The Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

The death penalty is corporal punishment in the United States for most states. There are some states that think the death penalty isn’t needed. The other states believe it’s fast and easy. There are legal issues regarding the applications of the death penalty. The states that do not approve of the death penalty know that the death penalty gives some of the worst offender’s publicity that they do not deserve. Killers are thrown out to the media for what they did wrong when they do not deserve any recognition for what they have done to the innocent lives of others. In cases like Furman vs. Georgia in 1972, Furman was fighting against the state saying that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment. He mentions that it was in violation of the 8th and 14th amendment. Some of the Justices in the majority stated that the death penalty has been disproportionately imposed and carried out on the poor, black, and the members of the out crowd groups. The death penalty is cruel and unusual if it discriminates …show more content…
Each year some states send innocent people to death row who have been wrongly convicted. Since the beginning of 1973, 151 people have been released from death rows throughout the country due to evidence of their wrongful convictions. In 2003, 10 convicted defendants were released from death row. In such cases you would not want to sentence an innocent man/female to death. For example, Michael Blair vs. Texas After serving 14 years on Texas’ death row for a murder he did not commit, Michael Blair was exonerated and released in 2008 when a series of DNA tests proved his innocence. Blair was the 17th person in the United States who spent time on death row and was subsequently exonerated by DNA testing. After the fact George w. bush passed and signed a law name Ashley’s law led state lawmakers to expand the punishment for sex offenders, in an effort to prevent murders like the murder of Ashley