Abolishment of the Death Penalty Introductio

If this very moment you were asked to serve on a jury in which there was a high probability that, if convicted, the defendant would receive the death penalty, would you do it? If you are inclined to say 'yes' please consider the following facts.

Capital punishment is defined as the infliction of the death penalty on persons convicted of a crime (Adler, Mueller & Laufer, 2003). The United States Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (2006) reports that in 2005, there were 60 persons executed in 16 different states. Of these, 41 were white and 19 were black. All but one were men and all were executed by lethal injection.

The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (2006) also reports that 38 states and the federal government had capital statutes in 2005. Currently, there are 3,314 prisoners awaiting execution. The purpose of this paper is to discuss five major arguments against the death penalty and to show that the additive nature of these reasons makes it imperative that efforts be made to immediately and forever abolish the death penalty as a form of punishment for capital crimes.

Reasons To Abolish The Death Penalty

The Death Penalty Is Not An Effective Deterrent

Kurtis (2004) reports that research conducted to determine whether the death penalty is a deterrent is mixed with some studies supporting its deterrent qualities while other studies do not. However, in some very recent resear

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or black, one is more likely to receive the death penalty if the victim is white (Kurtis, 2004). In addition, lower class individuals are far more likely to receive the death penalty than individuals of upper or middle class backgrounds (Kurtis, 2004). The Death Penalty is Often Applied in Error In a series of investigative articles for "The Chicago Tribune" writers McRoberts, Mills and Possely (2005) observed that flawed laboratory testing was responsible for several wrong convictions in several states. In addition, it was noted that a review of 200 cases where death row inmates were finally allowed DNA testing, one quarter of the defendants were exonerated. Statistics such as these that lead to the very real speculation that there could be many more innocents on death row at this present moment. The Death Penalty Weakens Societies That Condone It Although this argument rests on less empirical evidence than the other arguments presented in this paper, there is reason to believe that the institution of the death penalty can weakens societies that support it. This point was made by Hood (2003) who argues that killing by the State is premeditated and calculated, and as such it is in quality, the same nature as those murders w
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Approximate Word count = 1241
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)