Krystal Marquez
5/13/2015
Death Penalty
The death penalty is by far one of the worst punishments to anyone and I believe it is wrong. The death penalty is a sentence for mostly murder crimes,but for some of the worst crimes. The ones in charge of sentencing is mostly Congress or the state legislature. The death penalty has caused a lot of controversy. Although it can have pros the death penalty shouldn't be a punishment for many reasons, because at the the death penalty interferes with our morality, violates our constitutional rights, may cause irrevocable mistakes, and also the cost of death, vs. life in prison can be far very expensive. The death penalty is beneficial to our morality, the reason being is the death penalty is a punishment to those who rape, torture, kidnap, murder, on those who have been proved guilty. In this situation the state honors human dignity by defending an innocent victim, this may be good but by law the government should never take a humans life regardless the cause. The death penalty is against our morality because the question debates between should a person who commits these crimes deserve to die or does the state deserve the right to kill them. This is against or morality also because the state tends to treat you differently if you're rich and guilty than being poor and innocent. Then the death penalty just becomes an act of inequality between criminals.
The constitution defends the death penalty because the law is that a human cannot be killed with any method that can result in pain. So the state has come up with different ways to have the death penalty done. The reason this is still wrong is because the state came up with a new Lethal injection that still causes pain. The lethal injection is a dose of drugs designated to kill you. Not only it is one injection but three, one is designated to make the inmate fall asleep, the second is to paralyze the entire muscle system and the third stops the heart. The inmate then dies from an overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest. The state uses this shot because the inmate dies unconsciously. The death penalty is wrong by the constitution because it is a permanent punishment. It is unconstitutional for the state to take possession of a humans life.
Although the death penalty is used for good reasons the death penalty can be an irrevocable mistake. There can be possibilites where innocent people can be accused for crimes they didn't commit. Many cases involve testimonies from other people that can be used as evidence. This evidence isn't very accurate at all because research shows that eye witness cannot identify, or remember a face at a quick glance. Also cases where even victims can't identify the suspect. Another reason the death penalty can be an irrevocable mistake is because no evidence can ever be 100% accurate. Even though there hasn't been many mistakes done that possibility still exists. The chance of making a mistake should be a cause to remove the death penalty. According to the U.S senator, Russ Feingold, errors have been shown 1 out of 7 inmates who were executed were innocent. The possibility of that one person being innocent shows how the mistake can happen to anyone. And even then, a guilty person could be found innocent from lack of evidence. All a civilized union should do is keep people alive by protecting everyone whether guilty or innocent.
The death penalty is wrong because it influences our morality, violates our constitutional rights, and causes irrevocable mistakes. Not only that but the cost of the death is more expensive than life in prison. A death from the death penalty cost is about $2 million per inmate compared to $1 million in life in prison. With the $1 million dollars saved from death penalties, that money can be used to help inmates become better people. The money that is being thrown away with every death, could be invested in rehabs, support to the victims, for student education and improvement of the state. The expense of the death penalty is too high, for an easy punishment to criminals. Some inmates may not be innocent and therefore shouldn't have an easy way out. Life's can be taken away, and dying won't make you a better person or give you an opportunity to make things right, or be emotionally aware that what you have done is wrong. Inmates should be kept in prison for life, the reason being is, the only way you can learn from your mistakes is by being punished as you attempt to make things right. People can change, and the government shouldn't talk that chance away from anyone.
Many people believe that capital punishment should not be abolished but how is the law going to teach us that killing an inmate is ok if they killed? They say it's a good thing that convicted murders are on death row because prisons are getting over crowded so if they kill them there is more space for the inmates, instead of using millions of dollars to execute someone use that money to built more prisons. With this excuse of killing the inmates so there is more space just shows how the death penalty is mostly being used for that only. The constitution shows how it is wrong to kill, but it's only okay to kill prisoners because the prisons are overcrowded. “Society is benefited by terminating inmates who purposely take lives” was a quote used by someone who defends death penalty. Just because the a human makes the choice of taking a life does not give states the right to take their life. Yes he/she needs to get punished but execution is not the answer. They say it's a good idea to kill the killer so he doesn't kill again but isn't that why he's incarcerated? So he/she isnt out in in the streets murdering. You can not kill a human being in the name of justice, that is not justice that is getting even, there is a huge difference. In our society they teach about freedom, and when we choose to do something by law we get our freedom taken away but when did our life have to be taken away. I believe our freedom should definitely be taken away, but not our life. Two wrongs don't make a right.
