The Death Penalty - Research Paper Example

? Is the Death Penalty Just and Applied Fairly? Is the Death Penalty Just and Applied Fairly? In American politics the issue of deathpenalty remains unresolved and controversial. A report was written by Jeffery Jones in 2002 on the analysis of the American majority claiming the death penalty as applied fairly. The report stated that the Maryland Governor waited for the state’s final call on the racial discrimination in the death sentence cases whereas in Illinois the death penalty system has come to a revamp stage. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court was to make an announcement regarding the law of executing the disturbed or retarded guardians. The issue of capital punishment, more specifically the death penalty, is a topic that can split the American public as far as their view points to two extreme sides. There are those who are against the death penalty and those who are for the death penalty. The death penalty can be such a polarizing topic that there are 16 states that have abolished the death penalty as opposed to the 34 states as well as the United States government and the military supporting it (Jones, 2002). The death penalty can be defined as the taking of a human’s life for their crimes or imposing the punishment of death for their crimes. A question arises that whether this death penalty is just and applied fairly? The death penalty is just and it is applied fairly and according to a Gallup Poll in May of 2002, 7 in 10 Americans agree. There is a vast majority of the Americans who insist on abolishing the death penalty of the mentally retarded at least. Almost 82% of the American population opposes death penalty for this particular group while the rest support the action. The case of Andrea Yates created this ratio in court. She was found guilty of murdering her five children but was mentally ill herself. Nearly 75% of the people opposed death penalty for her. History tells that America has been fairly constant in its decision for death penalty under the age of 21. This has varied over many years. They have refused to be supportive in this regard. In 1965, when 45% favored the death penalty in general, only 21% were in favor of applying the rule on juveniles. During the colonial era of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, England regarded death as a penalty for crimes such as treason, manslaughter, robbery, rape, murder, counterfeiting, arson, burglary, theft – or any capital crimes of the like. The American colonial past and the present followed the same footsteps. Over the period of time it became illogical to apprehend the same punishment for all these crimes, hence it was deduced that only the gravest of crimes will be awarded with death. However, America followed the tradition of refusing to show any understanding towards the minority which denied any such punishment. It is researched that they did not follow the tradition blindly but due to the institutional structure prevailing in the eighteenth century, the role of capital punishment was broader than it is today. As mentioned above, the notion of death penalty varied from state to state. The northern colonial penal codes were more severe than those in England because of the varying religious origins of the colonies (Banner, 2002). Coincidentally, the era of American colonization coincided with the stiffening of the criminal law prevailing in England. The crimes that seemed minor to most of them such as poaching deer, stealing minor amount of cash and the like, started to be regarded as deathly and consequential. Colonies which had a larger number of slaves tried them and punished them for every little crime they did. As long as slavery was common, the system continued to function with more terror and bitterness. Much was done out of racial differences. Blacks were accused and caught for crimes more frequently. The crimes that were committed by the whites were left unattended in most cases. What was to be done with such kind of inequality? Execultions of the criminals were conducted on the roads for better implementation and inducing fear in the public. This was done in hope that such cases would not be repeated by anyone in the future. This execution was not only forward looking but also allowed the community to repent and feel guilty for the crimes that had been committed in the past. This went hand in hand with the teaching of the Old Testement which stated that the land could only be cleansed by the blood of the man who shed the bled of the other meaning whoever was responsible for committing a false act on the land had to pay the price (Banner, 2002). A typical example of the death penalty which was wrongly enforced on a white American in 1976 who was accused of ruthlessly murdering a young women he used to hang out with. Ray Krone was born in 1957 and is the hundredth being who was exonerated from death row. At the time when he was convicted of the crime he was pro for death penalty and staunchly believed in the law for criminals. Today he works towards abolishing the death penalty because he realized that there might be many people who might have been wrongly abused and executed in the process. His experience brought the police force into new light. The investigation bureau has a tendency of blindly accusing the victim at the moment their clues start to fix into place. Focusing on one victim who is accessible leads to negligence on the part of the police. The same thing happened with Ray whose accusation was so close to the sketch of