Death penalty debate

I can see both sides of the coin when it comes to the debate on the death penalty. This is because both sides have solid research and evidence to support there stances. What is Justice is the first question we need to ask. Justice for crimes committed can only be achieved when crime is punished, and it's not considered cruel or unusual. The issue seems to be does Capital Punishment violate the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and is Capital punishment considered being cruel and unusual punishment?

There seems to be at least three different stances on the subject. The first stance is the death penalty is the only fair punishment for murder. The second argument is we should abolish the death penalty because it's immoral, and is cruel and unusual. The last stance is the: middle of the road that the death penalty is not necessarily cruel and unusual punishment as long as it's applied in a humane way.

In the early 1960's the N.A.A.C.P legal defense fund was able to argue before the Supreme Court, that the death penalty was "cruel and unusual" punishment. The result was a stay put on executions in United States."In 1972, the U.S. Supreme court declared the death penalty was cruel and unusual" (Counterpoint 1). The Supreme Court four years later decided to allow capital punishment to resume; it took measures to make sure it wasn't implemented. The Supreme Court seemed to have washed their hands of issue, and had decided to leave it up to individual states. Justice William Rehnquist argued the Supreme Court didn't have the right to ban the Death penalty in states where people wanted it. He also believed the court was over stepping it's authority by banning the death penalty. This was due to case of Furman vs Georgia. Georgia used a loophole in its state statute, giving complete discretion's to judge and jury for the sentence of a convicted person. The U.S. Supreme court on September 2, 2003 ruled that juries not Judges must decide between the death penalty and life in prison, this ruling also invalidated 100 death sentences in three states.

The result of Georgia's actions was the rebirth of capital punishment. Today there are currently 38 states that have and use the death penalty. They claim to only use it for the most heinous crimes. There policies are required to have ridged requirements in place. When these policies and procedures are followed, these 38 states believe capital punishment is not considered to be "cruel or unusual punishment."These states have reported that convicts who have received the death penalty have been convicted murders, whom have additional violent felonies on there record.

"Most states use lethal injection as the method of execution"(Friedman 15) this is claimed to be the most humane way to executed a convict.When it comes to executing the sentence of death most states use lethal injection, however may states have at least one other form of execution available to them. In Idaho and Oklahoma they have the firing squad. New Hampshire, Washington, and Delaware can put someone to death by hanging. Then we still have five states that uses lethal gases; Arizona, California, Maryland, Missouri, and Wyoming. Electrocution is also currently practiced in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. These alternative methods of execution are bases for some states and individual, those have determined the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment. This is because with these alternative methods we have had cases of executions gone wrong.

The U.S. Supreme Court has since put limits on states as to what crimes can be punished by death, and did determine it was cruel to execute certain types of people. The crimes a person can be put to death are murder, with prior violent felony convictions. They also determined it's cruel to execute juveniles, and the mental retarded. The interpretation of however is determined by the individual states. States have the right to try juveniles as adults, and sentence them as adults is a area of concern, because it opens the question of is it cruel to try them as adults. There have been 22 case were juveniles committed murder, and then were executed as adults. The other problem we have is determining who is mentally retarded, because the Supreme Court didn't but an IQ number requirement in the statute. The Supreme Court again left this discussion up to the individual states. The acceptable range for states is between 65-75. When we look at functioning ability of individual in this range, just doesn't seem acceptable.

In conclusion the death penalty debate has some serious issues that need be dealt with before a person is able to take a stance on the debate. The U.S. Supreme Court need to action and to insure the death penalty is not cruel or unusual punishment. It seems the states have to much control on who lives or dies. These concerns have left me in the middle of road of the debate. Maybe with some consistence across the country, I would be willing except that the death penalty as justice for crimes against humanity.

Counterpoint:" Defending the Death Penalty" (Feb 2007)
http://search.ebscohost.com.aspx.com/ Web

Friedman, Lauri. The Death Penalty. California: San Diego, 2007. Print

My view of the Death Penalty

When it comes to the topic of the death penalty, most of us will readily agree that there is a lot of controversy. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of whether or not the death penalty should be allowed to continue. Whereas some are convinced that the death penalty is inhumane, others maintain that the death penalty is the only conseqeuence for certain cases.

In discussions of capital punishment, one controversial issue has been race. Recently, an international study was conducted, those who were convicted of murdering a white victim were more likely to receive the death penalty, however there are more white people on death row than blacks (African Americans), (Death Penalty: Guide to critical anaylsis, pg 2). Moreover if one argues race, wouldn't you also have to argue sexual orientation, gender, and demographics as well, the list is endless. These findings have important consequences for the broader domain of what people think when it comes to capital punishment.

