Are You Die By Lethal Injection, But If The Power Goes Out?

In the last several years, too many people in the United States have been wrongfully sentenced with the death penalty. Several accused have their sentence overturned or they have been totally exonerated. There are at least 8 people who were executed by United States and later proven innocent (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org). Over a 20 year period, 68% of all death sentences were reversed (http://karisable.com). A noteworthy example is of Jerry Banks who was convicted and sentenced with the death penalty for two counts of murder in 1975. Five years later, in 1980, Banks' conviction was overturned on the basis of newly discovered evidence which was allegedly known to the state at the time of trial. Another example was the case of Lawyer Johnson who was sentenced to death in 1971 by an all white jury for the murder of a white victim. Later in 1982, Johnson’s conviction was overturned and Johnson exonerated when a previously silent eyewitness identified the state’s chief witness as the real murderer. (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org) Human error is inevitable, particularly

This article was written in 1998, but it gives me fantastic statistics about why the death penalty is so risky, considering that some of these people could have been wrongly tried. In the article, it explains how the 500th victim of the death penalty had just been assassinated. It also states that, out of those 500, 75 men and women of the US had been proven innocent. That is one out of every seven people who have been put on death row that actually did nothing to deserve it. The article goes into a specific case of being

"Since 1973, over eighty people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence" (Innocence and the Death Penalty 1). Statistics say that of the three-thousand six hundred people on death row right now, at least one hundred of them are innocent (Capital Punishment 1). When an innocent person is executed, the real killer is still on the streets ready to victimize someone else (Pragmatic Arguments 1). The most important problem is that when an innocent person is executed, they represent another human being who did not deserve to die.

The capital punishment system is not perfect; it makes mistakes frequently. According to James S. Liebmans article, Error Pervades the U.S. Capital Punishment System, in 2004 he conducted a report that found 68% of all death verdicts were reversed by the courts due to serious errors. Some of these errors included; defense lawyers were incompetent, police and prosecutors committed

The death penalty, formally reflected as capital punishment, is one of the most controversial issues in America. The debate about capital punishment has been going on for decades with both sides arguing for their claim. Death sentences are usually handed out to those who have committed a capital crime; however, the death penalty shouldn’t be so easily considered based on the margin of possible error that can be made in the process. It has been proven, and not everything is one hundred percent. There are flaws in the criminal justice system, and the fact that we use the Adversarial system in which the prosecution and defense pick and choose what will be presented should be taken into account. Even though some people may believe capital

The use of the death penalty fails to protect the innocent. The possibility of executing an innocent person exists in any justice system. Executing innocent defendants are made because of reasons, including eyewitness errors and false confessions that are made under pressure. Capital cases can sometimes take several years before the case goes to trial. Therefore, an eyewitness might have a difficult time remembering certain important accounts of a past event that occurred. David Von Drehle, author of More Innocent People on Death Row Than Estimated: Study Time Magazine, “points out that at least four percent of all death row inmates in the United States have been wrongfully convicted of

In Richard Dieter’s article "Innocence and the Death Penalty: The Increasing Danger of Executing the Innocent”, he shares the mistakes and the dangers of the death penalty. Capital punishment had gotten more and more controversial during the 90’s because of the risk of innocence. There was no DNA evidence during this time to prove if a person was innocent or guilty, so when putting them to death there was still a possibility that they were incorrect on the verdict. Today there are DNA tests that help prove whether someone is innocent or guilty, but it cannot bring those back who have been executed unjustly because of the death penalty. Lack of witnesses, the pressure from the public to solve the case, and limited resources for the defendant were common obstacles and quickened them to be charged as a suspect and then sentenced them to death based on the crime they “committed”. As technology advanced with DNA evidence, some criminals who were on death row were let out of

As evidence, Steven D. Stewart wrote that “the risk of making a mistake with the extraordinary due process applied in death penalty cases is very small.” This conveys that it is highly unlikely that an innocent person will be sentenced to death since the court takes care not to make any mistakes. They go through a complicated procedure to avoid any mistakes that can cost someone’s life, whether the person is guilty or innocent. However, other researchers like Russ Feingold claimed that “since the reinstatement of the modern death penalty, 87 people have been freed from death row because they were later proven innocent.” This illustrates that even though the court tries to prevent mistakes, innocent people are still placed on the death row. Death penalties are very risky due to the fact that the judges can falsely accuse someone of a crime and cause them to be sentenced to death. To sum up, death penalties can be very perilous because blameless people can meet their demise even if the court does their best not to make such errors.

