Death Penalty Paper

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  • Topic: Capital punishment, Capital punishment in the United States, Lethal injection
  • Pages : 4 (1584 words )
  • Download(s) : 550
  • Published : June 6, 2012
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Lauren Wade
Mr. Joubert
Criminal Justice
23 May 2012
The Good, the Bad, and the Death Penalty
Capital punishment and the death penalty can be dated all the way back to 1750BC and the Code of Hammurabi. Since then the death penalty has become more of a specified punishment than just for a broad class of crimes. No more are the days where one can be executed for stealing a loaf of bread or robbing a neighbor. Instead, one can only be sentenced to death for murder in the first degree. The ways of execution have also become more humane. There are no longer public viewings of beheadings or hangings. Rather, the criminal put to death is injected with a number of toxins in a private room where only a selected few can look on. Many states have abolished the death penalty all together while others have changed their standards to make it less barbaric. The death penalty is an inhumane, immoral injustice in America and should be abolished completely from the United States.

The death penalty may seem as if it is the right punishment in some cases, but in totality it should not be allowed in any circumstance under law. The death penalty is favorable to certain people who are undergoing a criminal trial in the court system. In the movie Dead Man Walking, Hilton Barber, Mr. Poncelet’s defense lawyer, says that there are no rich people on death row because the rich can hire a good lawyer that will do everything they can to keep the rich man off death row. This is not true for poorer people who cannot hire a good lawyer and therefore are appointed one by the state who does not know what they are doing. (Robbins) The death penalty is more likely to be given to someone who is poor because they cannot hire a good lawyer to gather the correct evidence to counter the prosecution and keep the defendant from being pronounced guilty. Mr. Poncelet was appointed a tax lawyer who knew nothing about criminal law and that was a very important reason why he was on death row. Just...
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