Hamby 1

Connor Hamby

McLaughlin

English 12

25 September 2020

Capital Punishment: Closing the Gates on Criminals’ Lives

Prison is a place that holds criminals of various crimes. Most criminals serve their time

in years, be it only a year, or up to a life sentence, but what about the worst criminals?

Murderers often get a different sentence than life in prison; they often get capital punishment, for

the heinous crimes they commit. Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, it is the

killing of criminals for their crimes. It is still an active form of punishment today; since 1976,

when the Death Penalty was reintroduced, there has been around 1,524 executions in the US as

stated in a document released by ​The Death Penalty Information Center.​ However, killing

another human is never just; regaurdless of crime killing criminals will only inflict pain onto

another family, Therefore, Capital Punishment should be abolished because it breaks several

laws and acts, it is overly expensive, and does not deter crime.

To start, the death penalty is dated back to times of Babylon, where criminals were

punished with an “eye for an eye” mentality. According to the an article released by ​Amnesty

titled “​We know that, together, we can end death penalty everywhere”​ fifty-six countries,

including the US use the Death Penalty. There are many different execution methods, such as

firing squad, hanging, gas chambers, and electrocution; however, the most common method is

lethal injection (“Facts”). In countries other than the US, the death penalty is mandatory for
 Hamby 2

certain crimes. Also, some countries abuse the death penalty, using it as a political tool,

executing political rivals (“We know that…”).

There is another issue with Capital Punishment, especially when it breaks several laws

put into place when this country was being formed. Not only are laws of the United States

broken, there are international laws as well. The international human rights law prevents the

execution of people under the age eighteen; yet, ten countries including the US have violated this

law (“We know that…”). Furthermore, the death penalty breaks the Constitutional Amendments

put into place by our forefathers. As shown in the ​procon​ article “Should the death penalty be

aloud?” The Eighth Amendment states that punishments shall not be cruel and unusual, but death

is not considered cruel? Another more overlooked amendment that is violated by capital

​ uthor of the article ​“How

punishment is the Sixth Amendment. According to ​Dan Villalba, A

Catholics can render the death penalty unconstitusional”,​ The Sixth Amendment is the right to

an impartial jury. Unfortunately, various groups of people go under represented in juries, such as

Catholics. One of the foundations of Christianity is the execution of Jesus Christ, where he is

crucified, which is Christ getting the death penalty. The sixth commandment states ,“Thou shalt

not kill.” Therefore, capital punishment would violate the Bible. The Pope once spoke out

against Capital Punishment: “no matter how serious the crime that has been commited, the death

penalty is inadmissable because it is an attack on the inviolability and the dignity of the person,”

(Villalba). Because of their beliefs, Catholics are being underrepresented in capital juries

because they as a group generally are against the penalty (Villalba). Outside of the

Amendments, it is illegal to execute inmates with disabilities, according to ​The Equal Justice
 Hamby 3

Initiative,​ forty-four people have been put to death with disabilities, and 20% of people on death

row have mental disabilities.

As an example of various laws being broken, Native American Lezmond Mitchel was

recently executed; according to the ​New York Times ​author ​Haily Fuchs,​ writer of ​“Justice Dept.

Executes Native American Man Convicted of Murder.” ​he is the first Native American to be

executed using capital punishment. Additionally, the victim’s family had spoken up against the

death penalty, along with hundreds of Native American citizens pleaing to spare him. The

Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 gives Native American Tribes the option to opt into the death

penalty, however Navajo Nation has opted out. The Navajo Nation requested a life-in-prison

sentence. Because there was only one member of Navajo Nation on the jury, they were

underrepresented. The death sentence was only achieved by using loopholes in the Federal

Death Penalty Act. Most importantly, the sentence disregards Tribal Sovereignty (Fuchs).