The death penalty has been in action for centuries and ever since then there has always been many innocent people convicted of a crime they didn't commit. Over 100,398 people have been killed from 1968-2015. Over 1,000 innocent people have been executed from 1976-2015. Some examples of innocent people being charged have been the cases of Carlos DeLuna convicted in Texas, Troy Anthony Davis convicted in Georgia, Larry Griffin convicted in Missouri, and Claude Jones convicted in Texas, who were all given the death sentence.
Carlos DeLuna, born March 15, 1962 in Corpus Christi, TX. was convicted of murder for the killing of a 24 year old gas station attendant on February 4, 1983. DeLuna was executed in Texas by the Lethal Injection on December 07, 1989. An investigation published by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review in May 2012 claims the large amount of evidence proves that Carlos DeLuna was innocent and the actual murder was Carlos Hernandez who lived in a nearby neighborhood and looked similar to DeLuna. How immoral can it be to lose your life because you look like someone else? Getting your life taken away because not enough evidence was collected to realize they were holding back the wrong inmate, but by the time the state found the real murder, Carlos DeLuna was gone and there was no way to bring him back. But if life in prison would have been an option Carlos DeLuna would have had a new opportunity to be free.
Another example of unfair justice was Larry Griffin. He was born September 23, 1954 was convicted for the murder of Quintin Moss. On June 26, 1980 in St. Louis, Missouri, 19 year old Quintin Moss was shot and killed in a drive by-shooting. Larry was executed on June 21, 1995 by the Lethal Injection. A report by the NAACP says that several eye witnesses to the crime claim that Larry Griffin was not responsible for the crime. There was no fingerprints of Griffin on the weapon or the car that were involved in the shooting of Moss. Robert Fitzgerald a White career Criminal who was at the scene at the time of the murder says he saw 3 black men along with Griffin, that's when griffin shot Moss using his right hand. Larry Griffin was Left-handed. Two other witnesses confirmed that Griffin did not commit the murder and were able to name the three men who did. the Investigators concluded that Griffin was innocent. The three men were charged with murder and are now in Prison. But why weren't those men sentenced equally and got the death penalty as well. The death penalty shouldn't be used unfairly either. The state shouldn't pick and chose who gets killed when committing the same crime.
States lose so much money executing inmates, why can't they just give the inmates life without parole and use the millions, sometimes even billions of dollars to fix streets, get more bus drivers, for education, drug and alcohol treatment, victims of abuse, even mental health services. Since January 1, 2015 approximately 3,019 inmates have been on death row. The top states with the max amount of inmates to be put on death row are California with 743 inmates, Florida with 403 inmates. The states with the minimum of inmates on death row are New Mexico with 2 inmates, and New Hampshire with only 1 inmate.
Although the lethal injection has been approved because the inmates die concisely there are different ways to used to execute. For example the electric chair, Firing squad, gas chamber, and hanging.
The electric chair was first used in New York in 1888 on William Kemmer for murdering his wife. Dr. Albert Southwick suggested that that the electrocution would be a good idea because he had seen someone touch the terminals of an electric generator and they died “painlessly”. When someone is on the Electric chair they shave their legs and strap them to the chair with belts across their chest, groin, legs, and arms. A metal skullcap shaped electrode is put on to the top of the scalp and forehead with a sponge moistened with saline. The sponge can not be too wet or too dry. The prisoner is then blindfolded, the warden gives the executioner the green light to pull the handle to connect the power supply, for 30 seconds volts between 500-2000 are given. When that is done the body starts to relax, during that time the doctors check to see if they need to give it another try. If so another jolts of volts is applied until the inmate is deceased. During the process sometimes limbs can dislocate or fracture, they start to steam or burn, their tissue swells up and there are times when eyeballs pop and hang. by the end of the executions the prisoner usually vomits blood and drool, and urinates. A deputy chief medical examiner said “the brain appears cooked in most cases”
Firing squad is a backup plan just in case the state was not able to get the drugs for the lethal injection execution. Firing squad was reauthorized on March 23, 2015. Inmates can choose whether they want to be executed by firing squad before the lethal injection is chosen.
Inmate Ronnie Gardner choose to be die by firing squad on June 17, 2010. The prisoners are tied up to a chair with leather straps across his head and waist in front of a canvas wall, there are sandbags surrounding the chair to absorb the blood of the inmate, the head is covered with a black hood. A white cloth is put on the heart of the inmate by a doctor to locate where the the shooters must shoot. Five shooters are 20 feet away with 30 caliber rifles loaded with single rounds. the shooters shoot through a slot on the canvas and fire at the inmate. The inmates heart or blood vessels rupture and dies of blood loss or the lungs tear. If the shooters miss the heart the prisoner bleeds to death slowly and painfully. This inhumane procedure rarely kills the person at contact it takes a couple of tries and the prisoner can feel everything and dies a slow and painful death.
