Senior Paper
Senior Paper
Senior Paper
Gianna Battaglia
Ms. Billotte
Academic English 12
09 October 2020
The death penalty is the irreversible punishment of execution that is used for only the most
extreme crimes, such as murder (aggravated, violent or premeditated), kidnapping (that results in
death), drug trafficking, and treason. The main technique of the death penalty is lethal injection.
While there are other options such as; electrocution, gas inhalation, hanging, and a firing squad.
The death penalty has too many inconsistancies that make enforcing it biased and unfair to people
who commit the same crimes and get a less extreme senetencing. Many people still sit on death
row today and it is a cruel and unusual punishment for an individual who could potentially be
innocent. The death penalty should be abolished due to the possibilty of executing an innocent
The death penalty is an outdated and flawed punishment that is hardly used anymore.
Capital Punishment addresses the fact that, “The United States is one of the few nations that
punishes some crimes by death and the only constitutional democracy that does so. The Federal
Criminal Code imposes capital punishment for treason and some murders, as do the criminal codes
of approximately two-thirds of the states” (Graber 196). The United States is one of the only
places that actually uses the death penalty as a form of punishment. Other areas of the world have
grown from this and realized the cruel ideas behind capital punishment. Capital Punishment also
emphazies that, “Most northern state legislatures abolished capital punishment for crimes other than
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murder. Michigan became the first state to abolish capital punishment altogether in 1846. A few
states followed” (Graber 197). More states are realizing that the death penalty is wrong. The
northern states of the United States see the wrong in it, while other states still see it as a reasonable
form of punishment.
Capital punishment is used for specific and horrible crimes but there is room for mistakes
within these decisions. Confess or Die: Why Threatening a Suspect with the Death Penalty should
Render Confessions Involutary starts off with, “First, execution is irrevocable. Second, the death
penalty is the most severe punishment imposed by the criminal justice system,” (Morehouse 531+).
This shows that the death penalty is the highest and an irreversible punishment for those who
commit a crime. The court is given complete power over an individual’s life while there is room
for there to be error in this decision. Crime and Punishment explains that, “State and federal laws
vary; however, some capital offenses include aggravated murder, or murder that is premeditated
and violent; kidnapping that results in the victim’s death; certain high-level drug trafficking–related
offenses; and treason” (“Capital Punishment”). Capital punishment is saved for only a select few
crimes. The death penalty should just be abolished to elimate any room for error when coming to
False confessions are very likely due to interrogation tactics. Confess or Die: Why
Threatening a Suspect with the Death Penalty should Render Confessions Involuntary makes the
case of the Norfolk Four, “Because the crime at issue involved the rape and murder of a young
woman, all four men faced the death penalty under Virginia law if convicted. The police used this
to their advantage and threatened the men with the death penalty during the interrogations. The
police told them that the only way to avoid the death penalty was to confess. Under the threat of
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the death penalty, the Norfolk Four falsely confessed to a crime they did not commit” (Morehouse
531+). The Norfolk Four were found innocent about twenty years later. They were forced to
confess to a crime that none of them ever committed and this has happened in plenty of other cases.
Police are capable of obtaining a false confession with certain scare tactics during interrogations.
Confess or Die: Why Threatening a Suspect with the Death Penalty should Render Confessions
Involuntary emphasizes that, “One study on false confessions revealed that eighty-one percent "of
the innocent defendants [in the sample] who chose to take their case to trial were wrongfully
convicted 'beyond a reasonable doubt' even though their confession was ultimately demonstrated to
be false” (Morehouse 531+). Even with evidence to prove that an individual was innocent, they
were still wrongfully convicted because their false confession is seen as the above all when it
comes to evidence to a jury. Confess or Die: Why Threatening a Suspect with the Death Penalty
should Render Confessions Involuntary addresses that, “First, execution is irrevocable. Second, the
death penalty is the most severe punishment imposed by the criminal justice system. For these
reasons, the threat of the death penalty can be especially coercive in eliciting false confessions”
(Morehouse 531+). The death penalty is the highest form of punishment an idivudual can recieve.
This high threat can be used to scare someone to falsely confess in order to escape the death
penalty.
