The Death Penalty

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“The death penalty is discriminatory and does not do anything about crime.”- Bobby Scott. The Death penalty has been around for thousands of years and the United States only adopted it a few hundred years ago. Ever since then this has been a very controversial punishment for those who commit heinous crimes. Those for the death penalty claim that it is necessary because it helps preserve that law, deters crime, and is much less expensive than holding an individual in a prison cell. On the other hand, individuals who are on the other side of the fence claim that the number of dollars it costs to keep an individual in prison should not matter because one can’t assign a monetary value to another individual's life. However, many that have been placed …show more content…
In 1967, William Henry Furman, a homeless, mentally unstable individual stumbled into the home of William Mickey Jr. Mickey and his family were startled by the ruckus that Furman was causing, so Mickey Jr went to go investigate what was going on in his house. He and Furman were both stunned to see each other. Little did Mickey know that Furman was armed with a gun, so he ran towards him to get Furman to leave his house. As Furman was running away he fired his gun, hitting Mickey in the chest, instantly killing him. Police were immediately notified of this murder, and found Furman within minutes. Soon after Furman’s arrest he was examined at the Georgia Central State hospital for a psychological examination. After the examination, the results showed that he was infact mentally ill. Once all of these factors were determined, the court deemed Furman capable to stand trial, even though he was tested and deemed by the doctors that he was mentally unstable. In addition to this, Furman could not afford a lawyer so he was given a poor man’s …show more content…
They had argued that Furman was in fact scared and fled the scene and accidentally fired the gun after he had stumbled over various items in the house. Some noticed that Furman did in fact express deep sorrow over the fact that he killed Mickey. Furman’s lawyers tried to have him eligible for the insanity plea, but the court had rejected this plea for he was deemed sane to stand trial before he stood before the jury. But when Furman heard the verdict of the jury, he and his lawyers were utterly shocked because he was given the death penalty and placed on death row. Even when the odds were stacked against them, Furman and his team of lawyers persisted and appealed the punishment given to

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