Why I Oppose the Death Penalty (Essay Sample)

Death Penalty
Name:
Institution:
Introduction
Over the years, death penalty has been shunned across the globe. This is a practice that has been around for centuries and so many lives have been lost through the intervention of the same. The practice that gained it roots in the early 17th century in the British North America. From the onset of the 17th century, the aspect of capital punishment had been on the rise till the late 20th century, after which there was a sharp decline that has remained relatively intact over the years that have followed (Nodeathpenalty.org, 2014). Despite the fact that there has been a decline in the number of people that are executedthrough this ancient practice, the baseline is that this is a practice that should be in effect in this day and age. It is a practice that has been surpassed by time and is riddled with too many flaws that are present in the social systems and the justice systems’ execution of legal matters (Deathpenalty.org, 2013).
Thesis Statement: Death penalty should be abolished as it is flawed by design
Death penalty is one of the most flawed aspects of the justice system that is in place in many states and many countries across the world that still practice it. At the heart of the flaws, is the fact that some of the victims that are executed are actually innocent serving time for crimes that they did not commit. In the USA alone, since the year 1973, there have been more than one hundred and forty four prisoners that have been exonerated for their crimes. All these are people whose lives were put in danger by a flawed system and who would have died for their innocence rather than crimes that they were arrested for. Every one of these persons had a family that would have been affected by the same. More often than not, the victims of the sentence are convicted through the use of false confessions, poor scientific methods, government misconducts, snitch testimonies and eyewitness errors. In cases where the rich and powerful are incriminated in crimes, there are chances that an innocent person is going to take the fall and pay for crimes they did not commit with their lives (Deathpenalty.org, 2013). Once these victims are convicted and executed, there is no way of undoing the act even though there emerges new evidence that would exonerate them. There have been indications that in the recent two years in the state of California, there may have been more than four men that have been convicted wrongly and executed. This is an injustice to the victims, their families and friends that can never be undone and the lives of the victims’ families are changed forever.
For the families that have lost their loved ones through gruesome murders, it is not always helping to see the perpetrators killed in a move to avenge their relatives and friends. Most of the families that have had their loved ones murdered choose to forgive the perpetrators as any actions following deaths of their loved ones will not bring them back (Nodeathpenalty.org, 2014). More importantly, this form of acceptance and forgiving the perpetrators also helps the victims’ families to heal much faster and move on. The act of having to execute the perpetrators of the heinous crimes only serves to lengthen the time it takes for the families to heal as their wounds are constantly reopened and prodded (Deathpenalty.org, 2013).
The cost of having to execute the criminals on death penalty is actually much higher than most people anticipate. This is money that actually comes from the tax payers, which means that they get to pay the price for the crimes in physical losses and monetary wise(Oadp.org, 2014). It is actually much cheaper to have the criminal on life sentences and without parole than having on death penalty. In a study carried in California, establishing the costs of having death penalty since it was reopened in 1978; it was found out that more than $4 billion dollars had been spent. This is an amount that is more than 20 times more the costs of keeping the criminal alive without parole. At the moment California is spending $184 million dollars on death penalties, which translates to more than $1 billion dollars in the next five years(Deathpenalty.org, 2013). While the number of criminals that are executed has come down considerably, the costs are still massive on the taxpayer, considering that they still have to bear the motional costs of the crimes.
Acloser look at the population of prisoner around the states, will indicate that majority of the people that have been incarcerated are from the African American and the Latinos. Further scrutiny of the highest number of the victims of legal injustices that have been exonerated are non-whites. This is not an indication of a working justice system but highlight of the flaws. The high number of the non-whites exonerated is an indication of the number of the non-whites that have been imprisoned. While most of the legal houses will claim that justice systems are free of the racial discriminations, the statics of the highest number convicts tells a different story. Ironically, these are the minority groups in the society and their numbers in prison do not relate to their numbers in the general population (Deathpenalty.org, 2013). Studies such as the one that conducted in 1990, through the General Accounting Office, indicated that in the USA ones race was accountable for more than 82% chances that they would be executed. This means that the minorities are still at a higher risk of being executed in the sentences than the whites. This is a flaw in the justice system that preys on the race of the prisoners and one of the most underlying prejudices that plagues human rights in the country (Oadp.org, 2014). Ironically, according to the study, it was also clear that those perpetrators, who had murdered white victims, were more likely to end up being executed, while a good majority of those that murdered the African Americans would be spared. This is a racial system that onlyworks to intimidate ...