Capital Punishment

Sentenced to Die

When the question arises regarding the death penalty, I would say that I am in favor depending on the circumstances. I firmly believe that anyone who takes the life of another for no other reason than being pure evil should not be given the right to live. The only problem I have with the way the death penalty is handed out is that it is not consistent. Being rich or poor should not be a determining factor in whether or not a cold-blooded killer lives or dies, neither should race.

Thirty-eight states have the death penalty. There have been over seven hundred executions since 1976 in the United States. Seventeen of those have taken place in North Carolina. The scariest thought I have is that innocent people have been killed. A recent death penalty study of over four thousand cases between 1973-1995 concluded that serious error in nearly seven out of ten capital sentence cases were found and that death sentences were being overturned in two out of three appeals. Errors have risen since 1996, when President Clinton signed into law a one-year limit on the time inmates have to appeal to federal courts after exhausting their appeals in state courts. I could not imagine knowing that I was innocent and having to fight a race with time to prove my innocence (Moore).

There are presently one hundred eighty-nine people on death row in North Carolina. One hundred and six of those are black men. Recent studies have shown that African Americans and persons from low socioeconomic classes are more likely to receive a death sentence than affluent Caucasians convicted of similar crimes. This is the part of the death penalty that I feel is inconsistent and it appalls me. Unbiased principles should apply to all people. Murder is murder no matter how financially fit you are. The law should be the same for both persons able to financial support their own litigation or those who need public defenders. When someone commits a crime, there should be consequences that are the same for everyone (Griffin).

The enormous expense involved with the death penalty raises another issue. In the most comprehensive death penalty study in the country, Duke University found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million more per execution than a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of life in prison. It seems like such a tremendous cost to pay for the upkeep of these inmates. If there is no reasonable doubt and the crime fits the punishment, it should not take years and years until the execution (www.deathpenaltyinfo.com).

I am in favor of the death penalty providing