The Death Penalty - Essay Example

The Death Penalty Cover Letter Capital punishment is a highly charged issue with supporters and detractors emotionally involved in the debate. Although neutrality is difficult in an assignment such as this, the project description called for an argumentative essay and this greatly facilitated the writing process in that I was able to pick a side and write persuasively about my selected opinion. In the analysis below I wrote that the death is wrong for a variety of reasons but argued that the most important fault with the death penalty is that once it is applied, its effects are irreversible. Accordingly, if someone were wrongfully accused and put to death, we can never get them back. This is the major flaw with the death penalty and something which I focused my analysis upon. What effect was I trying to achieve? Through a thorough analysis of the Rubin “Hurricane” Carter case I sought to demonstrate the inherent problems associated with a sentence of death by looking at a case in which an individual was wrongly accused and subsequently set free after 22 years in prison. I found the actual case analysis the most difficult component of this essay and had to be careful to properly structure my argument around the case in question. By taking an argument, finding a case study and integrating the two into a coherent essay, I have learned a great deal about the writing process and how to strengthen an argument with proper evidence. I hope that you agree. The Death Penalty Capital Punishment, more commonly known as the death penalty, is a form of retribution which involves the killing of a person through judicial means. For some, the death penalty is an important deterrent which is effective in deterring capital crimes such as murder and armed assault. For others, such as the Death Penalty Information Centre, the death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment which is often arbitrarily applied with dire consequences. Although controversial, states around the world apply the death penalty and the United States remains an active proponent of this particular form of punishment for what it deems to be the most heinous of crimes. As abolition becomes an important issue around the world, advocates of the death penalty face an uphill battle as important international organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union have recently debated the validity of this particular form of punishment. Accordingly, the European Union, in its Charter of Fundamental Rights, has effectively banned this practice in all of its member states. Seeking to explore the death penalty by arguing that it is an unnecessary form of retribution, this essay will persuasively argue against the death penalty in the United States. Utilizing the case of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, we will show that the potential for a miscarriage of justice is far too great to allow for the death penalty in the United States. Once applied, this particular form of punishment is unfortunately irreversible. As a result the death penalty must be contested (Death Penalty Information Centre 2009). According to the Death Penalty Information Centre, there has been a global trend in recent times to the abolishment of the death penalty. Despite this trend, a handful of countries in the world which continue to use the death penalty as a form of punishment and while 92 countries have now abolished the death penalty (including France, Canada and the United Kingdom), 59 countries worldwide continue to have death penalty legislation on their books. China, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Pakistan remain some of the largest supporters of the death penalty with China the overwhelming leader in total executions worldwide. We now turn to the case of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter and explore a miscarriage of justice which would have been irreversible in the event that capital punishment were inflicted. The Case of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter More than forty years after his convictions for a triple murder, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter remains a controversial and polarizing figure. Imprisoned for nearly twenty years for this alleged role in a shocking shooting spree in New Jersey back in 1966, Rubin Carter has always maintained his innocence. While imprisoned for a triple homicide, the plight of Hurricane Carter was brought to the public’s attention by Bob Dylan, who advocated his innocence and dedicated a song to him in 1975. More recently, his life was immortalized by Norman Jewison in his 1999 blockbuster hit entitled The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington. Released after almost 20 years in prison, Rubin Carter represents for many an example of a miscarriage of justice and of wrongful conviction. Following his release from prison, he was most recently Executive Director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (ADWC) and now spends his time advocating for the wrongfully accused. Rubin Carter, a young man with a juvenile criminal history and an up-and-coming amateur boxer, was implicated in a triple homicide which occurred on June 17, 1966 at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey. According to testimony presented at his trials, at approximately 2:30am two black men entered the bar and started shooting erratically. The bartender, Jim Oliver, and a male customer, Fred Nauyoks, were killed instantly in the gunfire. A female customer, Hazel Tanis, was shot in the stomach, throat, spleen, intestine and left lung. She succumbed to her injuries almost one month after the shooting. Another gentleman in the bar at the time, Willie Marins, was shot in the head but miraculous managed to survive the attack. Although wounded, Willie Marins and Hazel Tanis were important witnesses and both described the shooters to police as two black males. Rubin Carter was not identified by name, nor was his alleged accomplice, John Artis (Hirsch 2000). Although neither Rubin Carter nor John Artis were initially identified by surviving eyewitnesses and although they both passed lie detector tests administered by police following their arrest, both men were charged, tried and convicted by an all-white jury. Despite the fact that he was initially unable to identify the two black men leaving the Lafayette bar the night of the shooting, Alfred Bello testified at the trial of Rubin Carter and John Artis that they were in fact the men he saw leaving the bar. Importantly, his ability to positively identify the two men was brought to the police’s attention months after that fateful night of June 17, 1966. Following the trial, Rubin Carter and John Artis were both convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment (Roberts 2000). After two convictions and just as many appeals, Rubin Carter was finally released from prison following a judgment by Judge Haddon Lee Sarokin of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. He found that both men had not received a fair trial, ordered their release and angrily asserted that their prosecution had been "based on racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure." (Hirsch 2000). In February of 1988, the 22-year old indictment was finally dismissed by New Jersey prosecutors. Exonerated for a triple homicide after more than twenty years in prison, had Rubin Carter been subject to the death penalty, his innocence would have never been known. Concluding Remarks There are many problems with the death penalty. Theses include the arbitrary nature in which it is applied and the cruel and unusual nature of the punishment – the electric chair and lethal injection are both highly cruel punishments – but the fundamental flaw with the death penalty is that there always exists the potential that an innocent person will be put to death. As Rubin Carter now persuasively argues as the Executive Director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, the chance that someone who is innocent will be put to death is far too great a chance to risk it. This is the fundamental flaw with the death penalty and although there are many problems with this form of punishment, the irreversible nature of it as well as the potential that an innocent person could be put to death, should reason enough to abhor it. References Arbitrariness. (2009). The Death Penalty Information Centre 2009. Last Accessed April 04 2009, http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/arbitrariness Court Urged to Return Rubin Carter to Prison. The New York Times (1985, December 20). Hirsch, James S (2000). Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter. New York: Houghton Mifflin Books. Roberts, Randy (2000). Review. The Journal of American History. 87:3, 1167-1168. Rubin Carter: The Man The Authorities Came To Blame. British Broadcasting Corporation (2004, July 4). Read More