Unequal Justice
... inflicted on a first time killer, while many of the heinous criminals have escaped execution. In this paper I will give my reasons why I believe capital punishment in our country does not work. It is argued that capital punishment deters crime, but our nation’s crime rate continues to rise. Statistics show one murder occurs every 22 minutes, one rape every 5 minutes, one robbery every 49 seconds and one burglary every 10 seconds. With these statistics it’s hard to argue that capital punishment deters crime. The men and women on death row are typically poor and thus not being able to afford the best defense. More often they have had to depend on public defenders that are less experienced in defending a capital murder case. A Columbia University study found that 68% of all capital cases defended by public defenders found errors serious enough to require retrial or re-sentencing. Are we not all entitled to competent legal counsel? Race also plays a role on the majority of executions. A report in 1990 concluded that in 82% of the cases reviewed race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty. Those who murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks. The death penalty seems to be applied at random. Politics, quality of legal counsel, and jurisdiction where the crime is committed are often the determining factors in death penalty cases than the facts of the crime. Capital punishment goes against almost every religion. Although there are some isolated passages in the Bible that have been quoted in support, almost all religions in America regard executions as immoral. More than 112 countries have abandoned capital punishment. The United States remains in the same company as Iraq, Iran and China, just to name a few, as one of the major advocates and users of capital punishment. Executions are carried out at staggering cost to the taxpayer. A murder trial when the death penalty is an issue, litigation, prosecutors, public defenders, court reporters and the high cost of appeals are borne by the taxpayer. Studies have shown that the cost of a capital trial is more than double the cost of a life...