10/19/2019 The Death Penalty: An Opinion Essay | TheSpec.

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The Death Penalty: An Opinion Essay

Community May 30, 2006 Special to The Hamilton Spectator
(May 30, 2006)

The death penalty is a sentence that should be abolished. Should we do to the criminal as they did to the victim? Is there a chance that the accused is innocent? What can be done since the sentence is irreversible?
These are some of the issues with the death penalty.

My first issue is that the justice system is never 100% correct. “Judges and juries can convict the innocent, as we know from the case of Donald Marshall, jailed for more than a decade for a murder he did not
commit.”(143). Most crimes end up with criminals serving jail time. Sometimes people turn up innocent. Because they were only sent to jail and not sentenced to death their sentence can be reversed. A death penalty
is irreversible. The jury is also a factor in determining penalty.

Several times the same crimes are committed and different sentences are given out. A black man may receive the death penalty while a white man can get imprisonment. “In Canada, before the death penalty was
abolished, native Indians, Ukrainians, and French Canadians were more likely to be executed than others.”(141) A jury who consists of those who believe in the death penalty is more likely to vote guilty while one
opposed may vote innocent. They do not want to be held responsible for the death of someone, innocent or guilty.

The death penalty is unjust and morally wrong. When someone murders someone else, the correct punishment is not to murder him or her, but to try and help them. We don’t steal from the thieves, or rape the rapists.
“It would be degrading to the penal authorities. It would appear to condone the crime by repeating it. It would be a wanton cruelty.” (140) Why do we murder the murderers? The death penalty takes focus away from
the victims and focuses the attention on the criminal.

These are just some of the reasons the death penalty should be removed. There are of course many more. With the chance of being innocent, unjust, corrupt, what of the death penalty can be justified? I am strongly
against the death penalty and what it stands for.

*All quotations are taken from “Debating the Death Penalty” by D. Matas and A. Allentuck, contained in “Between the Lines 11”.

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