Jade Bates

CJ 1010 /M,W, F 10-10:50 AM

Paper #1
Capital punishment is a very controversial subject for many people. It causes a lot of
emotion and heated discussion when brought up. The reason I chose this topic to research is
because I have had mixed feelings on whether I am for or against it. I have always leaned more
towards being against it, strictly for moral reasons. After the research that I did, I feel very
strongly that capital punishment should be abolished for several reasons. Those reasons include
the cost, racial discrimination, and the chance of an innocent person being put to death, just to
mention a few.
The Supreme Court declared capital punishment to be unconstitutional in 1972, but then
the decision was reversed in 1976. At that time, all death row inmates had their sentences
changed to life in prison. Since then 16 states do not have the death penalty. There are 34 states,
including Utah, that still have the death penalty. It wasnt even until 2002, in the case of Atkins v.
Virginia that the Supreme Court declared the execution of person whom were developmentally
disabled unconstitutional (1), which accounted for about 13% of those who were executed. If a
person has an IQ of 70 they are considered developmentally disabled, we were executing people
with IQ scores as low as 40!
Race is a major concern when it comes to the death penalty, especially when it comes to
the race of the victim. Statistics show that 42% of inmates on death row are Black, 57% are
White, 9% are Hispanic, and 1% are Native American. However, when it comes to the race of the
victim, studies show that out of 2000 cases in Georgia, the defendants that were found guilty of

murdering a white person were 4 times more likely to get the death penalty than those charged
with killing Blacks. Although Blacks and Whites are murdered in almost even numbers, from
1977 to 2008, over 79% of those who were executed were found guilty of murdering a White
person. (2)
Possibility of innocence is another reason I feel the death penalty should be abolished. I
feel that if one innocent person is put to death, that is no less an injustice than a victim of a
murder on the streets. Unless we can be 100% sure that every single person on death row is
guilty then I do not believe it should exist. ''The facts that I have seen in reviewing each and every
one of these cases raised questions not only about the innocence of people on death row, but about
the fairness of the death penalty system as a whole,'' - Former Conservative Governor George Ryan

of Illinois (3), changed his view on the death penalty when he found out that 7 inmates who were
exonerated within two years, to where he emptied the states death row. Before that he was for
capital punishment. Since 1973, there have been 139 death row inmates in 26 states that were
released from death row because they were found not guilty for which they were committed.
This number continues to grow every year. We have to remember that about 1/3 of all eye
witness identifications are incorrect, and in a few of the cases from 1973, the defendants were
exonerated do to faulty DNA evidence. We forget that DNA evidence is interpreted by humans,
and humans make errors.
Cost is the other major reason that I am against capital punishment. I have heard so many
people say that it costs us tax payers more to have someone spend life in prison than it does to
put them to death. Through my research I found this not be true in any way. I think many people
fail to know exactly what process has to happen for a person to be put to death. It is costly and
time consuming. Capital punishment is very expensive and the millions of dollars that this

process costs tax payers every year could go towards many other social issues to help society. In
my opinion, we could put a lot of this money into better education, providing more opportunities
and resources for the areas where people are at higher risk of getting involved in criminal
lifestyle. We could also put it into better rehabilitation facilities for inmates so that they would
have an increased chance of success when they are put back out into society. In North Carolina,
they did a study comparing a capital murder case to a non capital case. In just the cost of
prosecuting the defendant, the capital case cost more than $216,00 than the non capital case. If
the defendant was ultimately executed, the extra cost was $2.16 million!! In Florida, the death
penalty costs them an extra $51million a year than what it costs to sentence all first degree
murderers to life without parole. Imagine what this money could be used for. (4)
This is just a small sample of information and facts that I found in regards to capital
punishment. My moral beliefs are just one reason I feel that the death penalty should be
abolished. I was shocked at the facts. The type of people who are facing death based on their lack
of education, race, income, and intelligence is absurd. I also feel that we are spending so much
money to put people to death every year that these funds could be better spent on improving
society. I understand that our Criminal Justice System is not a perfect system, and I am grateful
for the system we have here in the United States. However, even though it is not perfect, I can
not justify the taking of one innocent persons life no matter the circumstances in which it was
done.

Works Cited
Paper #1
1) http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/intellectual-disability-and-deathpenalty
2) http://deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=54
3) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/us/citing-issue-of-fairnessgovernor-clears-out-death-row-in-illinois.html
4) http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/category/categories/states/utah