Pros And Cons Of Sentencing The Death Penalty

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

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

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