Should the US Continue Capital Punishment - Admission/Application Essay Example

Should the US Continue Capital Punishment?The societies of Western nations have progressed beyond the United States in many ways including instituting universal health care, reasonable drug policies and by abolishing the death penalty. The U.S. is evidently experiencing it medieval period in that it condones torture and endorses the death penalty; an era European nations are long past. Western society understands the moral, physiological and financial issues involved whereas the U.S. inexplicably does not.

Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice clearly illustrate that the death penalty contains many constitutional flaws. Between 1973 and 1993, almost half (forty-two percent) of inmates awaiting the death sentence had their sentences commuted or reversed. Capital punishment is “a waste of money and resources in producing what turns out to be counterfeit death sentences in almost one out of every two instances” (McCloskey, 1996: 7). Beyond the cost burdens, the physiological impact to a society that considers itself as civil and progressive is tremendous.

This civilized society reconciles the use of the death penalty at its own psychological peril. Capital punishment is ethically and morally objectionable in today’s society. Every life should be valued and that imprisoning a person for life without the possibility for parole is adequate punishment. Revenge is wrong and ultimately more destructive to the value system and very fabric of society than is the crime itself. A nation that considers itself based on Christian values one would think should oppose the death penalty based on religious grounds citing morality as the fundamental issue; however, differing religions and people within those religions have differing opinions.

Christians who live in Europe, for example, tend to oppose capital punishment but in America, they tend to support a practice that is racially biased, overtly costly and does not achieve the intended outcome. Capital punishment opponents claim that wealthy, white criminals are less likely to be executed than underprivileged minority members of society and if the victim is white or wealthy, it is more likely to be imposed. The statistics provide evidence for their claim. Since 1976, 43 percent of executions in the U.S. have been black or Hispanic.

This group accounts for 55 percent of those currently on death row. About half of those murdered in the U.S. are white but 80 percent of all murder cases involve white victims. From 1976 to 2002, 12 whites were executed for killing a black person while 178 blacks were executed for murdering a white person (“Race”, 2003). It would seem that the ‘unusual’ aspect of the death penalty continues to be a valid argument but another aspect must be present for the practice to again be abolished.

“There is ample evidence that the death penalty is applied with a discriminatory impact based on the race of the victim, but a constitutional challenge requires intentional discrimination” (Mello, 1995: 933). Opponents also believe a justice system that disproportionately executes its citizens cannot be considered anything but corrupt which devalues the entire system. The societies in European countries have already formed the opinion that the death penalty is both ‘cruel’ and ‘unusual’ punishment that remains largely ineffectual.

Most European citizens enjoy cradle to grave health care and are much less likely to be incarcerated than those in the U.S. Though there is much evidence to the contrary, American society is growing more compassionate through time. The 1964 Civil Rights Act is but one example of this. One day, it will be a compassionate society that does not use the emotion of revenge to decide its laws and the death penalty will go the way of the Salem witch trials, a barbaric punishment of the distant past.

ReferencesMcCloskey, J. (1996). “The Death Penalty: A Personal View.” Criminal Justice Ethics. Vol. 15, pp. 2-9.Mello, M. (1995). “Defunding Death.” American Criminal Law Review. Vol. 32, pp. 933-1012. “Race and the Death Penalty.” (February 26, 2003). Unequal Justice. New York: American Civil Liberties Union. Accessed November 14, 2009 from