An interview with the NCDAP states that “ the death penalty is an arbitrary and discriminatory punishment that has no place in a country which prides itself on equal protection for all citizens under the law.” Over the years, it's been proven that the death penalty discriminates; however, it's a very debatable topic. The death penalty should not be legal because it discriminates based on race, goes against human rights, and is immoral. First, capital punishment is very discriminatory based on race. Mostly, receiving the death sentence depends on the race or the skin color of a victim, not on the merits of the case (Love). Systemic racial bias in the application of capital punishment not only exists on a state level, but also a federal level.
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Human rights are rights that are inherent to all human beings, no matter their race, religion, language, or anything else. The NCADP states that “ although this idea is unfathomable to many Americans the abhorrent practice is explicitly permitted by the US Supreme Court, which ruled in the 1987 case McClesky v.s. Kemp that a pattern of racial disparities in the death penalty did not violate an individual’s constitutional right of ‘equal protection of the law (NCADP).’” David Love states that “given the over-representation of black and Hispanic prisoners on death row, of the 139 capital convicts found innocent since 1973, 61 percent have been black (Love).” The skin color of a victim and a defendant plays a huge, unacceptable role in deciding who receives capital punishment (ACLU). Also, the odds of receiving the death penalty are four times higher if the defendant is African American (Dieter). If that is not against human rights, what …show more content…
In some instances, unfair prosecutors intentionally exclude jurors based on their race because of a false belief that people of color cannot fairly serve as jurors and follow the law. Although the Constitution prohibits such intentional discrimination based on race, the courts have been lax in their enforcement, and procedural barriers too often prevent claims of bias from being heard.” Also, they say “in other instances, seemingly neutral practices that permit prosecutors to exclude people who have concerns about the death penalty but who, in actuality can still be fair jurors, results in the over-selection of racially biased jurors. People of color, women and people of faith tend to have concerns about the death penalty and the jury selection process known as “death qualification” has a disproportionate racial impact—excluding qualified people from serving as jurors.” Next, they stated that “a variety of racial issues combine to dramatically increase the risk of sentencing innocent people to death. For example, eyewitness identification, the leading cause of wrongful convictions, is even less reliable when the witness is identifying someone of a different race. In 2000, A Broken System, a landmark study on the capital justice system by researchers at Columbia University, found that “when whites and other influential
Human rights are rights that are inherent to all human beings, no matter their race, religion, language, or anything else. The NCADP states that “ although this idea is unfathomable to many Americans the abhorrent practice is explicitly permitted by the US Supreme Court, which ruled in the 1987 case McClesky v.s. Kemp that a pattern of racial disparities in the death penalty did not violate an individual’s constitutional right of ‘equal protection of the law (NCADP).’” David Love states that “given the over-representation of black and Hispanic prisoners on death row, of the 139 capital convicts found innocent since 1973, 61 percent have been black (Love).” The skin color of a victim and a defendant plays a huge, unacceptable role in deciding who receives capital punishment (ACLU). Also, the odds of receiving the death penalty are four times higher if the defendant is African American (Dieter). If that is not against human rights, what …show more content…
In some instances, unfair prosecutors intentionally exclude jurors based on their race because of a false belief that people of color cannot fairly serve as jurors and follow the law. Although the Constitution prohibits such intentional discrimination based on race, the courts have been lax in their enforcement, and procedural barriers too often prevent claims of bias from being heard.” Also, they say “in other instances, seemingly neutral practices that permit prosecutors to exclude people who have concerns about the death penalty but who, in actuality can still be fair jurors, results in the over-selection of racially biased jurors. People of color, women and people of faith tend to have concerns about the death penalty and the jury selection process known as “death qualification” has a disproportionate racial impact—excluding qualified people from serving as jurors.” Next, they stated that “a variety of racial issues combine to dramatically increase the risk of sentencing innocent people to death. For example, eyewitness identification, the leading cause of wrongful convictions, is even less reliable when the witness is identifying someone of a different race. In 2000, A Broken System, a landmark study on the capital justice system by researchers at Columbia University, found that “when whites and other influential