Step into the shoes of Cameron Todd Willingham. He was one of the 59 accused criminals sentenced to death by the United States judicial system in 2004. Thought to have murdered his three children by arson in the family home, Willingham was put on death row on January 8, 1992. However, he was different from the other convicts. Willingham was actually innocent. The fire was an accident. The truth got out many years too late though, and Willingham died by lethal injection on February 17, 2004 at the age of 36 (Eric). From 1973 to 2015, more than 150 innocent men and women have been sentenced to death row. The killing of the falsely accused is only one of the several major problems that the highly controversial death penalty faces. And …show more content…
In fact, a study done by the National Research Council, titled Deterrence and the Death Penalty, even went as far as stating that the claims supporting the death penalty are “fundamentally flawed” (2012). What is more important though, is to see if this can be observed in the real world today; and by no surprise, it can. In 2013, the FBI Uniform Crime Report showed that the Southern states had the highest murder rates, and the highest percentage of executions at 80%, whereas the Northeast has the lowest murder rates and only 1% of the year’s executions. So why does the South still have the highest murder rates even though they perform the most executions? One must assume that such extreme practices like the death penalty has to be unnecessary. If the cold-blooded killing of thousands does not lower premeditated murder, there is really no point (because let 's face it, the saying “eye for an eye” is childish and socially unacceptable). This same conclusion was agreed upon in a recent poll by almost 90% of the world’s criminological societies (Facts About the Death Penalty). However in all honesty, the argument against the death penalty doesn’t just stop at its redundancy, but also its …show more content…
This is because the death penalty is an explicit violation of the 8th amendment in the United States Bill of Rights. The 8th amendment has three clauses: excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishment. Capital punishment clearly crosses the line of the last part in the amendment that states “nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” This section does not allow the government to harm any citizen of the United States in such a way, which, as the Supreme Court ruled in 1972, includes the death penalty. In 1972, the Supreme Court was faced with the landmark case Furman v. Georgia. This case dealt with an accidental murder, and resulted in the sentencing of William Henry Furman to death. The punishment however, was never carried out because the appeal was brought to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of Furman. To end the case the Supreme Court defined cruel and unusual punishment as a degrading, not arbitrary, or unnecessary and unaccepted actions. This “test” to see if some action violates the language of this amendment was used to determine that the death penalty was in fact unconstitutional, and led to a four year de facto moratorium throughout the United
Dahmer admitted that he should be dead for what he did, and was then arrested (Pham). After Court Dahmer was sentenced to fifteen consecutive life sentences with no parole. This is estimated to be 957 years in prison. He was later killed in prison by a fellow inmate, Christopher Scarver.
He appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but in December, 2003, he was notified that it had declined to hear his case. He soon received a court order announcing that “the Director of the Department of Criminal Justice at Huntsville, Texas, acting by and through the executioner designated by said Director . . . is hereby DIRECTED and COMMANDED, at some hour after 6:00 p.m. on the 17th day of February, 2004, at the Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville, Texas, to carry out this sentence of death by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause the death of said Cameron Todd Willingham.”
That's just over 1.5% of all the death penalties. Unfortunately, the rate of innocence is over double that, coming in at above 4%. These stats prove the point some dread: Many people have been killed for crimes they didn't do. Ledell Lee, a man from Arkansas, was executed on April 20th, 2017 for the murder of his neighbor in 1993.
On December 23, 1991 a fire claimed the lives of three girls. The fire was thought to have caused the fire that killed them. Mr. Willingham was executed February 17, 2004 and claimed his innocence multiple times including the day he was put to death. Even though, Mr. Willingham has already been executed there is a lot of conflicts about his death. The conflict had arisen when many fire officials determined there was not significant amount of evidence to determine the fire was caused by him, or even that it was arson.
