Essay/Term paper: Capital punishment

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Law

More money is spent executing humans than keeping them in a penitentiary for life.
Compared to capital punishment, life in prison is far worse. Mistakes may be made and no one can
bring another human back to life. Juries are often white and this may lead to racial decisions. Of
the 144 executions since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty in the U.S., not one white
person has been executed for killing a black. Of the 16,000 executions in U.S. history, only 30
cases involved a white sentenced for killing a black. Therefore, no one, including the government,
should have the power to tell another human that they must be put to death, no matter what they
commit.
Today"s government and justice system is not as efficient as it should be. If a mistake is
made in an execution sentence and an innocent person dies, no one can bring their life back. Now,
if the death penalty did not exist, the person would still have their life. Juries also have to think
about the families, both of the victim and the suspect. What if the suspect did not commit the
murder and was executed? How would the suspect"s family feel? A close relative had just died due
to the fact that another mistake was made in our justice system. This in fact would send a rush of
anger through my body. The justice system killed somebody"s family member. The death penalty
should not even exist, due to the fact that many mistakes can be made, and a life can never be
brought back.
Juries have been and still are mostly consisted of the white majority. Racism and money is a
big part of our everyday lives. With the majority of people in the jury consisted of whites, racism
might in fact be involved. Now, if a black family is poor and does not have much money, the suspect
may then be issued a racist attorney. Many cases have been recorded of this happening, both of
innocent and guilty men. Innocent men again were put to death, this time due to their skin
color. This is just another reason leading to how poor our justice system is, and why it should not
be in effect.
There are few oppositions to not having the death penalty in effect. The main concern with
not having the death penalty in effect is that people would not care as much when they committed
a crime. Now, if the death penalty was in effect, people would think twice about their mistake
before committing it. The quote, "an eye for an eye" in also a opposition. A solution for this quote
is another quote, "two wrongs do not make a right". Therefore, a man guilty of murder should not
be put to death, for that is just making another wrong.
Only God himself has the power to tell a human that they must die and then carry the
sentence out. For one human to tell another human that they must die; that is not just. For in most
cases, the jury members do not even know the suspect. Why should they, the jury, have the power
to give a death sentence to another human? For they are human too; it is inhuman to tell another
that they must die. The death sentence is not just, and should be done away with.