Sarah Hauryski

Persuasive Essay
May 5, 2016
CNN Politics
The Dispute Against the Death Penalty
Former Presidential candidate and Governor of Maryland, Martin O'Malley, said,
The longer we continue to support this expensive and failed policy, the more we fall
short of our values as a people. What he was talking about was the death penalty. When
I first read that in some states people could be put to death for their crimes, I was not only
bewildered, but also troubled. I was in disbelief that a nation as progressive and fair as
the United States could have a law that permitted the use of death as a form of
punishment.
I believe that the death penalty is a cruel and unusual form of punishment that
should not be used on any person, American citizen or not. The United States has a
flawed justice system as is, but I believe that the legalization of the death penalty allows
for irreversible mistakes that the United States should not be comfortable taking.
In previous court cases it has been shown that the death penalty leaves much up to
interpretation and its interpretation depends on who the ruling court is. For example, in
the case of Furman v Georgia in 1972, Furman was burglarizing a private home when a
family member found him. He attempted to flee and in doing so, tripped and fell. The gun
he was carrying went off and killed a resident of the house. Consequently, he was
convicted of robbery and murder and sentenced to death. The question then remained: did
his death sentence constitute cruel and unusual punishment? Was it a violation of the
eighth amendment that protected one against cruel and unusual punishment? The

Supreme Court ruled that, yes it was, and consequently he was taken off death row
(Furman v Georgia). However, only four years later, in the case of Gregg v Georgia in
1976, the jury found Gregg guilty of virtually the same crime that Furman had been
convicted of: robbery and murder. He was convicted and sentenced to death. Four years
later the same question was then brought to the Supreme Court. Did Greggs death
sentence constitute cruel and unusual punishment? The Supreme Court ruled that, no it
was not a violation of the eighth amendment, and later he was put to death. It is not fair
or just that Gregg was punished by death, while only four years prior someone was taken
off death row for nearly the same crime (Gregg v Georgia).
The death penalty should be abolished because it models the behavior that it is
okay to kill as long as it is the government that is doing the killing. New evidence shows
that the death penalty does not decrease the number of murders that occur and as
supported by a graph found on the Death Penalty Information Center, the FBI Unified
Crime Reports show that states with the death penalty have homicide rates 48-101%
higher than states without the death penalty (Bushman 2014).

It has also be found that the death penalty does not deter murder because many
criminals do not get caught, and most criminals do not receive the death penalty. Most
murders have been found to be committed in a fit of rage, after an intense argument,
when people rarely consider the consequences of their actions. Former Attorney General
Janet Reno said: "I have inquired for most of my adult life about studies that might show
that the death penalty is a deterrent. And I have not seen any research that would
substantiate that point," (Bushman 2014).
I believe that the death penalty is an unfair form of punishment as it targets the
poor. Of the 22,000 murders that occur each year in the U.S., about 1% of them result in
death sentences. The 1%, however, depends heavily on the effectiveness of the attorney,
which more often than not depends on the amount of money the accused has. U.S
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, "People who are well represented at
trial do not get the death penalty." Ginsburg also criticized the "meager" amount of
money spent to defend poor people. Interestingly, there are no billionaires or millionaires
on death row (Bushman 2014).
The death penalty also targets minorities. The American Bar Association
conducted a three-year study, which concluded with evidence that black people make up
12% of the U.S. population, but they make up 48% of those on death row. Additionally,
55% of those on death row are people of a minority group. The odds of receiving the
death penalty increase by 38% when the accused is black and 50% of murders involve
white victims, while 80% of death penalty cases involve white victims (Bushman 2014).
Recently, it has been reported that the number of mishandled executions by lethal
injection has increased. The United States used to get their drugs for lethal injections

from Europe, but because the European Union has since abolished the death penalty in
every country, except Belarus, the United States has been forced to try their own
experimental drugs. In Ohio, in 2014, inmate Dennis McGuire received an experimental
lethal injection. This ended poorly for McGuire, as the drug took 26 minutes to kill him
and he physically struggled, choked, and gasped for air (Will, 2015).
What most people do not know is that the death penalty costs more than life in
prison. The death penalty costs a state more money than to implement life in prison
without the possibility of parole. In addition to state costs there are also federal costs; the
federal court system spends roughly $12 million each year on defending death row in
mates in federal court. Most death penalty cases involve a long, drawn out, complex, and
expensive judicial process and it has been found that death penalty cases could cost more
than three times as much as a non-death case. Converting all death sentences to life in
prison without parole would save hundreds of millions of dollars per year in the U.S., and
billions over the upcoming decades (Bushman 2014).
Mistakenly or purposely convicting the wrong person is also a risk that the U.S.
takes every time they sentence someone to execution. Marc Hyden was released from
Louisianas death row on March 11, 2014, after 30 years on death row for a murder he
did not commit. To date, 10 individuals in Louisiana and 144 nationally have been
released from death row because they were wrongly convicted (Hyden 2014). Many
others have been executed despite substantial doubts about the verdict. New research has
found that almost 4% of U.S. capital punishment sentences are wrongful convictions.
According to Von Drehles studies, about 120 of the roughly 3,000 inmates on death row

in American are not guilty, with the conservative estimate of four percent (Von Drehle
2014).
The U.S. is a democracy and because of this, the death penalty should be
abolished. When the government implements the death penalty, it is given more power
than any single person and it further shows that it is okay to kill, as long as it is the
government doing the killing. The government is trying to prevent murders from
happening, yet allows states to execute the convicted. The United States is in the top five
for executions per year, as shown by the graphic below, and the other nations that are in
the top five for executions are nations that are not democratic (Bushman 2014).

I believe that a viable alternative to the death penalty is life in prison without the

possibility of parole. This would allow for a legitimate punishment without taking the
risk of executing an innocent person. It would also allow for people who are a minority
and poor to have a fair and equal trial and therefore not end up on death row at a higher
rate than those who are white and wealthy. Life in prison without the possibility
of parole would save the government hundred and millions of dollars; it would also
eliminate the number of appeals that a specific defendant could exhaust. Life in prison
without the possibility of parole would not violate the eighth amendment, as it would not
constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

The United States, as an entire nation, should abolish the death penalty and switch
to a justice system that would focus on punishing criminals by way of life in prison
without the possibility of parole. This would only be beneficial to the United States and I
believe that it will only advance America in a positive direction.

Citations:
Bedau, Hugo Adam, Ph.D. "The Case Against the Death Penalty." American Civil
Liberties Union. ACLU, 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
Bushman, Brad. "The Death Penalty Is a Flawed Form of Punishment." Death
Penalty. Ed. Nol Merino. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2015.
Current Controversies. Rpt. from "It's Time to Kill the Death Penalty."
Psychology Today (19 Jan. 2014). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 9 Apr.
2016.
Bushman, Brad. "It's Time to Kill the Death Penalty." Psychology Today.
Sussex Publishers, LLC, 19 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
"Furman v. Georgia." Oyez. Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Tech, n.d. Apr 10,
2016.
"Gregg v. Georgia." Oyez. Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Tech, n.d. Apr 10,
2016.
Hyden, Marc. "The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished." Death Penalty. Ed. Nol
Merino. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2015. Current Controversies.
Rpt. from "The Cost of Capital Punishment: Reconsidering the Death Penalty Is a
Matter of Conscience and Constitutionality." Freeman (12 May 2014). Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.
Von Drehle, David. "The U.S. May Have A Lot of Innocent People on
Death Row." Time. Time, 28 Apr. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
Will, George F. "Capital Punishment's Slow Death." Washington Post. The
Washington Post, 20 May 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.