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Alana Ramos

Sir. Guy Gagnier

English 9 Honors P4

6 March 2020

Putting An End To The Death Penalty

Governments around the world have many different controversial practices that create

commotion in society. A common governmental practice that causes controversy is the Death

Penalty. The Death Penalty is the sentence to death due to harsh crime. Since the 1990s, Capital

Punishment or the Death Penalty has been around. It is a very controversial governmental

practice that has been abolished and accepted in many different states. There have been multiple

treaties and agreements when it comes to this practice but it is currently still legal in 14

countries. The death penalty should be illegal in all states because it is an immoral punishment

that some can’t avoid and it is an irreversible act.

When looking at the death penalty and the cases in which it has been used, it is seen how

it is mostly cases which include minorities like African American people, and Latinos. When

looking at minorities in today’s world, it is common to see them living with more consequences

than others. These are the people that can't avoid this immoral punishment because they are the

easier targets due to their lack of resources. This tends to happen because White people are more

prone to having good lawyers, and a lot of money which helps them avoid punishments such as

this one. According to Kamala Harris a United States Senator “Your race or your bank account

shouldn’t determine your sentence.” This goes to show how currently someone's role in society
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takes a big part in the way their life goes on when in reality it shouldn’t. In today's society it is

evident that money means power and people live very differently based on their race. This can be

seen in cases like Carlos de Luna's case in 1983. When looking at de Luna’s case it is seen that

after the murder of Wanda Lopez, a gas station attendant, he was falsely acussed and put to death

due to a murder he had no involvement in. Even though he claimed the murderer was Carlos

Hernandez, police insisted he did not exist and the wrong Carlos was put to death (“Latinos and

the Death Penalty”). After Carlos de Luna’s death, more evidence arose and it was proven that he

was in fact not guilty. Although police knew he was innocent it was too late to do anything since

Carlos had already been put to death. The death penalty should not be allowed in any state

because although it is very unfortunate, it is very common to have innoccent people die because

of this punishment, and after being proved innocent there is nothing that can be done to reverse

such cruel actions.

Apart from this being an irreversible act, it is a punishment that clearly goes against the

8th amendment of the United States Constitution. The eight amendment states the following:

“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual

punishments inflicted.” The death penalty goes against this amendment since it is an excessively

cruel punishment being inflicted on the prisoner sentenced to it. According to Thurgood Marshal,

a fromer Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States “Capital punishment

violates the Eighth Amendment because it is morally unacceptable to the people of the United

States at this time in their history” (“Should the Death Penalty Be Allowed?”). This indicates that

the death penalty goes against all morals and people should work to keep it banned in all
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countries and states. Not only does it go against one of the United States Constitution

Amendaments but is is incredibly hipocritical to try to teach a murderer a lesson to not murder

by killing him as well. Not only is it a violation of the amendment, but also an issue that has been

spoken about publicly in the Supreme Court. “Punishment is cruel and unusual if it is too severe

for the crime, arbitrary, is rejected throughout society, and is not more effective than a less

severe penalty” (Bushman). When looking at Capital Punishment it is clearly something that is

rejected throughout society since people senteced to it are most likely murderers themselves so

this is clearly an offense to the amendement and it should be banned everywhere.

On the contrary, when looking at the death penalty as a solution to the cruel crimes some

believe that it is a very necessary punishment and that it should be impossed in every country.

Some see this as the right way to solve problems because of the “An eye for an eye” mindset

which teaches them to look at the death penalty as a solution with justice. According to George

Braucheler, a District Attorney in Colorado, “The repeal of the death penalty treats all murders

as the same. Once a person commits a single act of murder, each additional murder is a freebie.

That is not justice.” (“Should the Death Penalty Be Allowed?”). If the prisoners don’t get a

punishment like this one, they are allowed to keep doing the same since they are already seen as

murderers and the punishment will most likely stay the same with or without more

assassinations. Adding on, “The death penalty honors human dignity by treating the defendant as

a free moral actor able to control his own destiny for good or for ill; it does not treat him as an

animal with no moral sense, and thus subject even to butchery to satiate human gluttony.”

(“Should the Death Penalty Be Allowed?”). The death penalty is seen as an honor to dignity
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because it provides the ability to act on personal destiny and it is the right solution because it is

normal for humans to not treat animals with any moral sense so why should it be different when

it comes to humans themselves?. Although the death penalty can be used to stop assasins and it

can honor human dignity, it should be illegal because it is a discriminatory, immoral and non

reversible act.

All in all, even though some see the death penalty as the correct way to punish criminals,

it is something that is morally incorrect and it should be banned from all countries. When the US

Constitution was created there was a set of laws that were made to be imposed on the whole

country and this governmental practice clearly violates one of these laws. When looking at the

death penalty it can be seen that it will never be the right solution. This is because killing a killer

will only make another killer. When trying to show that harsh crimes like murder should be

avoided it is not reasonable to look to murder as the solution to stop these crimes. Not only is the

death penalty a horrid way to solve problems, it is unfairily imposed, it is irreversible, and people

should never look to death as the solution to any problem.

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MLA Bibliography

“Latinos and the Death Penalty”. Equal Justice USA. Equal Justice USA, 9 Dec. 2019.

https://ejusa.org/resource/latinos-and-the-death-penalty/​. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.

“Should the Death Penalty be allowed?”. ProCon. ProCon, 26 Mar. 2019. ​https://deathp

enalty.procon.org/questions/should-the-death-penalty-be-allowed/​. Accessed 4 Mar.

2020.