Death Row Essay, Research Paper

Death Row

The decease punishment is outmoded and should be eliminated from our justness system. The decease punishment is highly racially biased and is non assigned rightly. While advocators claim it is cheaper to put to death than to back up a criminal for life in prison, it is really more expensive to condemn a adult male to decease. Oppositions to the decease punishment say that decease is really revenge instead than justness.

The figure of captives on decease row is increasing. The public prefering the decease punishment is making record degrees of 80 % in some polls. Barring respite, four decease row inmates are waiting to be executed following hebdomad for a record figure of executings countrywide in a hebdomad. Many of the inmates scheduled to decease hold arrived at the terminal of their entreaties through a long and tangled legal way. The inquiry now staying is how should they be executed ( Mauro ) . New York legislators are expected to O.K. a decease punishment measure in the following few hebdomads. Patrons say the step will make off with the electric chair in favour of deadly injection, which some decease punishment advocators say is a more humanist executing method ( Hughes ) .

As of April, in the United States, there are 2,848 decease row inmates, half of them minorities. White persons constitute 50 % , Blacks 40 % , Latino 7 % and 3 % other races. A black adult male who kills a white adult male is 63 times more likely to be executed than a white adult male who murders a black adult male ( McCollum p 12 ) . The prosecuting officers who pursue capital instances are normally white, a fact that might be responsible for the high per centum of inkinesss on decease row, harmonizing to a study out today. The decease punishment is more frequently sought for black suspects, particularly in instances where the victims are white. The Black suspects were 38 % more likely to be sentenced to decease than others who committed similar offenses. This system is highly racially biased ( Jones p3A ) .

In the United States, the largest decease row stands in Texas with 324 people: 144 Whites, 120 African Americans, 52 Hispanics, 4 Native Americans, and 4 Asiatic Americans. The smallest s

Tates are Connecticut with 2 Whites, New Mexico with 1 Native American and 1 white, and Wyoming 2 Whites, ( Mumia ) . Blacks constituted some 40 % of work forces on decease row in Pennsylvanian, yet blacks constitute merely over 9 % of Pennsylvanian’s population and merely fewer than 11 % of America’s. The proportions are non even ( Mumia p 18 ) .

The decease punishment has ne’er been proven as an effectual hindrance against offense, and is disproportionately used against inkinesss and the hapless. It costs more to put to death people than maintain them in prison for life with no possibility of word ( University Wire ) . A survey indicated it cost the province an norm of $ 2.3 million over seven old ages of entreaties to put to death person. The cost of incarcerating the same individual for life was $ 750,000 ( Mauro ) .

Is the decease punishment justness or retaliation? Our condemnable justness system shouldn & # 8217 ; t be about retribution, because it makes us as a society no better than those we condemn. Yet, we have to weigh what we accomplish by killing those who kill. It doesn & # 8217 ; t convey anyone back. It doesn & # 8217 ; t carry through anything but retaliation. Of class, in instances of clearly guilt or peculiarly flagitious offenses, it & # 8217 ; s easy to state they deserve to decease. However, the instance involves the decease of person we love, it & # 8217 ; s difficult to state adieu ( University Wire ) .

Bibliography

Work Cited / Bibliography:

& # 8220 ; Execution makes us no better. & # 8221 ; Editorial. University Wires Staff Editorial 19 February 1999.

Hughes, Kyle. & # 8220 ; Execution No Simple Matter. & # 8221 ; Gannett New Service 13 December 1994.

Hughes, Kyle. & # 8220 ; New York Death Row May be Outmoded. & # 8221 ; Gannett New Service 23 February 1995.

Jones, Charisse. & # 8220 ; Studies find decease punishment nexus to race about all lead prosecuting officers in capital instances are white. & # 8221 ; USA Today 4 June 1998. Pp03A.

Mauro, Tony and Mark Potok. & # 8220 ; Death Penalty Becoming Real & # 8217 ; . & # 8221 ; USA Today 7 December 1994.

McCollum, Bill & # 8220 ; End racial favoritism in the decease penalty. & # 8221 ; USA Today 22 June 1994. Pp 12.

Mumia, Abu-Jamal. & # 8220 ; Live from decease row. & # 8221 ; Progressive VOL 59 ( 1995 ) : Pp18.