Anthony Graves is one of hundreds of individuals that were wrongfully incarcerated. Anthony Graves was convicted and sentenced to death for the brutal 1992 murder of six people. In 2006 Anthony’s sentence was reversed by a federal court. He served four more years in prison until his release in 2010. Anthony Graves spent a total of 18 years of his life imprisoned, 12 of which were on death row for a crime he did not commit (Soria 2010).
he death penalty deters criminals and makes them think twice. This would happen because if they do something really horrible they won’t do it the first place. According to “Death Penalty Focus : Innocent and Condemned to Die: The Story of Greg Wilhoit” “A second trial was held in 1993, but after the prosecution presented their case (without the bite mark evidence) the judge issued a directed verdict of innocence and Greg was cleared of all charges.(Condemned 2016)This means that the trial had second thoughts that helped Greg win the trial. The article “Capital Punishment” claims that “ President Bill Clinton signs the Violent crime control and Law enforcement act that expands the federal death penalty to 60 crimes including 3 that don’t involve
1) The reason why the death penalty in Florida was determined to be unconstitutional were due to the U.S. Supreme Court believing judges had too much power in deciding whether someone should be sentenced to death, or receive the lesser penalty of life. Legislators decided to require only ten out of twelve jurors to agree imposing a death sentence in regard to capital criminal cases, when the law was changed earlier this year. While Florida legislators believed their system was rational, the state's high court opposed. The U.S. Supreme Court declared in January that judges had too much say in sentencing someone to death, when constitutionally it was the jury alone.
Cameron Todd Willingham (January 9, 1968 – February 17, 2004) was an American man who was convicted and executed by lethal injection for the murder of his three young children by arson in Corsicana, Texas, on December 23, 1991. Although Willingham fought for his innocence for 12 years on death row, he was executed in Texas in 2004. The arson investigation has come into question many times, most recently in 2009, and new evidence and science have proven Willingham’s innocent, unfortunately too late for Willingham’s life to be saved. Capital punishment is a harsh criminal justice system, and without a complete fool-proof justice system, the risk of putting the innocent people to death through capital punishment cannot be ruled out.
Famous American cereal killer, John Wayne Gacy, had murdered and raped 33 adolescents, many of whom were teenagers, the justice system made sure this man could never do this again. The public is turning a blind eye to the many contributions the justice system makes, we should look at not only how we can reform, but how it contributes to society The justice system creates many contributions to society, such as the safety it provides for children and their chances of exploitation, the many instances where they convict dangerous individuals therefore creating a safer environment for the present and future of society, and the fact it provides all citizens of the public and private sectors, to have the right to a fair, speedy, and public trial,
Cameron Todd Willingham was put to death for killing his girls, by setting the house on fire purposely in Corsicana, Texas. The arson inspector’s findings were that the house was purposely set on fire due to lab tests and burn patterns. Willingham was put to death at the Texas State Penitentiary in February 2009. The Texas Forensic Science Commission determined that the local and state arson investigators used “flawed science” when the fire was labeled as arson. Experts stated that the findings were careless (Ryan 261-313).
The Rules of rights from the 8th Amendment ‘’Unless this right to bail before trial is preserved the presumption of innocence secured only after centuries of struggle, would lose its meaning. The U.S supreme court has ruled that this is a Amendment cruel and unusual punishment cause also applies to the states. The court concluded that the death penalty as a punishment for murder does not itself
Since Willingham was having someone outside of the initial investigation take a look at his case and the evidence that was gathered at his home (the crime scene), the state of Texas should have extended his execution date until the investigation was concluded.
A man sentenced to the death penalty named Joseph Wood who had murdered two people have a long stretched death. When sentencing someone to death the requirements are it is supposed to be quiet, clean and humane. Woods execution took 2 hours to accomplish
Why death penalty must end ‘’An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,’’ said Mahatma Gandhi. The execution of someone who has possibly done a crime is an inhuman act. Death penalty is hypocritical and flawed. If killing is wrong, why do we kill when a criminal has done the crime of killing someone? In this essay, I will write why death penalty should end by writing about the violation of human rights, execution of innocent people, the fact that it does not deter crime and money.
Capital Punishment is the death penalty for those who commit murder. The thought behind this punishment is a life for a life. There has been debate on if the death penalty is right or wrong. Some poeple want the death penalty to be illegal while others argue it is needed to deter crime. There are many valid arguments regarding the death penalty.