Wrongful convictions are a possibility for any case. “A Dying Shame: The State is not
God, and the Death Penalty is not Infalliable” presents that, “The Innocence Project has estimated
that anywhere from 2 to 5 percent of currently incarcerated Americans are innocent. Given that
there are about two million people behind bars today, that roughly translates into 20,000 wrongly
convicted people” (Rizer and Hyden 47+). There are plenty of wrongful convictions that can
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occur within the justice system. “A Dying Shame: The State is not God, and the Death Penalty is
not Infalliable” furthers this point with, “We know individuals are wrongfully convicted--and to be
sure, some wrongful convictions are unavoidable. However, when dealing with capital
punishment, that inevitability could have irreversible consequences and can never be tolerated in a
free and law-abiding society” (Rizer and Hyden 47+). With the chance of being wrong, the
ultimate punishment of death should not be an option. It is already proven that innocent
individuals are incarcerated, so innocent lives could end up being given the capital punishment.
There are plenty of cases along with the Norfolk Four that furthers innocent and wrongful
convictions. As previously stated, Confess or Die: Why Threatening a Suspect with the Death
Penalty should Render Confessions Involuntary addresses that the Norfolk Four, “Each confessed
to the crime, "alter[ing] their confessions to accommodate details fed to them by the police." Nearly
twenty years later, a federal judge vacated two of the convictions. Less than a year later, Virginia
Governor Terry McAuliffe pardoned the four men” (Morehouse 531+). The Norfolk Four is a
famous case of four false confessions driven by scare tactics that were proven to be false twenty
years after. Confess or Die: Why Threatening a Suspect with the Death Penalty should Render
Confessions Involuntary also states, “a false confession led to a wrongful conviction is that of
Christopher Ochoa, who was convicted of the rape and murder of a young woman in Texas. In Mr.
Ochoa's case, the police told him that he would receive the death penalty unless he cooperated,
going so far as to "show him photos of death row" and "point out the spot on his left arm where
the needle would be inserted” (Morehouse 531+). Mr. Ochoa’s case is another example of a
conviction that was later proven to be wrongful. He was coerced with the police’s scare tactics and
Racial bias can be spotted throughout capital punishment sentences. Capital Punishment
observes, “Among other factors, the races of both the victim and the defendant were found to
influence sentencing. Despite comprising less than 15 percent of the US population, African
Americans comprised more than half of the nearly four thousand people executed from 1930 to
1967 and 90 percent of those executed for rape” (“Capital Punishment”). Race has been shown to
influence an individual's sentencing. This makes it so the death penalty is biased. It should not be
used due to it being unfair towards other races. “A Dying Shame: The State is not God, and the
Death Penalty is not Infalliable” explores, “a 19th century North Carolina law mandated the death
penalty when a black man raped a white woman, but gave a maximum punishment of one year in
prison to a white man for the same crime” (Rizer and Hyden 47+). A white man got away with a
one year sentence for the same crime a black man would get the death penalty for. Although it is
an old law, there was racial bias involving the death penalty and still is today. “A Dying Shame:
The State is not God, and the Death Penalty is not Infalliable” stresses that, “a Justice Department
study established that, between 1930 and 1972, when an individual was sentanced to death for the
crime of rape (a crime that no longer carries the death penalty), 89 percent of the defendants put to
death were black men. More disturbing was the fact that in every rape execution case, the victim
was white. Not one person received a death sentence for raping a black woman, despite black
women being up to 12 times more likely to be rape victims” (Rizer and Hyden 47+). Racial bias
can be seen within the study. Many more black men were put to death compared to white men for
committing the same crimes. Also, black rape victims were more likely to be assulted, yet no one
General bias can also be seen within death penalty convictions. Capital Punishment
informs the reader that, “The Supreme Court in Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 ( 2002 ), ruled
that mentally [ill] persons may not be executed, and in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 ( 2005 ),
that the death penalty may not be imposed when the defendant is under eighteen at the time of the
murder” (Graber 198). Not everyone can be killed for committing the same crime. It makes it
unfair or biased with who can be executed and who gets a life sentence instead. “Death Penalty
Focus” reviews that, “According to the Criminal Justice Project of the NAACP, there are 2,620
people on death row…[and] there are 53 women on death row in the United States as of January 1,
2020” (“Death Penalty Focus”). There are many people who just sit on death row awaiting their
punishment. Also, there are only 53 women out of 2,620 people who are on death row. This
could be seen as unfair and biased since women do not get as harsh of a punishment as a man
Capital punishment creates a lot of unnessecary costs. “A Dying Shame: The State is not
God, and the Death Penalty is not Infalliable” found that, “In the 1990s, Richardson County,
Nebraska, mortgaged their ambulances to fund two death cases and Jasper County, Texas, raised
property taxes by 7 percent to finance capital proceedings. In response, many states have since
shifted much of the financial burden from the local to the state level, but the high costs remain.
