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The Death Penalty
Natasha
Mr. Martinez
Honors Civics (Per.5)
21 November
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Death Penalty Must Die Out
The Death Penalty is a malicious punishment that is being put to practice to our
citizens of this nation. The Death penalty has brought more violence to our society, rather than
decreasing such an immoral action. In addition, the Death Penalty has wrongly affected the
innocent, the poor, and the minorities, that portrays the judicial system as imperfect as well.
Aside from these factors, death penalty can be viewed as a punishment that is very closed
minded and unjust. There have been groups of people, such as the Jewish Social Policy Action
Network (JSPAN) program, who contain an alternative rather than the death penalty policy. Even
though there have been shocking cases in history where the court system has come across
citizens, who have acted completely immoral upon their own society, the death penalty should
still be abolished because of imprudent, unnecessary violence, its killing’s towards the
innocence, and of its closed minded resolution.
A. Violence is Not the Solution
a. We waste too much time on deciding what death penalty the criminal should be
punished with and how it should be done.
i. The Prison Councils should research where the motifs came from and also help the
ominous actions that the citizen has committed and help for them to be restored as a
new, good member of society.
b. Death Penalty has brought more Violence.
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i. First of all the death penalty policy has set a bad example because of how it’s
fostering a culture of violence. In a way it makes us all killers.
ii. For example, the War of Iraq wasn’t completely resolved, showing a factor that
violence doesn’t always conclude in the best form.
B. Injustice has come from the Death Penalty.
a. There have been cases where innocent, poor people and minorities have
suffered from the death penalty policy.
i. For example, in the “Troy Davis” case he was convicted for a crime that many
people believed was false.
1. People in this case are still hoping for justice to be taken, by not
wanting for the judge to put Troy on the death row.
C.
Alternatives have been found for the Death Penalty.
a. It has been implied by other present programs to the death penalty policy that
crime satiations can be solved in a different and progressive method.
i. The JSPAN program has proven to the judicial system that there are different
possibilities of resolving punishments for criminals.
1. JSPAN program has offered for a criminal’s life to be transformed
a positive change, so then they can be known as a good member
of society.
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The Death Penalty is known to be one of the most controversial
issues that is still being debated till this day and it has been verified to be a brutal punishment
that should be abolished because of its violent nature. The judicial system has set a bad
example of violence for the U.S. Nation and has taken the easy way out by applying the death
penalty. Many times history itself has shown that the innocent, the poor, and the minorities
have suffered unfairly and dreadfully from the death penalty policy. It has shown how the
death penalty has closed- minded solutions instead of using another alternative resource for
crime situations.
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Natasha
November 11, 2010
Hon. Civics (Per.5)
Death Penalty Must Die
The Death Penalty is one of the most controversial issues that is argued today, in
America. According to statistics and evidence, the death penalty policy has been proven as a
malicious punishment that is putting to practice towards the criminals of this nation. The Death
Penalty has brought more violence to the society of the United States, rather than decreasing
such an immoral action. In addition, the Death Penalty has wrongly affected the innocent, the
poor, and the minorities, portraying the judicial system as imperfect, as well. Aside from these
factors, the death penalty can be viewed as a punishment that is very closed minded and
unjust. There have been groups of people, such as the Jewish Social Policy Action Network (JSPAN)
program, who include an alternative punishment towards criminals, rather than allowing for
the death penalty policy to take place. Even though the court system has come across shocking
cases in history, where people have acted completely immoral to the citizens of this nation, the
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death penalty should be abolished because of its unnecessary violence, its killing’s towards the
innocence, and of its closed minded solution.
In the Thompson v. Oklahoma case, it has revealed how there are heinous people in this
world who have committed real evil, ominous acts towards others. “The victim was the
brother-in-law, who he accused of beating his sister. He and three others beat the victim, shot
him twice, cut his throat, chest, and abdomen, chained him to a concrete block and threw the
body into a river where it remained for four weeks. Each of the four participants was tried
separately and all were sentenced to death. In a 5-3 decision, four Justices ruled that
Thompson's death sentence was cruel and unusual.” (Reggio, paragraph # 30). The criminal act that
these young adults committed were truly, plain immoral and it has no justification because of how their
victim was tortured and murdered to death. Instead of sentencing these for criminals to death, their
lives could have been changed in prison by implementing a program, that was costumed designed
specifically for their actions and their ages in which researches can find the roots and motifs that lead to
this horrible crime. By providing research, statistics can help learn to discover how and why, crimes in
general are being committed daily, which can help prevent and decrease such crimes that occur in
society. In the Thompson v. Oklahoma case, they were sentenced to death; scientists or researches will
never truly be able to investigate and help resolve such actions that occurred in the Thompson v.
Oklahoma case and not be able to help for these negative motives to stop continuing.
People in this world justify themselves or others in court cases are taken place by the
“Golden Rule” (an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth); this represents how there are people
that do believe that justice has to be marked in this world. Violence is not the solution for
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anything, such as the War of Iraq that is occurring right at this moment because the explicitly