Since 1976, more than 1,000 people have been executed innocently, and there is no way to tell if they were innocent or not (www.deathpenaltyinfor.org/executed-possibly-innocnent). Once a prisoner is killed from death penalty, nothing can be done to fix the mistakes that have been made (www.deathpenaltycurriculum.org). “At least 121 people have been taken off the death row list, because of their innocence since 1973, and for every 8 executions, at least one person has been convicted for no reason,” states

The death penalty today is slow, costly, and uncertain; therefore, America should abolish the death penalty”, and David J. Burge, a Georgia Republican Attorney, state's, “The reality is that capital punishment is nothing more than a risky government program.” (Rathbun, 2017) Joshua Rathbun, and others who would choose to do away with the death penalty, bring up a good point that the death penalty is not perfect and that there are times where errors occur. The solution isn’t to get rid of the death penalty, but to improve the technology and system used. It would be more productive to work together and look for more productive methods. Not to bicker about if the current method is humane enough. There is already work being done. The most common form of execution is lethal injection, which most Americans find to be humane. Still errors do occur, the DPIC predicts that three percent of executions were botched. (DPIC, 2016) I believe we can all agree that this number is too high. Although over the course of over 100 years being within a rate that most scientist find acceptable is pretty good. Especially considering how much technology has progressed sense the start of this time

In the past years, the death penalty has gotten out of hand. More states have been using the death sentence as one of the major punishments a delinquent can receive. It is not always an accurate thing because there have been major mistakes where the person is innocent. According to a recent study, 4% of the people put on the death penalty are not guilty (Brook). Since 1973, 144 prisoners on death row have been found to be innocent of crimes they have been convicted to (Brook).

In America, the death penalty is a highly debated topic. In the debate “should the death penalty be abolished,” Diann Rust-Tierney and Joshua Marquis argue this issue. Although the death penalty system is prone to error and discrimination, space the death penalty should not be abolished because win the executions started to raise the murder rate began to drop in America and that scientists have proven that the death penalty is a definite deterrent to murder.

Fallibility is the chance of error. Many people are executed for crimes they never committed. Since 1973, over 156 people have been released from death row because of innocence. Nationally, at least one person is exonerated for every 10 that are executed.

There is no way to tell of the thousands of people that have been executed, which were innocent. Since 1973 more than 150 people have been released from prison with evidence of innocence. Studies have shown that the death penalty has zero to no effect on violent crimes, and it is an amazing waste of taxpaying money. They were wrongfully imprisoned due to mistaken eyewitness testimony, faulty forensic science, and false confession as a result of wrongdoing by the police and finally racial biased. That was just a minimal list of reasons a case could go wrong. There are many reasons why someone would be against the death penalty. For example, there are strong religious beliefs that one might have, the death penalty is and expression of the absolute power of the state. As of October 2015 there have been over 1,414 individuals in this country alone lethally executed. In the issue of the death penalty it all goes back to whether the death penalty deters future crime. I feel that one solution to this issue would be to get rid of the death penalty altogether.

Now considering the unpredictability of the American criminal justice system, meaning that laws are constantly being subject to individual judgment or preference by a court or judge rather than a specific law or statue, there is great room for error in both the conviction and execution of the accused. On the other end of the spectrum, let us not forget society pressuring overworked law enforcement officers to solve crimes leading to mistakes and failure to follow all evidence just to close a case to satisfy society. As humans, we are an inevitable force of error. However, when a life is at stake, error should not be an option.