the people who are given the death penalty are those who are individuals in poverty or within the minority populations. This fact is based on the statistics that “approximately 3,350 people on death row as of 2007, nearly all are impoverished, and many belong to minority groups (more than 40 percent are African American)” (Ballaro). Those who are apart of these discriminated groups are lucky if they have money because the chances of them not receiving the death penalty is slim; especially if they don’t have lawyers or private investigators. This brings me to another reason why we should not have the death penalty because the guilty verdict as to why a murderer would be receiving the death penalty has less to do with the innocence of the offender and is solely being based upon the race, social, and economic class of the prisoner and victim. In Robert Levinson and Danielle Young’s Empirical Study of Implicit Bias on Jury-Eligible Citizens in Six Death Penalty States, it was found that African American individuals were stereotyped as being aggressive, lazy, and worthless, while Whites were seen as being virtuous, hard-working, and valuable. It was also denoted that the race of the victim takes precedent over the race of the offender. If the victim was …show more content…
I don’t think there is enough activists surrounding this issue to eliminate this olden day punishment within the next few years. I have learned through my research that within just this year some states are submitting bills to nullify the death penalty and are having luck, while other states are asking to reinstate the death penalty. The states that have gained passage for the nullification are Arkansas, Delaware, and Nebraska. However, this is just the beginning stages of bills. The states that have received a resounding no to abolish the death penalty are Indiana, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming. There is a total of 18 states that have abolished the death penalty thus far. I believe it will be a superlative day when all states have ceased killing of others as a form of justice. Since this arbitrary punishment is so biased, expensive, riddled with errors our great nation should repeal the death penalty once and for all and instead implement life in prison without parole. This jail sentence saves innocent offenders from being executed for crimes they did not commit, is cost effective, and keeps guilty offenders off our