Pro & Con Arguments of the Death Penalty

Capital Punishment is actually not a moral deterrent because there are no proven direct correlations in studies between patterns in executions and the steady rate of crime; after execution, the murder rate has actually been proven to substantially increase rather than decrease; and children in the U.S. do not witness capital executions and thus, do not benefit from viewing the punishment event. The Death Penalty is unethically utilized discriminatorily against minorities, the poor and uneducated. Capital Punishment consumes more economic resources in the event of a capital trial than life term incarceration while diverting funds from much needed social programs used to attack crime before it begins.

Pro Death Penalty advocates argue that "whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed" (Genesis 9:6 KJV) and that this fear of punishment will create an effective consciousness within those considering committing a serious felony murder in that they will know what they are doing and be forced to sacrifice their own life for their thievery of someone else's. They propose that use of Capital Punishment creates an atmosphere of decreasing criminal activity, especially criminal ventures sporting murder.

Studies completed within the last 20 years indicate that the fear of Ca

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fendants selected for capital prosecution have been either African-American or Mexican-American." One reason for discrimination within the Capital Punishment system is counsel often represents a capital defendant inadequately. Fairness in capital cases requires competent counsel for the defendant. In approximately 90% of cases presently on death row, defendants could not afford to hire a lawyer when they were tried. Profiles conducted on death row defendants consistently point out that defendants are poor, show a lack of firm social roots within their communities and received inadequate legal representation at their trial or on use of the appeals process. When reviewing these statistics for Furman v. Georgia in 1972, United States Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas stated, "One searches in vain for the execution of any member of the affluent strata in this society." (408 US 238) and in the Gregg case decision, Justice John Marshall Harlan writing for the Court, noted: a The history of Capital Punishment for homicides a reveal continual efforts, uniformly unsuccessful, to identify before the fact those homicides for which the slayer should diea Those who have come to grips with the hard task of actually attempting to d
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Approximate Word count = 2133
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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