Abolishing the Death Penalty Essay Sample

Very few things in life are permanent, since most things we as humans come across can be altered. For example, if you get a bad grade, you can talk to a teacher to improve it. Or if you said something mean to someone, you can just give an apology to them. However, one thing that is quite permanent is death. Such as capital punishment, which is the act of carrying out a sentence such as execution. Killing them will not undo what they did. But if you mistakenly send an innocent person to prison, that can be fixed. But for capital punishment, if you kill an innocent person, what’s done is done. Overall, society needs to consider the repercussions that come with capital punishment. 

Starting with racism, we are seeing many issues regarding racism, and the death penalty doesn’t help with that. There is some racial bias in death sentencing. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “our nation’s death rows have always helped a disproportionately large population of African Americans, relative to their percentage of the total population. Comparing black and white offenders over the past century, the former were often executed for what was considered less than-capital offenses for whites, such as rape and burglary.” Given part of this information, when people are sentenced to death, it turns out that race is a decisive factor after all. 

Leading to disabilities and mental illness, the death penalty lacks justice for those with mental illnesses or with disabilities. According to the DPIC (Death Penalty Information Center), “the U.S. Supreme Court has said a defendant’s mental illness makes him or her less morally culpability and must be taken into consideration as an important reason to spare his or her life. The court has not barred the death penalty for those with serious mental illness. Many mental health experts believe that people with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may have similar cognitive impairments that interfere with their decision-making. The American Psychiatric Association and the American Bar Association, among others, have called for a ban on the death penalty for those with severe mental illness. Some defendants are so mentally ill as to lack all understanding of their crime and its consequences and may be considered mentally incompetent. For example, on January 13, 2015, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, Andrew Brennan, was executed in Georgia. Brannan’s attorneys asked the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant clemency because “he had suffered from a post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder.” This was a 66-year-old Vietnam War veteran with no prior criminal record and 100% disabled who was sent to execution. There are at least three hurdles to excluding the severely mentally ill. 1. Unlike age and intellectual ability, it is difficult to define the class of mentally ill defendants who should be exempted and to determine whether their illness affected their judgment when they offended. 2. States have so far been reluctant to adopt such bans, though the society continues to evolve in terms of its understanding of mental illness. 3. The membership of the Supreme Court has shifted since some of the earlier exemptions were decided.” Overall, it’s not entirely fair to execute the mentally ill or disabeled, when they might not advocate or testify for themselves. 

The death penalty is the pure definition and example of cruelty and inhumanness. According to Centre Daily Times, “the death penalty supposedly eliminates criminals, yet it’s killing our society. Capital punishment is unique to America and we should be ashamed to be unique in this way. Using the death penalty in America is unfair, unjust, and inhumane. As applied in the United States, it’s dispensed in an unfair manner based on wealth and race. It is absurd that we may even kill people who could be innocent, yet are denied the right to a sufficient trial because of racial bias and lack of financial means to pay for a strong defense. While the death penalty eliminates “dangerous” criminals, it prevents said individuals from redeeming themselves. As a society, we don’t allow people on death row to prove that they have grown as individuals and realize that they have committed a dangerous crime. The death penalty is a demanding life-for-a-life expensive solution that ultimately diminishes our humanity.” Also according to debating Europe, “two wrongs do not make a right. Taking a human life is unethical, whether it is a crime or whether it is done in the name of ‘justice’. Everyone’s right to life should be protected by law, including criminals. We should aim to set the example that killing is always wrong and that there are always alternatives. Life in prison is not a ‘soft option.” Overall, there are other punishments other than killing that the government can use to punish criminals. 

Innocence is another very good reason to abolish the death penalty. According to the Innocence (in opposition to the Death Penalty), “the death penalty alone imposes an irrevocable sentence. There is considerable evidence that many mistakes have been made in sentencing people to death. We have found one person on death row for every eight people executed who never should have been convicted. Our capital punishment system is unreliable. A recent study by Columbia University Law School found that two-thirds of all capital trials contained serious errors. In other cases, DNA testing has exonerated death row inmates. DNA testing became available only in the early 1990s, because of advancements in science. If this testing had not been discovered until ten years later, many of these inmates would have been executed. Society takes many risks in which innocent lives can be lost. Executions are a preventable risk. By substituting a sentence of life without parole, we meet society’s needs of punishment and protection without risking an erroneous and irrevocable punishment.” In a more explained version, our society is risking losing some of our population because of capital punishment. 

Money is another reason to abolish the death penalty. According to New York Times, “States waste millions of dollars on winning death penalty verdicts, which require an expensive second trial, new witnesses, and long jury selections. Death rows require extra security and maintenance costs. According to the organization, keeping inmates on death row in Florida costs taxpayers $51 million a year more than holding them for life without parole. North Carolina has put 43 people to death since 1976 at $2.16 million per execution. The eventual cost to taxpayers in Maryland for pursuing capital cases between 1978 and 1999 is estimated to be $186 million for five executions. The most extreme example is California, whose death row costs taxpayers $114 million a year beyond the cost of imprisoning convicts for life. The state has executed 13 people since 1976 for about $250 million per execution.” Overall, the government would save lots of money if they got rid of the death penalty. 

In conclusion, abolishing the death penalty could save the government billions of dollars. Abolishing the death penalty would also improve the risk we take by possibly executing those who are innocent, as well as those who have mental illnesses or disabilities who might be incapable of testifying or advocating for themselves. We could also improve our racism a little by not discriminating against certain people when doing capital punishment. The death penalty should be abolished without question.