Essay/Term paper: Capital punishment: against

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Politics

Capital Punishment: Against


More money is spent executing humans than keeping them in a
penitentiary for life. Compared to capital punishment, life in prison is far
worse. Mistakes may be made and no one can bring another human back to life.
Juries are often white and this may lead to racial decisions. Of the 144
executions since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty in the U.S., not
one white person has been executed for killing a black. Of the 16,000 executions
in U.S. history, only 30 cases involved a white sentenced for killing a black.
Therefore, no one, including the government, should have the power to tell
another human that they must be put to death, no matter what they commit.
Today's government and justice system is not as efficient as it should
be. If a mistake is made in an execution sentence and an innocent person dies,
no one can bring their life back. Now, if the death penalty did not exist, the
person would still have their life. Juries also have to think about the families,
both of the victim and the suspect. What if the suspect did not commit the
murder and was executed? How would the suspect's family feel? A close relative
had just died due to the fact that another mistake was made in our justice
system. This in fact would send a rush of anger through my body. The justice
system killed somebody's family member. The death penalty should not even exist,
due to the fact that many mistakes can be made, and a life can never be brought
back.
Juries have been and still are mostly consisted of the white majority.
Racism and money is a big part of our everyday lives. With the majority of
people in the jury consisted of whites, racism might in fact be involved. Now,
if a black family is poor and does not have much money, the suspect may then be
issued a racist attorney. Many cases have been recorded of this happening, both
of innocent and guilty men. Innocent men again were put to death, this time due
to their skin color. This is just another reason leading to how poor our justice
system is, and why it should not be in effect.
There are few oppositions to not having the death penalty in effect.
The main concern with not having the death penalty in effect is that people
would not care as much when they committed a crime. Now, if the death penalty
was in effect, people would think twice about their mistake before committing it.
The quote, "an eye for an eye" in also a opposition. A solution for this quote
is another quote, "two wrongs do not make a right". Therefore, a man guilty of
murder should not be put to death, for that is just making another wrong.
Only God himself has the power to tell a human that they must die and
then carry the sentence out. For one human to tell another human that they must
die; that is not just. For in most cases, the jury members do not even know the
suspect. Why should they, the jury, have the power to give a death sentence to
another human? For they are human too; it is inhuman to tell another that they
must die. The death sentence is not just, and should be done away with.