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Pros And Cons Of Sentencing The Death Penalty

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Using race to determine if someone should be sentenced to the death penalty is unconstitutional. The United States of America is said to be all about “liberty and justice for all”, but there is vast research that proves this excerpt from the Pledge of Allegiance wrong. According to Amnesty International, more than one-third of African American death row inmates would have received life imprisonment as punishment if it weren’t for the color of their skin (Amnesty International). A person’s race should not determine whether or not they deserve capital punishment.
Statistics prove that more and more people of color are sentenced to capital punishment. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Caucasian people are more frequently …show more content…

Carlos DeLuna was wrongfully executed after he supposedly murder a woman in 1989. It was later discovered that the real killer was Carlos Hernandez (Bushman). This example proves how courts and judges do not scrutinize the evidence thoroughly and effectively. Assuming that Carlos DeLuna committed the crime is inexplicably immoral. In addition to the incorrect convictions, psychologist Brad J. Bushman offers data that help citizens comprehend that there is an existing issue between race and the death penalty, “there are over 3,000 peolple on death row in America today. Thus, about 123 of them are innocent” (Bushman). This alarming statistic is unsettling, as a large percent of inmates on death row are black. Black men have been wrongfully convicted due to erroneous identification, false confessions, and corrupt police officers. Three black men were exonerated in Alabama after they were well represented in court and were proven not guilty (EJI). One of those men being Anthony Ray Hinton, from Birmingham, Alabama. Anthony Ray Hinton was sentenced to capital punishment after his mother’s gun was found at a crime scene which involved the murder of two people. Despite there being a plethora of evidence that substantiated Hinton’s innocence, state prosecutors did nothing to stop the state of Alabama from killing Hinton. Fortunately, Hinton was granted a new trial, proven guilty, and was …show more content…

Defenders of the death penalty argue that people should pay for the crimes they have committed. If someone kills an innocent person, the murderer should be killed as punishment. If society voted to abolish the death penalty, one could argue that society is favoring criminals and not letting justice continue its course. Even though this relevant argument has several facts that can be supported by wide-ranging research, reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), prove this dispute wrong. The reports reveal shocking information, states with the death penalty in place, have higher murder rates than states that do not have capital punishment (Death Penalty Information Center). The death penalty does not lower crime rates as people say it does. Some experts explain that a person usually murders a victim without thinking about it, murderers kill out of anger. Simultaneously, African American communities are more susceptible to violence due to less amount of economic resources. Consequently, more crimes happen in black communities and black men are at a greater risk of being given the death penalty as punishment for their crimes. When penniless black people are poorly represented in court, they will most likely be executed. Rather than having the death penalty, organization like the Oregonians For Alternatives To The Death Penalty (OADP), would prefer to have more police officers in

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For example, Turow illustrates that even people, who show anger towards the hideous crimes, still criticize the punishment, questioning the government capacity to distinguish between the innocent and the guilty. Furthermore, “in the last decade the murder rate in states without the death penalty has remained consistently lower than in the states that have had executions.” (Turow 2003) He includes that to show that the system is faulty and not essential because it doesn’t discourage criminals. Also, he points to the fact that Illinois, which has a capital penalty, has a higher death rate than Michigan, which doesn’t apply the penalty law, even though both of them have similar racial makeup, income levels, and population arrangement between cities and rural areas. Moreover, he argues against the belief that “death penalty saves money, because it avoids the expense of lifetime incarceration”, (Turow 2003)

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Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Criminal Justice Stevenson through his book has provided various examples that show that people of color and low-income individuals are more likely to be presumed fully prior to presenting their cases. The author has stated that executions are a good example of how norms and policies are used for the purposes of punishing and controlling the people of color For instance, he argues that one in three black people are expected to be sent to jail in their lifetime. Further on, eighty percent of people on death row are black while 65 percent of homicide victims are black.

