The Death Penalty :: essays papers

The Death PenaltyAn eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This is an other(a) way for someone to prescribe they are supportive of the terminal punishment. The death penalty, to me, is revenge. It kills innocent citizenry every year. Many of the families of victims do not want the criminals to be put to death. The death penalty costs more than a life sentence in jail. It is besides racists. Since 1976, there have been five hundred twenty-three executions in the United States, twenty-three in 1999 alone. There was only xi before 1984. Then the number rose to twenty-one that year. The number of execution stayed around twenty then dropped to eleven in 1988. Then it steadily rose from there to seventy-four executions in 1997. That was the highest since 1976.(Death Penalty Information Center, P.1)There are many different methods of execution utilise by the government. The most common is lethal injection used by thirty-four states. Electrocution is another method, which i s used by ten states. The gas bedchamber is used in five states. There are still two states today that use hanging as a method of execution. And two other states use a firing squad. The death penalty is also extremely racist. There have been significantly more executions of minorities than white Americans. Capital punishment also goes against the Constitution of the United States. Amendments eight and fourteen state that no cruel and unusual punishment can be inflicted, and no state can uncase any person of life liberty or property. The death penalty clearly takes these privileges away from American citizens. more than 2000 people are on death row today. Virtually all are poor, a significant number are mentally retarded or other wise mentally disabled. More than forty percent are African American and disproportionate numbers are Native American, Latino, and Asian. (American Civil Liberties Union) It does not seem fair that only these people are dying. The Constitutio n states that everyone should be given a fair trial. These statistics do not prove to me that these people had a fair trial.Everybody makes mistakes. If a jury makes a mistake and a person is falsely accused of murder when they find out they messed up they want to take the