2.2 Against the Death Penalty

I was raised to cherish all life, but at the same time I was taught at a young age that bad behavior will result in negative consequences from my parents and teachers. My childhood reflects these beliefs. I was always a good boy who mostly did what was right and after realizing some actions were wrong, did not do them again. My childhood learning of good and bad differs much from the real world. This can be seen within the death penalty. The death penalty takes what I have learned to the next level. The issue that covers the death penalty is what should a criminal receive for a serious case of murder? Do we as a state cherish life over justice? Or do we take a page out of the rules of Hammurabi and use the old saying “An eye for an eye”?

At the age of 31, Paul Powell was recently put to death by the state of Virginia using the electric chair (Stewart 1). Paul Powell was given the death penalty because of the rape and murder of a 16 year old girl. Paul Powell was originally sentenced in 2000 and was convicted with murder, but that was overturned. After this incident, Paul Powell decided to write a letter bragging about the crime he committed and explains in some detail what he did that night of the crime. This became new evidence and he was later convicted of murder and given the death penalty in 2003. The idea that this man was originally given the wrong sentence explains some of the flaws of the judicial process.

Since 1973, when the death penalty was reinstated in a majority of the states, a total of 135 inmates have been released from the death row and are now considered innocence. (Death Penalty 101) All of these verdicts were overturned due to new DNA evidence that revealed the criminal was innocence to begin with. It is easy feel remorse for the criminals that spent a good portion of their life in jail, but no one realizes the problem of these people wasting their lives in the correctional system. This is due to the people who made the mistakes of conviction not admitting to their flawed decision. As a result, no one will ever be blamed when a situation like this occurs. This also brings up new ideas about how inaccurate the death penalty process can be.

An issue that is connected with the death penalty is the execution of people with mental retardation problems. The academic journal “Standford-Binet and WAIS IQ differences and their implications for adults with intellectual disability”, “People with ID (mental retardation) convicted of capital crimes are no longer subject to the death penalty.” (Wayne 1) This quote sums up how the death penalty process in the United States deals with people who have mental retardation problems. Many people, including myself, consider the death penalty cruel and immoral. I believe a person with mental problems could have not understood the crimes and actions they commit. If this is the case, the system could be killing a person of society who did not know what he/she was doing wrong. But at the same time, there have been accusations of people pretending to have mental problems to avoid the death penalty. It was estimated that 35 people have been executed with mental retardation problems since 1977 (Reynolds 1). It is “estimated” because there are some cases where a mental retardation can be very mild or could be overlooked by the system. Even with many laws being added to protect people with mental retardation against the death penalty, the issue of execution of people with mental retardation problems can be argued both ways when discussing the sides of the death penalty.

When talking about the death penalty, there are many issues that force people to choose one side. However, these same issues that force people to choose a side sometimes makes other people stuck on what side to choose. These issues include the execution of people with mental retardation, the idea that a jury could be bias, that evidence could be flawed, and many more. These issues are the reasons why the death penalty is controversial in the United States.

There are many arguments that could be made for or against using the death penalty. I feel the United States is better off not using the death penalty. The death penalty does not cherish the life of criminals and does not make fair and equal judgments on all criminals that go through the judicial process. Also, I feel there could be bias within the people who run the process, which creates an unfair trial and could result in a wrong verdict. The main reason I don’t agree with the death penalty is because the people placed in prisons have a chance to change their views and ways of life. To give someone another chance to change their way of life seems like a better option than taking their life away. I am not saying the people that support the death penalty do not care about the life of others, but I feel the supporters of the death penalty value justice and fairness over life.

There is inconsistency with the consequences assigned for similar actions. For example, a person who commits murder can get 10 years in jail and another person who commits murder can receive the death penalty. Could that be due to the way the murderer killed his victim? Could it have been the type of person he killed? In the end, the result is exactly the same, a person was murdered. From the Charlotte Observer News Paper article Death Penalty System “irretrievably” broken, the article stated, “there was no way to ensure essential fairness and consistency of the system (death penalty) because it produces such widely varying results. (“Death Penalty system ‘irretrievably broken’” 2)” It doesn’t seem fair that one murder could receive the death penalty for killing a person and another person could receive 10 years. The death penalty system is not fair to all criminals.