the criminal that the police did not stop to consider anyone else fitting the same criminal role (Kurtis, 2004). In an interview with a former death-row inmate from Oklahoma, Michael Selsor, it was revealed that he was the first person who was recently executed after a very long time after being sentenced in 1976 for committing a murder. The death sentence was changed to life because of the reversal of the death penalty in Oklahoma. However, he was again sentenced to death in 1998 after being imprisoned for 36 years. He was interviewed in 2010 for the first time and asked the difference between the two penalties he experienced in his life. He said that “the only difference between death and life without parole is one you kill me now, the other one you kill me later. There’s not even a shred of hope. There’s no need to even try to muster up a seed of hope because you’re just gonna die of old age in here....With the death penalty sentence I’m entitled to more appeals - the government’s gonna pay for it. I don’t have to do it myself if I don’t have the money for a lawyer which I don’t have. Instead, I’m relying on public defenders to do my appeals.” On being asked how he was dealing with the fact that he would soon be executed he told the interviewer that he would keep his head high and not beg the law to release him. This means he was welcoming death and ready to face it. This story at present triggers a sense of relief on the part of the criminal but also leaves a question in the minds of the people against the death penalty system. If the man was convicted of the crime more than 30 years ago and has been sentenced to death today, how has he realized his mistake? Is he repenting for his crime he was accused for or is he willing to face death like a challenge? In Selsor’s case, it is obviously the latter preference (deathpenaltyinfo.org). Since 1970s, the National Association of Attorneys General, the National District Attorneys Association and the Washington Leagal Foundation have played a part in endorsing death penalty in America. Even some of the religious organizations such as the Pentecostal and Fundamentalist churches along with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the biblical grounds support the death penalty system. On the other hand, the opposition of the death penalty system has been nationally organized by American Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment, American League to Abolish Capital Punishment and the NCADP which consists of many national and state affiliations. Death penalty debate has been on-going for several years where some influential figures claim to expand and retain the death penalty system while others refute the case with the aid of humanity related philosophy (Bedau, 1997). Current problems pertaining to the system of death penalty revolve around racial issues as stated by the information on Death Penalty website: “A new study conducted by researchers at Duke University found that the racial composition of jury pools has a profound effect on the probability of a black defendant being convicted. According to the study led by Professor Patrick Bayer of Duke, juries formed from all-white jury pools in Florida convicted black defendants 16 percent more often than white defendants. In cases with no black potential jurors in the jury pool, black defendants were convicted 81 percent of the time, while white defendants were convicted 66 percent of the time. When at least one member of the jury pool was black, the conviction rates for white (73%) and black (71%) defendants were nearly identical.” (deathpenaltyinfo.org) The arguments presented above are mainly dealing with the issue of whether death penalty should be regarded as legal or unethical. The death penalty is a polarizing topic that has the American public as well as the international community split on both sides of the aisle as to whether or not it is just and if it is applied fairly. The death penalty has been around since the XVIII century B.C. It has come and gone, has been challenged and even abolished in some locations internationally as well as in some of the United States. The death penalty is a punishment that is used to punish those who have committed the most heinous crimes in society. Coupled with the American justice system, the death penalty is a punishment that is just and can be applied fairly and the American public agrees. Initially, the case of death penalty seemed to be unjustly connected with a particular race while overlooking the whites who were equally involved in serious crimes. Even today in some parts of the world the situation is the same. Women and children are treated with the same punishment irrespective of their mental health. The punishment lays stress on repenting as a community for the past mistakes that have been over shadowed and abstinence from getting involved in crimes. References Banner, S. (2002). The death penalty: An American history. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Bedau, H. A. (1997). The death penalty in America: Current controversies. New York: Oxford University Press. Death Penalty Information Center Statistics and Facts. Retrieved April 22, 2012 from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ Kurtis, B. (2004). The death penalty on trial: Crisis in American justice. New York: Public Affairs. Jones, Jeffery M. Slim Majority of Americans Say Death Penalty Applied Fairly. Retrieved April 23, 2012 from http://www.gallup.com/poll/6031/Slim-Majority-Americans-Say-Death-Penalty-Applied-Fairly.aspx Read More