Death Penalty
The death penalty has been recognized as the punishment for our nation's worst criminals. Every year, our government puts many citizens to their unwilling death. This punishment has sparked a debate between supporters and critics of capital punishment.
This sparks the question, Should the death penalty be abolished?
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the legalized killing of a person for crimes they were convicted of. The death penalty has been used in the
United States before the Declaration of Independence was written. Old English law instated capital punishment when England first colonized America in the 1600s. The capital punishment debate began with the ratification of the Bill of Rights. The 8th
Amendment prohibits “cruel
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These savings have allowed New Jersey’s government to allocate more funds for school and public service program. This spending actually benefits our society, rather than killing the United
States to their death (Statistics).
Putting an innocent citizen to their death is another terrible reality of having the death penalty in the United States. Even though the United States offers due process and the death penalty is not a typical sentence, there is still the potential of convicting an innocent person. About 3% of inmates on death row are thought to be innocent. This margin of error of false conviction can be contributed to a magnitude of things. Some of these things could include racial bias, lack of fair representation, minimal DNA evidence, and obstruction of evidence. For these reasons, an unfair trial could occur.
As of April 2018, there are 2,713 people on death row. Meaning there could be as many as 82 innocent inmates that are awaiting their death. Putting an innocent person to death is the equivalent of pulling a pedestrian walking down the street and just murdering them. Yet our government is allowing this margin of error for death.