First practiced in the United States in 1622 in the colony of Virginia, by the 1800s, capital punishment became the automatic penalty for any criminal convicted of murder or other capital crimes. With the law providing that no jury, once having recognized a criminal as guilty of a capital offense, could legally avoid the death penalty, by this time in the United States, capital punishment was not only widely accepted, but required. As a result of these conditions, if a jury collectively found a person guilty of a capital crime, but did not believe that the death penalty was an appropriate punishment, they would pursue jury nullification, in which the guilty criminal is claimed innocent in order to avoid execution. However, this devious method
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As mentioned by the Death Penalty Information Center, these numbers are not necessarily inclusive of every case that fits within these categories. Thus, the very argument that these rates are considered negligible dark figures is the support behind the counterargument that the death penalty executes innocent people; the sheer possibility of innocent deaths is sufficient evidence of the system’s faultiness. Not only are there actual known cases that suggest that the system was faulty in its accusations, but the fact that a rate of innocent executions even exists is enough incentive for protest against the system. Therefore, because the success rate of capital punishment is not one hundred percent, it is logical to argue that capital punishment should be abolished to completely eliminate the possibility of false execution; yet, even with alternative methods of punishment, supporters of the death penalty insist that it is the only appropriate punishment.
In addition to the argument that the death penalty’s rate of false conviction and of false execution are negligible, supporters of capital punishment argue that the system is ethnically just, suggesting that capital punishment does not discriminate based on race, gender, or ethnicity. However, contradictory to this claim, those who oppose capital punishment suggest that the system does in fact discriminate against minorities, particularly the mentally
As mentioned by the Death Penalty Information Center, these numbers are not necessarily inclusive of every case that fits within these categories. Thus, the very argument that these rates are considered negligible dark figures is the support behind the counterargument that the death penalty executes innocent people; the sheer possibility of innocent deaths is sufficient evidence of the system’s faultiness. Not only are there actual known cases that suggest that the system was faulty in its accusations, but the fact that a rate of innocent executions even exists is enough incentive for protest against the system. Therefore, because the success rate of capital punishment is not one hundred percent, it is logical to argue that capital punishment should be abolished to completely eliminate the possibility of false execution; yet, even with alternative methods of punishment, supporters of the death penalty insist that it is the only appropriate punishment.
In addition to the argument that the death penalty’s rate of false conviction and of false execution are negligible, supporters of capital punishment argue that the system is ethnically just, suggesting that capital punishment does not discriminate based on race, gender, or ethnicity. However, contradictory to this claim, those who oppose capital punishment suggest that the system does in fact discriminate against minorities, particularly the mentally