Some may say that capital punishment deters crime, but there are several records stating

that it does not. The police have ranked the death penalty last among ways to reduce crimes

(“Facts”). In fact, capital punishment is the last priority for fighting crime (Equal Justice

Initiative). US southern states have consistently had the highest murder rate every year, along

with 80% of capital executions. If the death penalty deters crime, then there should be a

decrease in murders, but this has not happened. The north east has less than 0.5% of all

executions has the lowest murder rate in contrast (“Facts”). From the perspective of a potential

murderer, a criminal may think he will not get caught in the act and will not get punished;

therefore, the thought of the death penalty would not even cross a criminals mind and would not

deter him (“Should the Death Penalty be allowed”).

 Hamby 4

Capital trials are expensive. Many believe that death row is much cheaper, saving

money, but that is not the case. The death penalty costs three times more than a single cell with

one inmate, max security, for forty years. For example, in Kansas, the average death penalty

trial costs $400,000; meanwhile, the average trial without considering death penalty is $100,000

(“Facts”). Not only are the trials overly expensive, but they are unfair to the defendant on death

row. In a trial, there are plenty of faulty witnesses, misleading evidence, and perjury (Equal

Justice Initiative). Among this, there is the previously mentioned underrepresentation in the jury.

These trials are often racially biased as well. A multitude of studies have shown that black

immates have been shown to be more likely to get the death penalty (“Facts”). Death row

inmates cannot afford effective lawyers, and some appointed capital attorneys have actually

fallen asleep in the middle of court (Equal Justice Initiative).

With ineffective and unfair trials comes innocent lives being wrongly convicted and put

to death. There have been around 171 wrongfully convicted executions that were later found

innocent. The average wrongful conviction rate is 3.5 per year since 1973; however, this peaked

with a rate of 7.6 per year between 1999-2004 (“Facts”).

Very few people actually have had to deal with the murder of a loved one, so it is

understandable for wanting vengeance. The death penalty often the way people can take their

vengeance. The death penalty is said to be given to the worst of the worst. While people have

the right to want vengeance against the criminal, but is celebrating the life of a human by killing

one right? All that the death penalty will cause is pain for another family (“Should the Death

Penalty Be Allowed”).
 Hamby 5

Because it breaks several constitutional laws, is generally uneffective, immoral, with

unfair juries and overpriced trials, capital punishment should be abolished. It only causes pain

for families; without it, there is no longer a need to worry that innocent people will be executed.

It is time to end this unethical practice and fix the criminal justice system.
 Hamby 6

Works Cited

Equal Justice Initiative. “Death Penalty.” ​Equal Justice Initiative, 2​ 020,

eji.org/issues/death-penalty/. Accessed 9 Sept. 2020.

“Facts about Death Penalty.” ​deathpenaltyinfo.org,​ Death

Penalty Information Center, 8 September 2020, files.deathpenaltyinfo.org/

documents/pdf/FactSheet.f1599571382.pdf. Accessed 9 Sept. 2020.

Fuchs, Hailey. “Justice Dept. Executes Native American Man Convicted of Murder.” ​New York

Times. ​26​ A
​ ug. 2020.

www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/us/politics/lezmond-mitchell-executed.html.

Accessed 8 Sept. 2020.

“Top 10 Pro & Con Arguments should death penalty be allowed?.” ​Procon.org, ​Procon.org, 9

Dec. 2016. deathpenalty.procon.org/top-10-pro-con-arguments/. Accessed 9 Sept. 2020.

Villalba, Dan. “Duren, Pope Francis, and the Death Penalty: How

Catholics can render the Capital Jury Selection Process

Unconstitutional.” ​American Criminal Law Review​, vol. 57, no. 4, Fall 2020,

p. 1663+. ​Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints​,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A627506530/OVIC?u=pl2127&sid=OVIC&xid=1

b8b1d6b. Accessed 3 Sept. 2020.

“We Know That, Together, We Can End Death Penalty Everywhere.” ​Amnesty International,

2020, www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/death-penalty/. Accessed 9 Sept. 2020.