concept of war is just a way of promoting and provoking more violence to its viewers. In the
War of Iraq it has resulted, for the country of Iraq, to still not comprise an established
democracy and this act of violence, just ended in a bloody war, where many young soldiers had
died from it, which can be proved according to this recent article. “The fall of Iraq's brutal,
powerful dictator unleashed a wave of celebration, then chaos, looting, violence and ultimately
insurgency. Rather than quickly return power to the Iraqis, including political and religious leaders
returning from exile, the United States created an occupation authority that took steps widely blamed
for alienating many Iraqis and igniting Sunni-led resistance.”(Myers, paragraph #16). Another
statement why violence isn’t the solution for anything is because of the bad example it is
setting towards the citizens of the U.S., here confirmed by this quote. “The death penalty never
brings back the victims of violent crime, but it makes all of us killers by proxy--and gives our
government the ominous power to decide which citizens may live and which citizens may
die."(Head, paragraph #10). The quote clearly states the death penalty is not quite setting the
best example for the society of the United States. The judicial system is expressing savage
actions because of how criminal punishment is being acted upon, towards its own nation and
needs to establish a good change for how criminal punishment is resolved. Violence never
results in the best conclusion and doesn’t conclude in the best solutions. There should be other
alternatives that the judicial system can promote, rather than the death penalty.
In the judicial system, there have been times where a mistake has been made, of
putting an innocent person on the death row, where in the end it has been too late for that
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human’s life. There are people who are fighting for the injustice of the innocent, such as the
case for “Troy Davis.”“Troy's journey to death row began in the summer of 1989, when he was
arrested in connection with the killing of an off-duty police officer outside a Burger King
restaurant in Savannah, Georgia.” (Jealous, paragraph #5). But a close examination of the case
indicates there was no physical evidence that tied him to the crime, no weapon was ever
recovered and seven of the nine eyewitnesses have recanted or changed their original
testimony in sworn affidavits, citing alleged police coercion. (Jealous, paragraph #6).Troy was
convicted for a crime, which many people believed he was truly innocent. This article has
shown how throughout the judicial system there have been, cases where people in the end
were actually proven innocent. It is the unjust reality of the death penalty that in our nation
there are more than 3,300 people withering on the death rows, men and women who are
almost universally poor, disproportionately African-American and in some cases innocent.
(Jealous, paragraph #10). This case expressed the injustice that had and was occurring, for
that the poor, a large group of minorities, and the innocent people. In the “Troy Davis” case it
proved how wrongness took place in the this court case and also for these three groups of
people.
The judicial system has come across programs that have been presented for an abolition
of the death penalty policy, for example, the JSPAN program. The JSPAN program is determined
to put an end to the death penalty policy by beginning to offer punishments progressive
principles for criminals. This open-minded alternative has shown how criminals who join this
program can really rearrange their lives into a better aspect, which can then turn them into a
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good member of the society, rather than disposing of their sinful lives, which refers back to the
JSPAN program." Our position is compelled by a moral imperative, our belief that the death
penalty is immoral and constitutes an unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment that is at
odds with our best traditions, fosters a culture of violence, and teaches our children the
wrongheaded lesson that the way to settle scores is through violence, even to the point of
taking a human life."(JSPAN, paragraph #2). The JSPAN program has taken action and is
determined to prove that there are other alternatives that can lead into a positive change
rather than using the death penalty for our criminal punishment. It has been has proven that
the judicial system can begin to put to practice this alternative punishment for its criminals,
rather than just using the death penalty policy to solve any crime situation. The death penalty
isn’t fostering a good culture of discipline in our whole nation and that it must be changed. The
judicial system can help move forward the country’s future, by providing better alternatives,
such as the JSPAN program is proposing, rather than using the appalling death penalty policy.
The Death Penalty is known to be one of the most controversial issues that is still being
debated till this day and it has been verified to be a brutal punishment that should be abolished
because of its violent nature. The judicial system has set a bad example of violence for the U.S.
Nation and has taken the easy way out by applying the death penalty. Many times history itself
has shown that the innocent, the poor, and the minorities have suffered unfairly and dreadfully
from the death penalty policy. It has shown how the death penalty has closed- minded
solutions instead of using another alternative resource for crime situations.
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Works Cited

ProCon.org. "Death Penalty Policy Center." DeathPenalty.ProCon.org. N.p., 11 Nov.
2008. Web. 12 Nov. 2010.

Jealous, Benjamin T. "Death row inmate's rare chance to prove his innocence."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/22/jealous.death.penalty/index.html?ir
ef=allsearch [Savanna, GA]. 22 June 2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2010

Randa, Laura E, and Micheal H. Reggio. Society's Final Solution: A History and Discussion
of the Death Penalty. 1st ed. University of America, Inc, 1997. History of Death Penalty.
Web. 16 Nov. 2010.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/readings/history
.html

Myers, Steven L. "Iraq." The New York Times. N.p., 11 Nov. 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2010.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/iraq/index.h
tml?scp=1&sq=war%20of%20iraq&st=cse
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