Abolishing Death Penalty

This Protocol allows for the retention of the goal penalty by ratifiers in times of war.

As yearn as countries retain the final stage penalty, there is a run a put on the line of executing the innocent (Amnesty International). In the United States, at least 112 prisoners contract been released from cobbler's last dustup since 1973 after evidence has turn up their innocence of crimes for which they were convicted. In January 2000, Governor George Ryan of Illinois declared a moratorium on executions in that state after the 13th prisoner on closing row was exonerated of the crime for which he was convicted. 65 prisoners were executed in the United States in 2003, bringing the append number executed since resumption of the death penalty in 1977 to 885. Forty-four inmates known to be mentally retarded stir been executed in that time (Hawkins 247). Over 3,500 prisoners were on death row as of October 1, 2003. Thirty-eight of the fifty United States take aim the death penalty in law, and it is also lawful at a lower place federal and military law.

The death penalty in the States is considered by many to be racist, since 55 part of prisoners on death row are people of color, and 43 percent are black (Hawkins 247). People are a great deal convicted however on the basis of their color. For instance, Clarence Bradley spent 10 old age on death row, though he committed no crime. natural law arriving at the scene of a murder found a black man, Bradley,

and a clean-living man at the scene of the crime and declared, "One of you is gonna serve for this." Bradley was elected: he was convicted, but exonerated 10 years later after a Department of Justice and FBI investigation.

With such(prenominal) gross injustice taking place in the courtrooms, how force out anyone defend the use of the death penalty in the States today? Over 100 innocent people have been exonerated and released from death row in the past 27 years alone (Hawkins 248). Supreme Court Justice Sandra mean solar day O'Connor has said that, "If statistics are any indication, the system may well(p) be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed. More often than we want to recognize, some innocent defendants have been convicted and sentenced to death." Eighty percent of voters want to abolish or significantly reform the death penalty; 69 percent are not touch on about executing the guilty, but are about the risk of executing the innocent; and 64 percent want to ward off executions until reforms can be made (Hawkins 249). Fourteen states have debated moratoriums on the death penalty; two have enacted them. Put simply, the death penalty is unjust, and is not achieving its goals.

Financial wherewithal also contributes to whether or not a prisoner ends up on death row (Hawkins 248). One death row inmate had his conviction worried when it was revea
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