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Capital Punishment Essay: Race And The Death Penalty

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Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death
Imagine this. The atmosphere of an isolated room encamped in darkness exudes nothing but a sharp shiver of despair. Two pair of worn-out, black leather boots escort a warm, human body of unethical ideas and actions to a thick sheet of paralyzing metal. The body is showcased upon the metal like a trophy of achievement, however, this trophy did not perform so well in the final run of life. A thick needle of climatic pressure approaches the body, then infiltrates the tough, bumpy skin, all the while knowingly leaving a mark that would only lead to injustice. Filled with pavulon or pancuronium bromide, the body lays there paralyzed and lifeless. Now ladies and gentleman, imagine if that was your body that just …show more content…

Regarding an article titled "Race and the Death Penalty," written by the American Civil Liberties Union, "The color of a defendant and victim's skin plays a crucial and unacceptable role in deciding who receives the death penalty in America. People of color have accounted for a disproportionate 43% of total executions since 1976 and 55% of those currently awaiting execution." For example, in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, murders committed by African Americans are treated as more severe and "deserving" of the death penalty because of the prone, aggravating factors established by the simple initiation of "harm, fear, of pain" through the color of one's black skin ("Death Penalty in Black"). Furthermore, another measure of race's impact on the death penalty is the combined effect of the race of the defendant and the race of the victim. In the Philadelphia study, the racial combination which was most likely to result in a death sentence was a black defendant with a nonblack victim, regardless of the severity of the murder committed ("Death Penalty in Black"). When the discretion of jurors and prosecutors are heightened, the use of racial bias is implicated into a system that pushes for the upmost and unfair punishment

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