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Death Penalty Should NOT Be Allowed To Continue In The American Legal System

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Human life is undeniably priceless. For this reason, crimes that take or endanger human lives are seen as being so severe and receive penalties of such great magnitude. As heinous and heartless as these crimes can be, Capital punishment should not be a part of the American justice system. Although Capital punishment is constitutional and has been practiced in the United States, dating as far back as to the 1790s, that does not make it ethical nor does it alter the fact that in the past four decades the death penalty has claimed 1,448 American lives. The death penalty should not be allowed to continue in the American legal system as it is unpractical, inhumane, and unjust.
First and foremost, the death penalty is impractical because of …show more content…

The death penalties lawfulness teeters on a thin line in accordance with United State’s constitution. The death penalty mostly comes into contention with The Fourteenth Amendment which states “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” While this amendment states the death penalty is legal under certain situations, it is ambiguous because what can be considered “due process” is not clearly defined. So, while this document is a powerful piece of legislation in American history, it is not a moral compass by any means, nor does it give concrete information about what justice is. Additionally, the same argument can be made of Hammurabi’s Code, the origin of justifying revenge as being an eye for an eye trade. However, in this ancient Babylonian law as well as the earliest known Capital punishment, one eye was not necessarily equal to another. Infact, criminals would often receive completely different punishments depending on their social standing, race and gender. Similarly, in the 1970s, the Supreme Court was concerned that the application of the death penalty had become discriminatory in its application” and as a result overturned hundreds of death sentences(Blomberg). Yet today, the death Penalty is just as unjust. Approximately 2% of perpetrators who commit crimes that are punishable by death penalty actually receive the death penalty. While the cases themselves may seem arbitrary those accused who are put on death row follow some shocking trends. According to a 1998 report “In 96% of states where there have been reviews of race and the death penalty, there was a pattern of either race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination, or both” ( Baldus). And according to an Appeals court judge “ Over 99% of the people on death

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There are apparent arbitrariness and unpredictability in the outcomes of capital cases. The second flaw is unfairness. Extralegal factors such as race still play a significant role in determining which defendants are sentenced to die and which get to live. The research conducted focuses on those serious flaws and how capital jurors’ lack of instructional comprehension contributes to not only confused decision-making but also to racially discriminatory death sentencing. The authors also conducted a study that focused on the “White male dominance” effect on capital jury deliberations.

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As a result, capital juries tend to be whiter and more dominated by males than are juries in other cases. It has been suggested that as a result of this, capital juries are about 43% more likely to sentence a killer to die if his victim is white. Undeniably, capital juries show some racial disparities in their sentencing decisions. If juries in capital cases were not subject to death-qualification procedures, there is little reason to believe these racial disparities would survive. The solution, some might suggest, to minimize racial discrepancies in capital sentencing is to eliminate the ability of prosecutors to disqualify anyone with qualms about capital punishment from the jury pool.

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In ninety-six percent of states where they have reviewed cases of race and the death penalty there had been a pattern of race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination, or even both (DPIC). The race of a defendant or a victim should not influence people in whether or not someone should die. Even if they have done terrible things, a life is still a

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African Americans face harsher circumstances in death row sentencing’s than any other race. In a study published in 2009 by Scott Phillips, a University of Denver sociology and criminology professor, conducted research between 1992 and 1999 in Harris County, Texas when an astonishing “504 defendants were indicted for capital murder” (O’Hare, 2010). At the end of his research, Phillips found that “convicted capital murderers were six times more likely to get a death sentence when they killed married whites or Hispanics with college degrees and no criminal record — as opposed to unmarried black or Asian victims with records and no college degrees” (2010). Phillip’s study proves that death row sentencing is bias as African Americans were more likely to be put on death row if their victim was of a higher social class than them. Florida’s death penalty sentencing in recent years has been extreme.

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The color of the skin of the victim or defendant is a significant and unacceptable factor in determining who gets the death penalty in America. We have no knowledge of how a person may think, and giving a judge and jury the power to decide on someone's life can result in unfair judgments. “Today, there is growing evidence that racial bias continues in society, particularly within the criminal justice system. The existence of implicit racial bias among some law enforcement officers, witnesses, jurors, and others allows harsher punishment of minorities, even without legal sanction or intention. Although these prejudices are hard to uproot, the unfair application of the death penalty could be halted by eliminating that sentencing option altogether”(Dunham).

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Forty years have gone by and I think it’s finally time we acknowledge the inconvenient truth; Capital punishment is not a fair means of punishment and disproportionately affects minorities. In the landmark Supreme Court case McCleskey v. Kemp, a study conducted by David Baldus, a late Iowa Law Professor, concluded that black defendants indicted for murder were convicted nearly twice as much as white defendants and black defendants who killed white people received the death penalty four times more often than black defendants who killed other black people. This argument was a highlight of the case, but did not stop the Supreme Court from ignoring the statistics regarding racial bias in capital punishment cases. A vote of 5-4 ruled that tendencies

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Should America continue to allow the death penalty? This essay will tell you why America should not be continue the death penalty. For starters, the death penalty is punishment by death; usually resulting after a crime that America calls capital crimes or capital offences. There are many of reasons why the death penalty should not be carried out in America or anywhere “Application of the death penalty tends to be arbitrary and capricious; for similar crimes, some are sentenced to death while others are not.”

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Another issue that was discussed is the inequality of death penalty in practice. There have been serious issues with racial discrimination. For reference in cases with white victims and black defendants convictions occurred twenty two percent of the time while with black victims and white defendants with percentage dropped to a measly three

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Looking for solutions, it's clear that just changing legal procedures isn't enough. As Garland argues, a complete change in the justice system's approach to capital punishment is needed, one that faces the root causes of racial and social differences. This requires a serious look at prosecutorial discretion, improving the quality of legal representation for the accused, and creating ways to make sentencing decisions more transparent and accountable. Adding an international view to the talk, scholars like Hood and Hoyle (2008) compare the use of the death penalty in the United States with practices in other countries, many of which have stopped capital punishment. These comparisons further show the unique issues within the U.S. system and offer valuable ideas for other ways to handle criminal justice that focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment.

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It shows its head on every front of life. The death penalty process is not excluded. Racial and economic bias is a valid argument against capital punishment as well. Pretexts to discrimination are provides in this current case of Vernon Madison who is one of Alabama’s longest-serving death row inmates. Vernon was convicted in the April 1985 slaying

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