Death Penalty Ryan Moye

hoice_polls/neDs3TD34MfobgO hoice_polls/neDs3TD34MfobgO Discussion

Belief in the Death Penalty Although this topic is contradictory, the death penalty should be illegal. The death penalty harms innocent people, the justice system not always 100% effective (not enough evidence), and it violates the 8 th amendment (outlawing cruel and unusual punishment). As another option, one who would normally receive the death penalty should be convicted with life in prison without parole.

Its harms innocent people Since 1970 over a 1,000 of lives has been taking by the death penalty Cameron Todd Willingham was executed February, 2004, for murdering his three young children by arson at the family home in Corsicana, Texas. Nationally known fire investigator Gerald Hurst reviewed the case documents, including the trial transcriptions and an hour-long videotape of the aftermath of the fire scene and said in December 2004 that "There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire." [14] In 2010, the Innocence Project filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas, seeking a judgment of "official oppression" Cameron Todd Willingham [14]Innocence Project

Harms innocent people Since 1973, at least 121 people have been released from death row after evidence of their innocence emerged. During the same period of time, over 982 people have been executed. Thus, for every eight people executed, we have found one person on death row who never should have been convicted. These statistics represent an intolerable risk of executing the innocent

Justice system is not always 100% effective the cost of the death penalty amounts to a net expense to the state and the taxpayers. Or to put it differently,the death penalty is clearly more expensive than a system handling similar cases with a lesser punishment. [It] combines the costliest parts of both punishments: lengthy and complicated death penalty trials, followed by incarceration for life... Everything that is needed for an ordinary trial is needed for a death penalty case, only more so: More pre-trial time... More experts... Twice as many attorneys... Two trials instead of one will be conducted: one for guilt and one for punishment.

Justice system is not always 100% effective two out of three death penalty convictions have been overturned on appeal because of police and prosecutorial misconduct, as well as serious errors by incompetent court- appointed defense attorneys with little experience in trying capital cases

Justice system is not always 100% effective the death penalty deters crime more effectively than long terms of imprisonment. States that have death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without such laws. And states that have abolished capital punishment show no significant changes in either crime or murder rates. The death penalty has no deterrent effect.

It violates the 8 th amendment The 8 th amendment the United States Constitution prohibiting the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments, including torture.

It violates the 8 th amendment Defenders of capital punishment can be separated into two different camps. Some are retributivists. Following Immanuel Kant, they claim that for the most heinous forms of wrongdoing, the penalty of death is morally justified or perhaps even required.