Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty as a Form of Criminal Punishment

Maya Johnson

University of Bridgeport

April 22, 2018

Abstract

This essay details the pros and cons of the death penalty in the United States of America as a form of criminal punishment. It’s an issue that has continued to be a topic of discussion for many years in the criminal justice field, and still receives different opinions by many. As of November 2016, the death penalty is still allowed in 31 states, abolished in 19 states, and on hold in 4 states. The issues with the death penalty still remain and will be discussed in this research and the imperfections with the system can be fatal and must be addressed.

Keywords: Death penalty, executions, crime, punishment

The states that still have the death penalty are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. Many of these states continue to spend unnecessary money on the death penalty and contribute to the issues involved. Texas, the number one state in executions, has performed 549 executions out of the 1473 total since 1976. The south is found to have performed 80% of all executions, and it is seen to have no real effect on criminal activity, including homicide rates. Many crimes can result in the death penalty in the United States, but no mandatory death sentences are imposed for any specific offenses. Some states allow the death penalty for crimes like murder, espionage, treason, terrorism resulting in death, and even drug trafficking, but many states have different rules when it comes to using the death penalty as a

Wrongful convictions do happen from time to time in the criminal justice system. Often times innocent people are convicted due to false eyewitnesses, fabricated confessions, perjury, and even inadequate legal defense. There have been multiple cases where the perpetrator has been found guilty and sentenced to death and later found innocent after deeper investigation. For example, in the case of Alfred Brown who was sentenced to death in 2005. He was convicted for the murder of a police officer, but it was discovered that the time frame didn’t match up, and there way no way he could have been at the scene of the crime. If they would have never realized this they would have killed an innocent man for a crime they never committed. There are even crimes where to this day the innocence of the perpetrator is in question but the individual has already been executed for the crime. Like in the instance of Gary Graham who was executed in 2000, for robbery and shooting the owner. A witness claimed to have seen him but two other witnesses who said he wasn’t the killer and these two witnesses were never called to trail. If these witnesses were question it could have saved the life of Gary and found the actual