Krishani Bradley

English ll

12-15-17

Should The Death Penalty Be Allowed In Every State?

What is the death penalty you may ask ? Well, the Death Penalty has been around since

the ​Eighteenth Century first established death penalty laws. The death penalty​ is ​the punishment

of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime. The issue with the

death penalty is that there are too many inmates who are being wrongfully accused of a serious

crime that they did not commit, and are dealing with the consequences instead of the person who

did it. The death penalty should be forbidden is every state​ because​ it puts innocent people lives

at risk. Also, the death penalty is unconstitutional it violates the eighth amendment prohibition

against cruel and unusual punishments. Finally, it goes against almost every religion because

some religions find the penalty immoral. The death penalty should be banned everywhere.

The death penalty should be banned because it puts innocent lives at risk. For example a

man named Larry Griffin was was convicted in 1981 and was executed in 1995. He was charged

for being involved in a drive-by shooting and killed another man who name was Quintin Moss.

Witnesses identified Griffin as the murderer due to him looking like the other three suspects that

were taken into custody as well. In the text it states, “Griffin maintained his innocence until his

death, and investigators say his case is the strongest demonstration yet of an execution of an

innocent man.”. Then, from looking at a website called “Death Penalty Information Center” it
talks about how in the year 1993 the percentage of innocent people on death row was at 6.0% but

then dropped down to 3.0 in 1994. This helps proves the claim about the penalty being banned

because most of the time, even the witness eyes can’t be trusted. Every nine out of ten witness

reports and identification be wrong. When they are, innocent people are put in jail and some are

even on death row.

Another reason why the death penalty should be forbidden is because it violates the

Eighth Amendment. The eighth amendment comes from the Bill of Rights that was written by

James Madison to protect individual liberties. From looking at a website called “Legal

Information Institute” it talks about how the death penalty is unconstitutional and it gave

knowledge, stating that, “​t​he method of execution violates the ​Eighth Amendment's​ ban on cruel

and unusual punishments.” This helps prove the claim about the death penalty should be banned

because the Bill of Rights were made up based off of compromises and critical thinking and the

death penalty is violating one of those rights. Cruel and unusual punishment is what defines the

death penalty. The death penalty has options like lethal injection, electric chair, and in some

countries people get beheaded. Anything that discriminates or disobey the Constitution or Bill of

Rights is morally wrong.

Next, the death penalty should be prohibited because it its races and it’s more in favor

towards African Americans than any other races. Racism is the prejudice and discrimination

against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. In this

website called “Crime control” it stated, “Between 1930 and 1966, African-Americans
represented 54 percent of all the people executed in the U.S. and 90 percent of all the people

executed for rape in 1992.” The percentage of african American people being executed went sky

high. Many people found it racist because white people would do serious crimes and would not

be executed. The death penalty causes lots of chaos whether it’s about how many people are

killed or not. Or about it being races. The penalty should just be ended all together because now

it’s considered as genocide. Genocide means killing people of a large group due to race, religion

and ethnicity. The death penalty needs to be banned altogether.

On the other hand, others may think that if a person killed one of their loved ones then

they should killed to. People think of the death penalty as a way to get revenge on the person

who put you and your family through a traumatizing experience. According to Los Angeles

Airport Peace Officers Association they say that, "Having a functional death penalty law will

help us protect the public from society's worst criminals and bring some measure of closure to

the families whose loved ones were cruelly taken from them.” The LAAPOA is saying that

having a capital punishment can bring justice and closure to families after experiencing some

that traumatic . Yes, that may be true but violence is never the key. Like stated in another

website, “there is a better alternative: life without parole.” Wouldn’t it be better for the criminal

to sit in a jail cell with thousands of other inmates who were convicted of child molestation, rape,

and other murderers and think about why they are there ? Executing the person is basically

giving them what they want. Sometimes people do serious crimes and don’t have any remorse

for it. Leaving them in a cell with a guilty consciences is a better punishment.
 The death penalty is an issue because it shows cruel and unusual punishment. There are

too many innocent lives being put at risk for crimes they did not commit. Furthermore, it

discriminates the eighth amendment of the Bill of Rights. Also, it goes against almost every

religion in the world. A way to stop the death penalty is to give life without parole instead.

Another solution to end the penalty is to outlaw it all together. The major alternative is life

without parole because revenge is never the key.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/death_penalty​ This source talks about how the

death penalty is not disobeying the eighth amendment but it does shape procedural
aspects regarding when a jury uses the death penalty. Also it talks about how
certain methods were banned due to violating the Bill Of Rights. This source
relates back to my topic because the topic I chose was the death penalty. This
source explains how the death penalty doesn’t violate certain rights of citizens.In
the source it states, “​the method of execution violates the ​Eighth Amendment's
ban on cruel and unusual punishments.” This is important because this
proves my point on how cruel the death penalty is.

https://www.schr.org/our-work/death-penalty​ This source talks about

how the Southern Center for Human Rights represents people on death row,
on appeal and on conviction. It discusses how penalty shows inhuman rights
for citizens who are convicted of a crime. This relates back to my topic
because I want to show how the death penalty is not going to solve anything
but give the criminals what they want. In the text it states, “​At the dawn of the
21st century, the death penalty is considered by most civilized nations as a cruel and inhuman
punishment.” This also explains that the penalty is cruel if 106 countries said it.

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executed-possibly-innocent​ This source talks

about how innocent lives were put at risk due to false identification. In the
article it states, “​investigators say his case is the strongest demonstration yet of
an execution of an innocent man.” This relates back to my claim because it proves
one of my point that the penalty should be banned because innocent people lives
were taking by false charges.

https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=18​ This source told me about how the

death penalty was considered capital punishment. In the article it states, “ At year
end 2013, 35 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons held 2,979 inmates under
sentence of death, which was 32 fewer than at year end 2012.”This relates back to
my claim because it gave knowledge that the U.S. consider the penalty as a capital
punishment over life without parole.

http://www.e-archives.ky.gov/pubs/Public_Adv/nov97/crime_control.htm​ This
article talks about how the penalty can be considered racist due to the amount of
minorities that were executed. In the article it states, “ Between 1930 and 1966,
African-Americans represented 54 percent of all the people executed in the U.S.
and 90 percent of all the people executed for rape…” This is related to my claim
because racism does play a part in the death penalty. Too many people are getting
the penalty due to false witness statements and false identification.