Supporters for abolishing the death penalty argue that by executing a person on death row you are creating more victims. The emotional stress on their families is extremely high. Although I agree with this up to a point I cannot accept this overall conclusion that you are creating more victims. I feel for the families that are losing a loved one, however, I do not feel that any amount of hurting that the families could have could even begin to touch that of the victims families. The hurting they have will not go away with the execution, but it may, nevertheless, help with closure. Although upsetting the convicts families may seem of concern to only a small group of people, it should in fact concern anyone who cares about the victims' families and how they have been robbed of their loved ones.

My feelings are also mixed as far as finances and the death penalty go. I do not feel that we should decide to execute or not based on finances, but it is a compelling arguement. However, if you do this are you not putting a price on the person who was a victim's life. In her book, Lauri Friedman maintains that, " Costs vary depending on the state, but it can cost approximately three to four times as much to actually execute a convicted killer than to keep him or her imprisoned for life" (11). Due to the fact that it does cost more to execute I do have to concede to the supporter of abolishing the death penalty but I do not change my stance on capital punishment. My discussion of capital punishment is in fact addressing a larger matter than finances, but whether or not it should be used at a form of consequence.

Although I grant that some people with mental illness should not be executed, I still maintain that if you know the difference between right and wrong you are a candidate for the death penalty. A person who knows enough to lie about something they did that was wrong, must have known it was wrong in the first place so in that respect I believe that they should be able to be executed the same as anybody else.

In conclusion I maintain that if you commit the crime you need to do the time, or in this case be put to death. I don't know if the death penalty will work as a deterrent for not commiting crime, but I know that as for myself I will feel better knowing that these people will not be able to be paroled to kill again.

Works cited:
Friedman, Lauri. The Death Penalty. San Diego: Reference Point Press, Inc., 2007. Print.
Death Penalty: Guide to critical analysis. Web. 12 Sept. 2009.

Call to action: a reform is needed

Racial bias in sentencing, especially in capital cases has long been a big problem in our criminal justice system. For example, a report sponsored by the American Bar Association in 2007 concluded that one-third of African-American death row inmates in Philadelphia would have received sentences of life imprisonment if they had not been African-American (“Death Penalty and Race.”) As this bias can strengthen the punishment, it can send an innocent person straight to death row, too. Because recognizing this fact means recognizing a big problem in the practice of the death penalty which will put doubt on their belief in death penalty, some supporters of the death penalty choose to ignore this bias and call a case in which an innocent person is executed a “miscarriage of justice.” My teammate, Jessica, argues that DNA will keep innocent people from being killed no matter what color their skins are and maintain the excellence of the criminal justice system. However, I strongly disagree with that argument because of three reasons. First of all, DNA evidences do not always exist so that the tests can be conducted. Secondly, although the average number of people who have been exonerated and freed from death row is not many, average five people per year from 2000-2007 ("Facts about the Death Penalty.”), and some of them may be white, it is not just five people but five families and those families do not do anything do deserve going through that ordeal as well as the ordeal can traumatize the children of those innocent people for life. Secondly, if a system is as excellent as it is proclaimed, it should try harder to eliminate any cause of that bias.

In my opinion, there are several reasons that cause the racial bias: narrow minded prosecutors, over-worked legal counsels and undereducated suspects. Base on those reasons, I have some suggestions for a reform. First of all, in order to overcome narrow minded prosecutors, I suggest that states that have the death penalty and the federal court should tailor legislations such as North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act so that death row prisoners can challenge their death sentences if racial bias is evident (“North Carolina Racial Justice Act Becomes Law.”) Secondly, there should be more funding for the state to fix the problem of overworked public defenders because according to Maureen Dimino of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, “Many public defenders are feeling the squeeze at this point, and they consider challenging their growing caseloads in court” (Donna Leinwand). Finally, the most important thing is that there should be more educational program for people who are held as suspect or even the accused so that those people know their rights and can vocal if their rights are violated. At this point, some supporters of the death penalty will probably disagree with my suggestions, and their reasons would be that I have overlooked the need of victim’s family for comfort in finding closure of their lost because those suggestions would create more hurdles for the prosecutors to condemn a person for a crime. However, I think that everybody should deserve a fair trial and if a wrong person is condemned for a crime because of racial bias, there is no doubt that the victim’s family would not find any comfort, either.


In conclusion, the debate about the death penalty is a hot debate with many solid arguments from both sides. For me, although I have mixed feelings about the death penalty, I strongly believe that there sure is a racial bias in its practice, and this bias has corrupted the effectiveness of that punishment. Therefore, I call for a reform in the criminal justice system and have some suggestions for that reform: tailor new legislation, increase funding for public defenders, and provide more social programs to educate the suspects as well as the accused about their rights.