In the United States, a person can only receive the death penalty by a jury of people making a unanimous decision. People can receive the death penalty through unfair trials because the bias jury members could have and racial stereotypes that the jury members could have brought into the courtroom. Jury members are screened and asked questions in order to prevent any them from having any bias towards a person or race, but in reality bias can’t ever be prevented. It’s not that they are all racist, but all people have some idea of a certain type of person or race. These ideas could be positive or negative ideas, but it is nearly impossible to find a jury full of people who are not bias. From the Death penalty Information Center, an example of a bias towards African Americans can be seen in this quote, “careful analysis of race and death penalty … which reveals that the odds of receiving a death sentence are nearly four times (3.9) higher if the defendant is black. (Dieter 3)” This quote explains an existing bias towards African Americans in some regions in the Untied States. In 2006, a total of 649 African Americans were executed in all the states that allow the death penalty (“Capital Punishment, 2006- Statistical Tables”). It is unknown if those African Americans received a fair trial with an unbiased jury. The idea that people can be bias towards other people and come to a decision that produces a wrongful death sentence makes the idea of using the death penalty less appealing.

The main reason the United States has jails is to house criminals and keep them away from society. If the main goal of jails is to protect the society, criminals should be kept in jail forever. This idea does seem stretched, but another reason for jails is to allow people to change. Jails, also known as correctional facilities, can be the perfect environment for criminals to change their lives before reentering the general public. These criminals are isolated from the general public and placed into an environment where everyone around them has committed crimes and has done bad. Being able to see who criminals really are can inspire inmates to change who they want to be. To give someone the death penalty is essentially robbing a person’s ability to change their life. There are people who prefer to see people executed because of the crimes they have committed, but a person who is able to realize what he/she has done will result in a better ending, even if the criminal never gets out of jail.

There are arguments that could be made to end the use of the death penalty. But supporters of the death penalty will believe the system is fair for all crimes that are committed. They also believe that the screenings for the jury members are suffice in determining if a person will or will not receive a death sentence without bias. There are many creditable reasons why people should support the death penalty. The main reason is that people support the death penalty is because they believe in justice. These supporters want the public to see that the United States is a land that is fair and serves justice to all their criminals. The death penalty is one way they are able to accomplish this.

The death penalty has left the nation divided. While researching this topic, it was realized that a compromise can never be made with the idea of executing a criminal for their crime. However, things can be changed about how the criminal is executed and different verdicts other than the death sentence. Rather than being executed, more people can be placed into jail with a life sentence. This is the only compromise that can ever be made with the issue of executing someone or not executing someone. Even though it will cost tax payer more to keep these criminals in jail, it is the only way to satisfy both sides. Another option could be the method of execution. The current methods of execution are electric chair, lethal injection, hanging, firing squad and lethal gas (“Methods of Execution” 1). The best thing to do is to eliminate the inhumane methods of execution and to only use lethal injection. The lethal injection process was created with the intent to provide the criminal a painless death. The most moral thing to give to a criminal should be humane and painless death. This also ties into the idea that relates with public executions. The idea that the criminal knows that many people are watching him die can make him suffer mentally. From the academic journal “Neither Justice nor Mercy: Public and Private Executions in Rhode Island,” the idea of public executions and its history through the state of Rhode Island is explained. It explains that originally people were supporting the idea of public executions through “hangings”. But in the end, the novel explains how people decided to step in to abolish these “unruly behaviors” (Chambers 1). With these suggestions, I feel more people will have fewer arguments about the death penalty.

The issue of the death penalty will always be a controversial one in the United States. This is because the extremes can never be combined into one solution. But with some changing and some compromising, many people would not disagree with each other about the death penalty anymore.


“Capital Punishment, 2006- Statistical Tables”. Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2006. Office of Justice Programs. Web March 10, 2010

Chambers, Stephen. “Neither Justice nor Mercy: Public and Private Executions in Rhode Island” New England Quarterly. September 2009. EBSCO Host Web March 10, 2010

“Death Penalty 101”. American Civil Liberties Union. April 7, 2007. American Civil Liberties Union. Web March 10, 2010“Death Penalty system ‘irretrievably broken’”. Charlotte Observer. March 21, 2010. Charlotte Observer. Web March 10, 2010

“Death Penalty system ‘irretrievably broken’”. Charlotte Observer. March 21, 2010. Charlotte Observer. Web March 10, 2010

Dieter, Richard. “The Death Penalty in Black and White; who lives, Who Dies, Who Decides” The Death Penalty Information Center. The Death Penalty Information Center. Web March 10, 2010

“Methods of Execution”. Prosecuting Attorney. The Clark County. Web March 10, 2010

Reynolds, Dave. “Mental Retardation and the Death Penalty in the U.S.A”. Ragged Online. May 1, 2001. Ragged Online. Web March 10, 2010

Silverman, Wayne. “Standford-Binet and WAIS IQ differences and their implications for adults with intellectual disability”. March 2010. EBSCO Host. Web March 10, 2010

Stewart, Amanda. “Paul Powell Dies in electric Chair”. Inside NoVa. March 18, 2010. News and Messengers. Web March 10, 2010