5/13/2015
Death Penalty
The death penalty is by far one of the worst punishments to anyone and I believe it is wrong. The death penalty is a sentence for mostly murder crimes,but for some of the worst crimes. The ones in charge of sentencing is mostly Congress or the state legislature. The death penalty has caused a lot of controversy. Although it can have pros the death penalty shouldn't be a punishment for many reasons, because at the the death penalty interferes with our morality, violates our constitutional rights, may cause irrevocable mistakes, and also the cost of death, vs. life in prison can be far very expensive. The death penalty is beneficial to our morality, the reason being is the death penalty is a punishment to those who rape, torture, kidnap, murder, on those who have been proved guilty. In this situation the state honors human dignity by defending an innocent victim, this may be good but by law the government should never take a humans life regardless the cause. The death penalty is against our morality because the question debates between should a person who commits these crimes deserve to die or does the state deserve the right to kill them. This is against or morality also because the state tends to treat you differently if you're rich and guilty than being poor and innocent. Then the death penalty just becomes an act of inequality between criminals.
The constitution defends the death penalty because the law is that a human cannot be killed with any method that can result in pain. So the state has come up with different ways to have the death penalty done. The reason this is still wrong is because the state came up with a new Lethal injection that still causes pain. The lethal injection is a dose of drugs designated to kill you. Not only it is one injection but three, one is designated to make the inmate fall asleep, the second is to paralyze the entire muscle system and the third stops the heart. The inmate then dies from an overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest. The state uses this shot because the inmate dies unconsciously. The death penalty is wrong by the constitution because it is a permanent punishment. It is unconstitutional for the state to take possession of a humans life.
Although the death penalty is used for good reasons the death penalty can be an irrevocable mistake. There can be possibilites where innocent people can be accused for crimes they didn't commit. Many cases involve testimonies from other people that can be used as evidence. This evidence isn't very accurate at all because research shows that eye witness cannot identify, or remember a face at a quick glance. Also cases where even victims can't identify the suspect. Another reason the death penalty can be an irrevocable mistake is because no evidence can ever be 100% accurate. Even though there hasn't been many mistakes done that possibility still exists. The chance of making a mistake should be a cause to remove the death penalty. According to the U.S senator, Russ Feingold, errors have been shown 1 out of 7 inmates who were executed were innocent. The possibility of that one person being innocent shows how the mistake can happen to anyone. And even then, a guilty person could be found innocent from lack of evidence. All a civilized union should do is keep people alive by protecting everyone whether guilty or innocent.
The death penalty is wrong because it influences our morality, violates our constitutional rights, and causes irrevocable mistakes. Not only that but the cost of the death is more expensive than life in prison. A death from the death penalty cost is about $2 million per inmate compared to $1 million in life in prison. With the $1 million dollars saved from death penalties, that money can be used to help inmates become better people. The money that is being thrown away with every death, could be invested in rehabs, support to the victims, for student education and improvement of the state. The expense of the death penalty is too high, for an easy punishment to criminals. Some inmates may not be innocent and therefore shouldn't have an easy way out. Life's can be taken away, and dying won't make you a better person or give you an opportunity to make things right, or be emotionally aware that what you have done is wrong. Inmates should be kept in prison for life, the reason being is, the only way you can learn from your mistakes is by being punished as you attempt to make things right. People can change, and the government shouldn't talk that chance away from anyone.
Many people believe that capital punishment should not be abolished but how is the law going to teach us that killing an inmate is ok if they killed? They say it's a good thing that convicted murders are on death row because prisons are getting over crowded so if they kill them there is more space for the inmates, instead of using millions of dollars to execute someone use that money to built more prisons. With this excuse of killing the inmates so there is more space just shows how the death penalty is mostly being used for that only. The constitution shows how it is wrong to kill, but it's only okay to kill prisoners because the prisons are overcrowded. “Society is benefited by terminating inmates who purposely take lives” was a quote used by someone who defends death penalty. Just because the a human makes the choice of taking a life does not give states the right to take their life. Yes he/she needs to get punished but execution is not the answer. They say it's a good idea to kill the killer so he doesn't kill again but isn't that why he's incarcerated? So he/she isnt out in in the streets murdering. You can not kill a human being in the name of justice, that is not justice that is getting even, there is a huge difference. In our society they teach about freedom, and when we choose to do something by law we get our freedom taken away but when did our life have to be taken away. I believe our freedom should definitely be taken away, but not our life. Two wrongs don't make a right.
