Persons Executed for Interracial Murders:White Defendant/Black Victim - 12
.It is much more likely for someone to receive the death penalty and be executed when the victim is white, as opposed to when a victim is of another descent.
.Studies have shown that for every 14 blacks for killing a white person, onlt 1 white is executed for killing a black person.
.Although in some cases blacks commit
more murders than whites, studies still prove that the
amount of executions are still
higher among blacks rather than whites because they are a minority. ( www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=5&did=184#inmaterace
)
"The imposition of the death penalty is racially biased: Nearly 90% of persons executed were convicted of killing whites, although people of color make up over half of all homicide victims in the United States." (National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty)
-INNOCENCE
.Researchers Radelet & Bedau found 23 cases since 1900 where innocent people were executed.
.Retiring Florida Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan said "There are several cases where I had grave doubts as to the guilt of a particular person." Kogan was a homicide detective and prosecutor rising to Chief Justice.
.The amount of innocent defendants released from death row has been increasing over the years. Between 1973 and 1993, there was about 2.5 defendants released. Since then, the average has increased to 4.6 per year.
.In
a1987 study, 350 people convicted of capital crimes were innocent. Some
prisoners escaped, but 23 were actually executed.
."Capital
punishment is societies final assertion that it will not forgive." (Martin
Luther King Jr.)
.There is no evidence that that the death penalty reduces the murder rate. (http://www.dpio.org/Issues/Deterrence.html)
.A
survey by the UN on the relation between the death penalty and homicide
rates concluded, "Research has failed to provide scientific proof that
executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment and such
proof is unlikely to be forthcoming. The evidence as a whole still
gives no
positive support to the deterrent hypothesis..."
-COSTS
.To manage the high cost of death penalty cases, expendituries on highways and police are reduced and taxes are increased.
.A study by
Indiana's Criminal Law Study Commission found that the total costs of the
death
penalty exceeds
the complete costs of life without parole sentences by about 38%. (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=108&scid=7)
.The high
costs within the process of determining someones life is resulted from
factors including:
-a more extensive jury selection proceduure
-a four fold increase in the number of mmotions filed
-a longer, dual trial process
-more investigators and expert testimonyy
-more lawyers specializing in death penaalty litigation and automatic,
mandatory appeals (http://208.55.30.156/facts/other/costly.shtml)
-LEGAL INCOMPETENCE
.In some trials, insufficient evidence is placed before the court in determining the sentence of the charged individual. Therefore numerous people are charged and placed on death row without the proper evidence that clearly points them out as the criminal- possible resulting in numerous innocent people being placed on death row. (www.oocities.org/bgjane_54/anidp2.html)
. In other cases, judges or juries may make mistakes in reviewing the evidence or not clearly understanding the justifications behind some evidence which makes and insufficient decision in determing the rest of someone's life.
.Since 1977 alone, more than 70 condemned prisoners have been released due to credible claims of innocence. And, of the 500 executions since 1997, innocence and wrongful convictions have required the release of one person for every seven executed.
."Almost all
people accused of death-eligible crimes are impoverished and must rely
on court-appointed lawyers to defend them at trial?here is an ever-present
risk that minority defendants may be represented by lawyers who are not
only incompetent, but also openly bigoted." - Killing with Prejudice: Race
and the Death Penalty in the USA Amnesty International Report, May 20,
1999
--NO SUPPORT
.Governments all over the world are doing away with the death penalty. While the world has moved away from the death penalty, recognizing that there is no worthwhile social goal that requires a government to commit state-sanctioned murder, the US continues to accelerate the pace of executions.
.Each year since the 1976, two more nations have added their names to the list of countries that have abolished the death penalty.
.Today, the United States, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia account for over 80% of the executions recorded by Amnesty International.
.Nelson Mandela described state killing as "barbaric".
.Russian President Putin, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and many others have opposed the death penalty, basing their stance on human rights values.
.The Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948 in response to the state brutality and terror occuring during World War II -- recognizes each person's right to life and states that "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".
.In Amnesty International's view, the death penalty violates these rights.
(http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=478)
(www.yahoo.com/search?death+penalty+no+support)
In conclusion......
."Twenty
years have passed since this Court declared that the death penalty must
be imposed fairly, and with reasonable consistency, or not at all, and,
despite the effort of the states and courts to devise legal formulas and
procedural rules to meet this daunting challenge, the death penalty remains
fraught with arbitrariness, discrimination, caprice, and mistake." - Justice
Harry A. Blackmun, February 22, 1994
.The death
penalty is not only unjust, but it is in-humane. Granted, the people placed
on death row have taken another life, but executing them will not allow
that person to return. Revenge is not the other answer.
.Rather that
they spend the rest of their life serving their time in jail, in which
they would have to live the rest of their lives behind bars with a constant
reminder of what they had done. But, executing them does not solve anything
but resulting in yet another lost life.
.Execution
is nothing but another form of murder.
The aftermath of the execution
of Allan Lee "Tiny" Davis in the State of Florida electric chair July 8,
1999.
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