More recently, numerous cost studies have examined the death penalty's expense and found that it
far outweighs the price of life without parole” (Rizer and Hyden 47+). There is a much higher cost
when the death penalty is not abolished. A life sentence is a safer and more cost efficient way to
deal with high crimes. “Death Penalty Focus” presents California’s death penalty with,
“...taxpayers spend $150 million every year to support a system that has killed 13 people in since
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1978 and no one in the last decade...The state’s Legislative Analyst’s office estimates that
California would save $150 million a year if it replaced the death penalty with a sentence of life
without parole” and “Studies of the California death penalty system, the largest in the US, have
revealed that a death sentence costs at least 18 times as much as a sentence of life without parole
would cost” (“Death Penalty Focus”). If all of the United States made the switch to life sentencing
and abolishing the death penalty, costs would go down. That saved money could be used to
The opposing side views the death penalty in a dfferent way, although it can be proven to
be incorrect. Capital Punishment says, “Supporters of capital punishment argue that it deters
people from committing capital crimes and represents ultimate justice in criminal cases involving
intentional murder” (“Capital Punishment”). Some say that it deters criminals from committing
crimes, but this is simply not true. “A Dying Shame: The State is not God, and the Death Penalty
is not Infalliable” proves this with, “Daniel Nagin and John Pepper's 2012 publication, "Deterrence
and the Death Penalty," was the largest-ever survey of deterrence studies. After conducting their
examination, the authors concluded that no evidence exists to suggest that the death penalty serves
as a general deterrent to murder. In fact, when analyzing homicide rates between states that share
difference between murder rates in states with or without the death penalty” (Rizer and Hyden
47+). The death penalty is proven by one of the largest studies done to not deter individual’s from
committing crimes. In fact, “Death Penalty Focus” concludes, “Regions with the most executions
also have the highest murder rates. What’s more, in states that have repealed the death penalty,
there has been no subsequent spike in murder rates. In fact, the murder rate has fallen in New York,
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New Mexico, Illinois, and Connecticut in the years after they repealed the death penalty” (“Death
Penalty Focus”). Death penalty does not deter crime or keep people safer. It seems to be as it gets
abolished, safety of the people either stays relatively the same or actually increases. Capital
Punishment furthers the opposing side by pointing out, “Abolishing capital punishment would be
unconstitutional because the Fifth Amendment authorizes its application as long as "due process of
law" has been followed” (“Capital Punishment”). The opposing side believes it goes against their
fifth amendment, however it also goes against the eighth amendment. Capital Punishment also
states, “The death penalty should be abolished because it is applied arbitrarily and violates the
Eighth Amendment's protection against "cruel and unusual punishment" by the state” (“Capital
Punishment”). The punishment of death should be seen as a cruel and unusal punishment,
therefore making the death penalty unconsititutional. Capital Punishment considers, “They believe
murderers do not deserve to be punished by death because the vast majority of murderers are at
least partly influenced by such background elements as abuse and poverty, which the murderer
could not control. The death penalty, in their view, is based on destructive desires for revenge and
fails to accept that all persons are capable of rehabilitation” (Graber 199). There is always another
side. Criminals with specific backgrounds could be mentally ill from their own past experiences.
The ultimate decision of the death penalty should not be used due to not knowing someone’s
background.
The abolisment of the death penalty is a necessary and essential step to ensuring no bias in
sentencing. There is too much room for error for the capital punishment to be enforced. It is also
more cost efficient for the United States to get rid of the death penalty and to only give out life
sentences. The death penalty has to be removed everywhere for the justice system to be fair
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towards every individual life and to ensure no innocent life can be executed due to a forced false
Works Cited
"Capital Punishment." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Gale In Context:
"Death Penalty Focus." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2020. Gale In
al., vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2016, pp. 196-200. Gale eBooks,
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3629100087/GVRL?u=pl2127&sid=GVRL&xid=7a6c6
Morehouse, Lauren. "Confess or Die: Why Threatening a Suspect with the Death Penalty should
Render Confessions Involuntary." American Criminal Law Review, vol. 56, no. 2, Spring
Rizer, Arthur, and Marc Hyden. "A Dying Shame: The state is not God, and the death penalty is
not infallible." The American Conservative, vol. 17, no. 6, Nov.-Dec. 2018, p. 47+. Gale