The book To Kill A Mockingbird has several issues that we see through the eyes of a young Alabama child. One of these issues is the use of the death penalty against blacks. In the book Tom Robinson is convicted of rape and sentenced to the death penalty, but some people in the book say that he was wrongly convicted.
In colonial times the laws regarding the death penalty were different from colony to colony. You could be sentenced to death for crimes from striking one's mother/father to denying the ¨true God¨. Although many want it to be, capital punishment is not/has never been outlawed nationally. Some states have outlawed the death penalty completely while others have not. Many people want capital punishment outlawed while others think …show more content…
These states include Ohio and Alabama. There are several crimes that are considered severe enough to use the death penalty. These crimes include espionage treason, death resulting from aircraft hijacking, murder, murder committed during a drug related drive-by shooting, murder during kidnapping, murder for hire, and genocide. Murder is one of the main crimes that the death penalty is used for.
Studies have been done to compare blacks and whites and being sentenced to the death penalty. It has been found that blacks are more likely to be sentenced to the death penalty than whites. In a study it was found that a jury was three times more likely to sentence a black defendant to the death penalty than a white defendant. Blacks are more likely to be sentenced to the death penalty even if they commit a similar crime to a white man. This has become a huge issue in the US because we are supposed to have racial equality but no matter how long we try to avoid it, it will always be here.
In To Kill A Mockingbird we see blacks treated very poorly and treated unfairly. Although some characters in the book think Tom deserved the death sentence it just goes to show that trials are unfair for blacks. We see that most people wanted Tom to have the death sentence and he probably had an unfair trial just like many people
In colonial times the laws regarding the death penalty were different from colony to colony. You could be sentenced to death for crimes from striking one's mother/father to denying the ¨true God¨. Although many want it to be, capital punishment is not/has never been outlawed nationally. Some states have outlawed the death penalty completely while others have not. Many people want capital punishment outlawed while others think …show more content…
These states include Ohio and Alabama. There are several crimes that are considered severe enough to use the death penalty. These crimes include espionage treason, death resulting from aircraft hijacking, murder, murder committed during a drug related drive-by shooting, murder during kidnapping, murder for hire, and genocide. Murder is one of the main crimes that the death penalty is used for.
Studies have been done to compare blacks and whites and being sentenced to the death penalty. It has been found that blacks are more likely to be sentenced to the death penalty than whites. In a study it was found that a jury was three times more likely to sentence a black defendant to the death penalty than a white defendant. Blacks are more likely to be sentenced to the death penalty even if they commit a similar crime to a white man. This has become a huge issue in the US because we are supposed to have racial equality but no matter how long we try to avoid it, it will always be here.
In To Kill A Mockingbird we see blacks treated very poorly and treated unfairly. Although some characters in the book think Tom deserved the death sentence it just goes to show that trials are unfair for blacks. We see that most people wanted Tom to have the death sentence and he probably had an unfair trial just like many people