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From a utilitarian perspective, the potential deterrent effect of capital punishment is questionable, as research has shown that it does not significantly reduce crime rates (Equal Justice Initiative, 2023). Instead, it perpetuates a cycle of violence and retribution that undermines the ultimate goal of

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First, Nathanson’s argument is based in majority upon statistics and therefore I must invoke the question of whether correlation equates to causation or not. The fact that statistically more blacks or murderers of whites receive the death penalty must be observed more closely as there could be many reasons attributing to sentencing to death. Many of the statistics presented do not accurately represent the cause of the correlation. Second, I present the argument that even if there was truth behind a relationship between discrimination and death penalties, the problem lies with those who are handing out these sentences rather than the idea of a death penalty. The problem can be solved by establishing more set guidelines on who receives the death sentence by making the death penalty more like a civil law practice rather than our form of common law where precedence decides the ruling.

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It also needs to be recognized how it may impact a person or groups day to day lives and decision making in these situations. In keeping with time-tested American traditions, black defendants were 38 percent more likely to be sentenced to die than others who committed similar crimes, according to a study by University of Iowa Law School researchers David Baldus and George Woodworth. Their research team analyzed 667 murders that occurred in Philadelphia from 1983 to 1993. Of the 520 cases involving black defendants, 95 were sentenced to die, while 19 of the 147 non-black defendants received the death penalty. (Clarence, Chicago Tribune,1998).

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Source A argues that disparities between blacks and whites have been appalling in court. According to Source A, “If a black person kills a white person, they are twice as likely to receive the death sentence as white person who kills a black person” (2). This reveals that a black person has a higher rate of receiving the death sentence when tried for murdering a white person. If a white person is tried for a killing of a black person they have a 50% chance of getting the death sentence, then that means that a black person would receive a 100% chance of getting the death sentence for killing a white person.

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This report is helpful because it highlights how race is influenced on the death penalty. It will help me see if the death penalty is racially neutral. Coker, D. (2003). Addressing the real world of racial injustice in the criminal justice system. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.

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Capital punishment is racist, it’s not cheaper than life imprisonment, it’s a barbaric an immoral act, and, contrary of people beliefs, the death penalty does not deter crime. Capital punishment is racist, discriminates against the powerless, the mental disturbed and the minorities. As Mr. van den Haag explains in his article “New Argument Against Capital Punishment?” poor and black murderers have more chances to face the death penalty than

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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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Racial profiling, poverty and high crime rates are the major contributors to high incarceration rates for African Americans compared to their percent of the general population. Besides social and economic isolation, African Americans have been marked as inherently criminal with the war on drugs and crime targeting them even when the statics shows they are less likely to be in possession of cocaine for example (Walker, Spohn, DeLone, 2012). The high number of African Americans on death row is the result of institutional racism. Majority of the judges in the United States are white and more often than not are either implicitly or explicitly biased in their rulings (Walker, Spohn, DeLone, 2012).

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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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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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Racial and wealth biases in the death penalty Since the Mayflower first set foot on the shores of North America in 1620, white settlers have relied upon the death penalty for the punishment of those who have been convicted of the most heinous of crimes. The death penalty was supposed to be fair and equal, with Lady Justice seeing nothing but that justice. Rather than fairness, the death penalty has been unequal in function, with African Americans being sentenced at much higher rates and the poor getting unequal access to legal resources. The death penalty has been a failed experiment that, rather than necessary to improve society through deterrence, targeted the vulnerable. To understand minority discrimination with the death penalty, one needs to understand the role of minorities in the history of the United States of America.

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Furthermore, it has been documented that in some jurisdictions, Black defendants are given the death penalty

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659 Words | 3 Pages

Studies conducted by the people behind the death penalty information center, have shown that African Americans were over 80 percent of the people condemned by the death penalty in Pennsylvania. In the united states 82% of the studies the race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty. Those who murdered whites were found more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks (deathpenaltyinfo). 5. Counterclaim

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