Is it possible for revenge and justice to be the same thing on occasion? Or are the two mutually exclusive? According to dictionary.com, justice is “the moral principle determining just conduct.” If that is true and The United States of America is supposed to be a country founded on the idea of people being treated fairly and morally, then how can it allow some of its states to continue to practice laws that do not promote those ideas? Unfortunately there are multiple laws that this question could apply to in the country today, but none more so than the laws in certain states that allow for capital punishment to be enforced. Capital punishment, or simply the death penalty, is just the punishment of death for a crime. In most cases the death
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It stands to believe that at least a fraction of that number of innocent people were not quite so lucky on death row. There is no acceptable percent error when it comes down to potentially ending an innocent person’s life just in the name of retribution. Another problem with the death penalty is the unfair way in which it is consistently applied. Seventy seven percent of people placed on death row since 1977 have been placed there for killing white victims. However, nearly half of all homicide victims are African American. Capital punishment also does not take into account any mental illness, but the execution of the mentally ill is prohibited by international law. Also, the death penalty has not been proven to be a deterrent of crime as its supporters have suggested. In 2008 the FBI said that the fourteen states that did not have capital punishment had homicide rates that were less than or equal to the national average. Finally, the last big thing about the death penalty is its large price tag. The trial and events that precede it take up most of the cost. Those two things even without the post-conviction costs are still more expensive than life in prison. Most supporters of capital punishment would suggest it costs more to let them live because it sounds right, but that’s simply not true. Capital punishment is just a flawed system that solves problems with more
It stands to believe that at least a fraction of that number of innocent people were not quite so lucky on death row. There is no acceptable percent error when it comes down to potentially ending an innocent person’s life just in the name of retribution. Another problem with the death penalty is the unfair way in which it is consistently applied. Seventy seven percent of people placed on death row since 1977 have been placed there for killing white victims. However, nearly half of all homicide victims are African American. Capital punishment also does not take into account any mental illness, but the execution of the mentally ill is prohibited by international law. Also, the death penalty has not been proven to be a deterrent of crime as its supporters have suggested. In 2008 the FBI said that the fourteen states that did not have capital punishment had homicide rates that were less than or equal to the national average. Finally, the last big thing about the death penalty is its large price tag. The trial and events that precede it take up most of the cost. Those two things even without the post-conviction costs are still more expensive than life in prison. Most supporters of capital punishment would suggest it costs more to let them live because it sounds right, but that’s simply not true. Capital punishment is just a flawed system that solves problems with more