Worked Cited

“Death Penalty and Race.” www.amnestyusa.org. Amnesty International USA. Web. 4 Sep. 2009.

"Facts about the Death Penalty.” www.deathpenaltyinfo.org. Death Penalty Information Center. 1 Sep. 2009. Web. 3 Sep. 2009.

Leinwand, Donna. “Public Defenders Reject New Cases.” usatoday.com. USA Today. 11 Sep. 2008. Web. 7 Sep. 2009.

“North Carolina Racial Justice Act Becomes Law.” www.amnestyusa.org. Amnesty International USA. Web. 4 Sep. 2009.

Racial Bias in Sentencing

In the previous excerpt of the documentary film, “Race to Execution,” it was said, “The face of crime for most people is a dark face,” so basically, if there is an African American suspect in a crime, most people has condemned him or her for the crime even before the trial. This dangerous way of thinking has put restrains to the investigation and prosecution process: the investigators do not do their job objectively and the prosecutors use their powers to assemble a subjective jury. For example, in 1984, less than four months after a white Alabaman man, Hugh Kite, was killed, a black man, Robert Tarver, was sentenced to die in a trial in which eleven white Alabamans and one African American composed the defendant’s “jury of his peers” (“Race to Execution.”) In fact, a January 2003 study released by the University of Maryland concluded that prosecutors are more likely to seek a death sentence when the race of the victim is white and are less likely to seek a death sentence when the victim is African-American (“Death Penalty and Race.”) At this point, death penalty supporters, such as Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), would object that if one murderer is granted life in prison while another is executed, it is only because of the extraordinary degree of leniency that we have in our American system of jurisprudence, and not because of any intrinsic unfairness (Kenneth Jost). Although I grant that case by case, there will be unique additional factors that will affect the outcome of the sentence, the statement of Rep. Lamar Smith is far from the truth which has been demonstrated in the following graph. Furthermore, a 2007 study of death sentences in Connecticut conducted by Yale University School of Law revealed that African-American defendants receive the death penalty at three times the rate of white defendants in cases where the victims are white (“Death Penalty and Race.”)




Work Cited

“Death Penalty and Race.” www.amnestyusa.org. Amnesty International USA. Web. 4 Sep. 2009.

Jost, K. “Rethinking the death penalty.” CQ Researcher 11 (2001): 945-968. CQ Researcher Online. Web. 1 Sep. 2009.

Race to Execution. Dir. Rachel Lyon. Filmakers Library, 2007.[i]ndependentLens. PBS. Web. 3 Sep. 2009.

Race to Execution

Work Cited
Race to Execution. Dir. Rachel Lyon. Filmakers Library, 2007. Youtube. Web. 2 Sep. 2009.

My stand on the issue

Death Penalty-Time for Reform

Nowadays, flipping through T.V. channels, you can see many C.S.I episodes and different Law & Order series; watching those channels, you will hear terms such as “the due process,” “double jeopardy,” so on and so forth. Needless to say, those terms come from the Bill of Rights which had been included in the nation’s Constitution to protect its people, even the accused. However, as it turned out, the Bill of Rights alone cannot protect people from wrongful conviction. There is news such as, in March 2009, Ronald Cotton was freed after being exonerated by DNA testing; he was convicted and served 11 years in prison for a rape he did not commit (Steve Weinberg); that kind of news scares people to think about not only if the wrongful conviction happens to them but also what will happen if the wrongful sentencing is irreversible. In other word, the death penalty can mistakenly kill innocent people. Such notion is one of many factors that have triggered and fueled the debate about death penalty for years. On one hand, supporters of the death penalty, such as Jessica Chau, my teammate, has focused on the deterrence and retribution effects of it; On the other hand, critic of the death penalty insisted, "The death penalty violates religious beliefs about killing" (Gail B. Stewart). There even are people on the fence about the death penaly, such as Joan Thift-Walton, my teammate: she wonders if the death penalty violates the eight amendment of the Constitution of the U.S. in being cruel and usual punishment. For me, although I have mixed feelings about the death penalty,too, my reason is different from Joan's : I strongly believe that its current practice is ineffective because of racial bias in sentencing. As racial bias is one of many indicators that the criminal justice system does not properly do its job, I call for a reform in the system.

Work Cited


Stewart, Gail B. "Introduction to The Death Penalty: Opposing Viewpoints Digests." Opposing Viewpoints Digests: The Death Penalty. San Diego: Greenhaven Press ( 1998). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale.Web. 3 Sept. 2009

Weinberg, S. “Wrongful convictions.” CQ Researcher 19 (2009): 345-372. CQ Researcher Online. Web. 1 Sep. 2009.