The death penalty has been in action for centuries and ever since then there has always been many innocent people convicted of a crime they didn't commit. Over 100,398 people have been killed from 1968-2015. Over 1,000 innocent people have been executed from 1976-2015. Some examples of innocent people being charged have been the cases of Carlos DeLuna convicted in Texas, Troy Anthony Davis convicted in Georgia, Larry Griffin convicted in Missouri, and Claude Jones convicted in Texas, who were all given the death sentence.
Carlos DeLuna, born March 15, 1962 in Corpus Christi, TX. was convicted of murder for the killing of a 24 year old gas station attendant on February 4, 1983. DeLuna was executed in Texas by the Lethal Injection on December 07, 1989. An investigation published by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review in May 2012 claims the large amount of evidence proves that Carlos DeLuna was innocent and the actual murder was Carlos Hernandez who lived in a nearby neighborhood and looked similar to DeLuna. How immoral can it be to lose your life because you look like someone else? Getting your life taken away because not enough evidence was collected to realize they were holding back the wrong inmate, but by the time the state found the real murder, Carlos DeLuna was gone and there was no way to bring him back. But if life in prison would have been an option Carlos DeLuna would have had a new opportunity to be free.
Another example of unfair justice was Larry Griffin. He was born September 23, 1954 was convicted for the murder of Quintin Moss. On June 26, 1980 in St. Louis, Missouri, 19 year old Quintin Moss was shot and killed in a drive by-shooting. Larry was executed on June 21, 1995 by the Lethal Injection. A report by the NAACP says that several eye witnesses to the crime claim that Larry Griffin was not responsible for the crime. There was no fingerprints of Griffin on the weapon or the car that were involved in the shooting of Moss. Robert Fitzgerald a White career Criminal who was at the scene at the time of the murder says he saw 3 black men along with Griffin, that's when griffin shot Moss using his right hand. Larry Griffin was Left-handed. Two other witnesses confirmed that Griffin did not commit the murder and were able to name the three men who did. the Investigators concluded that Griffin was innocent. The three men were charged with murder and are now in Prison. But why weren't those men sentenced equally and got the death penalty as well. The death penalty shouldn't be used unfairly either. The state shouldn't pick and chose who gets killed when committing the same crime.
States lose so much money executing inmates, why can't they just give the inmates life without parole and use the millions, sometimes even billions of dollars to fix streets, get more bus drivers, for education, drug and alcohol treatment, victims of abuse, even mental health services. Since January 1, 2015 approximately 3,019 inmates have been on death row. The top states with the max amount of inmates to be put on death row are California with 743 inmates, Florida with 403 inmates. The states with the minimum of inmates on death row are New Mexico with 2 inmates, and New Hampshire with only 1 inmate.
Although the lethal injection has been approved because the inmates die concisely there are different ways to used to execute. For example the electric chair, Firing squad, gas chamber, and hanging.
The electric chair was first used in New York in 1888 on William Kemmer for murdering his wife. Dr. Albert Southwick suggested that that the electrocution would be a good idea because he had seen someone touch the terminals of an electric generator and they died “painlessly”. When someone is on the Electric chair they shave their legs and strap them to the chair with belts across their chest, groin, legs, and arms. A metal skullcap shaped electrode is put on to the top of the scalp and forehead with a sponge moistened with saline. The sponge can not be too wet or too dry. The prisoner is then blindfolded, the warden gives the executioner the green light to pull the handle to connect the power supply, for 30 seconds volts between 500-2000 are given. When that is done the body starts to relax, during that time the doctors check to see if they need to give it another try. If so another jolts of volts is applied until the inmate is deceased. During the process sometimes limbs can dislocate or fracture, they start to steam or burn, their tissue swells up and there are times when eyeballs pop and hang. by the end of the executions the prisoner usually vomits blood and drool, and urinates. A deputy chief medical examiner said “the brain appears cooked in most cases”
Firing squad is a backup plan just in case the state was not able to get the drugs for the lethal injection execution. Firing squad was reauthorized on March 23, 2015. Inmates can choose whether they want to be executed by firing squad before the lethal injection is chosen.
Inmate Ronnie Gardner choose to be die by firing squad on June 17, 2010. The prisoners are tied up to a chair with leather straps across his head and waist in front of a canvas wall, there are sandbags surrounding the chair to absorb the blood of the inmate, the head is covered with a black hood. A white cloth is put on the heart of the inmate by a doctor to locate where the the shooters must shoot. Five shooters are 20 feet away with 30 caliber rifles loaded with single rounds. the shooters shoot through a slot on the canvas and fire at the inmate. The inmates heart or blood vessels rupture and dies of blood loss or the lungs tear. If the shooters miss the heart the prisoner bleeds to death slowly and painfully. This inhumane procedure rarely kills the person at contact it takes a couple of tries and the prisoner can feel everything and dies a slow and painful death.