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Should Death Penalty Be Illegal Essay

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The death penalty, Britain influenced American use of the death penalty more than any other country. When the Europeans were immigrating to America, they brought with them the death penalty. The first ever recorded execution in American was captain George Kendall in Jamestown, Virginia in 1608. Ever since then America has had the death penalty by law, but is still legal in 33 states and illegal in 18 states. The death penalty should be illegal in every state because it puts innocent people at risk, does not have any effect on crime rates, and life imprisonment is cheaper than the death penalty. The death penalty has been and is still used for 410 years since it has been introduced by the Europeans that migrated to America in its early stages. …show more content…

“The danger that innocent people will be executed because of errors in the criminal justice system is getting worse. A total of 69 people have been released from death row since 1973 after evidence of their innocence emerged. Twenty-one condemned inmates have been released since 1993, including seven from the state of Illinois alone. Many of these cases were discovered not because of the normal appeals process, but rather as a result of new scientific techniques, investigations by journalists, and the dedicated work of expert attorneys, not available to the typical death row inmate.”(Innocence and the Death Penalty: The Increasing Danger of Executing ). In the article it shows that it was at times that there were innocent people waiting to be executed even though they were innocent and were lucky that evidence of their innocence emerged if it didn't they would have be executed. “Since 1973, 144 people on death row have been exonerated. As a percentage of all death sentences, that's just 1.6 percent. But if the innocence rate is 4.1 percent, more than twice the rate of exoneration... an untold number of innocent people have been executed...”(One in 25 sentenced to death in the U.S. is innocent, study claim). It is a small chance of getting executed even if innocent that is why the death penalty should be illegal in the

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Humans have realized throughout the years since we have been on this planet that history repeats itself. They have also been proving innocent people guilty since the beginning of time, to prove certain situations that they would go to extremes to prove one person guilty. According to Pew Research Center found in 2015, “56% favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, while 38% are opposed”. When in 1996 “ 78% favored the death penalty, while just 18% were opposed”.

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victim and the defendant may be influential without clear guidance about the deliberation rules. Black suspects and White victims; blacks were more likely to receive a death sentence vs White suspects and black victims “Not only did killing a White person rather than a Black person increase the likelihood of being sentenced to death, but also Black defendants were more likely than White defendants to be sentenced to death” (Eberhaedt, 2006). Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck founded The innocence Project, in 1992, their mission was to free those who were wrongly convicted of crimes through DNA. To date. there are approximately 350 people exonerated of crimes they didn’t commit through the Innocence project.

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When one thinks about the court systems and the way justice is served they see a system that is fair and just. A system that correctly provides punishment to the guilty party, and one that can discover the truth within the innocent party. On the surface level this appears to be true. Hundreds of thousands of people are incarcerated each year in the United States, which in reality provides a false sense of safety to citizens. While a large percentage of incarcerations are of guilty parties, according to a study in C. Ronald Huff’s book, Convicted But Innocent: Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy, approximately 100,000 innocent people are convicted every year.

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Today in the USA 36 states still use death penalties as punishment for commiting a crime such as murder or kidnapping and torture of a victim Little did people know after committing such crime they’d experience the same torture they put there victim in . China has the highest execution league table in the world alongside

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Capital Punishment, or the death penalty, has gone back and forth between Supreme Court cases for years (Death Penalty). Since 1972, with the case Furman v. Georgia, the legality of the death penalty has been challenged, along with it’s principality and methods. The first recorded use of death as a punishment in America was in 1608 (Reggio), George Kendall of Virginia was executed under the belief that he would betray the British Empire to the Spanish, and the first legal execution occurred in 1622, when Daniel Frank of Virginia was put to death for thievery. Historically, the death penalty was inflicted under crimes like theft, murder, perjury, adultery, rape and statutory rape, buggery and beastiality, arson, blasphemy, and the Duke’s

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With millions of criminal convictions a year, more than two million people may end up behind bars(Gross). According to Samuel Gross reporter for The Washington Post, writes that also “even one percent amounts to tens of thousands of tragic [wrongful conviction] errors”(Gross). Citizens who are wrongfully convicted are incarcerated for a crime he or she did not commit. Many police officers, prosecutors, and judges are responsible for the verdict that puts innocents into prison. To be able to get exonerated many wait over a decade just to get there case looked at, not many are able to have the opportunity of getting out.

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Hanging was the main method of execution in America until the electric chair was invented in 1890. Then came gas chambers and lethal injection in the 1920s and 1970s respectively. There were downsides to all of these methods of execution including decapitation for hanging, heads catching on fire with the electric chair, and expenses for lethal injection. The Supreme Court halted all executions for four years in 1972 because of an abolitionist group protesting possibly discriminatory convictions. After this, lethal injection was invented and adopted by many U.S. states.

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Since the founding of our judicial system there have always been individuals claiming innocence to a crime that they have been found guilty of, traditionally, after their sentencing no matter how innocent they may or may not be would have to serve, live and possibly die by the decision of their peers. The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck alongside Peter J. Neufeld faces this issue by challenging the sentencing of convicted individuals who claim their innocence and have factual ground to stand upon. The Innocence Project uses the recent advances in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing to prove their client’s innocence by using methods that were not available, too primitive or not provided to their clients during their investigation,

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The death penalty goes far back into history, across many different civilizations, and many different cultures. It has been around since the beginnings of colonial America, and was very different compared to todays standards. “In colonial America, criminals

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When convict individuals for criminal acts and making sure the right person is captured it may be best for law officials to use DNA evidence that would exonerate wrongfully-convictions. In recent years there has been great advancements in technology that would allow investigators to use when trying to prove evidence on individuals who are sitting on death row. Citizens have also, made great efforts ensuring innocent people are not convicted for crimes they did not commit. According, to the Equal Justice in 1973, there were at least 156 people released from the criminal justice system for being wrongfully convicted. When innocent people are wrongfully convicted it not only take away many years of their lives, and causing hurt to the victim’s

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The Innocence Project The Innocence Project referred by many as “freedom fighters” is an organization known for its mission to free and help many innocent individuals who remain incarcerated for wrongful convictions. Factors including false confessions, eyewitness misidentification, and flawed technology for forensic testing are some components that contributed to wrongful imprisonments in the past. However, through the use of DNA testing the Innocence Project has brought reform to the criminal justice system and effectiveness. “To date, 351 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 20 who served time on death row” (qtd. Innocence project).

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18 “Since 1989, there have been tens of thousands of cases where prime suspects were identified and pursued—until DNA testing (prior to conviction) proved that they were wrongly accused” (Innocence Project). There may be thousands of other innocent people in prison who are wrongfully

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Two: If you do do something so bad that you get on Death Row… it's very cheap to set up the execution. One last piece of evidence is a community who isn't willing to allow (shun people) who a) thinks it right to put someone who murdered someone for no reason or b) wants to put someone for execution is a community who is immoral, because the person killed someone for no reason but they won't allow that person to be put to death. The families of the victim of the

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144 people on death row have been exonerated since 1973 (Levy 1). People exonerated and convicts sent to prison for crimes they did not commit have been given unfair trials. If a trial court makes a legal error, a party can file an appeal, which raises the question on whether the United States appeals process is even effective in criminal cases (The Judicial Learning Center 1). Understanding the effectiveness of the appeals process for criminal cases is essential for improving it to ensure people are not exonerated or unjustly punished.

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