A tactic dating back thousands of years, the death penalty has taken the lives of those society deems unfit, immoral, or evil. Currently in the United States 31 states practice the death penalty sentence (source). However, our country has struggled with the morality of the death penalty through its history and continues to debate the implications of this practice to this day. Proponents of the death penalty claim it deters violent crimes, serves as retribution, and costs less than the life in prison sentence. On the contrary, those who oppose the death penalty argue governments should not take lives, the system is racially biased, and it is immoral.
When it comes to the most heinous and gruesome crimes, those who support the death penalty
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Statically, “56% of death row inmates are black or Hispanic. However, although racial minorities comprise half of all murder victims nationwide, a far greater proportion (77%) of the victims in capital convictions were white” (the guardian). Likewise, many of the jury’s of which sentence minorities have been statistically white. This leads to the claim that a racially biased system exists in which the courts perpetrate minorities as more deserving of death then their white counterparts (ncadp.org). In addition to racial bias, opponents claim classist bias exists in that those in lower financial brackets are unable afford better attorneys or the finical support to go through the grueling appeals …show more content…
Likewise, they claim retribution is served to the victims and the victims family’s as “capital punishment celebrates the dignity of the humans whose lives were ended by the defendants predation” (PROCON TOP). Likewise, by executing those who have committed horrendous crimes, they are preventing the criminals from committing similar crimes in the future. The death penalty also deters similar crimes since death is the ultimate punishment and people typically fear death (balanced