Index So, where is capital punishment legal in the United States and has it been shown to be effective in deterring crime? What are the flaws in the capital punishment system that make it unjust and cruel? Is life without parole a more advantageous alternative to capital punishment? Conclusion: I recently watched “The Exonerated” and noticed that there are several issues regarding capital punishment. Capital punishment, which is the lawful execution of a prisoner, is another expression of the death penalty. To learn more about capital punishment and how the issues raised in the film apply to our current US society, I decided to do my own research report on this topic. My guess is: “Capital punishment is an unjust and cruel system that should be abolished in the United States.” My three key questions to prove my hypothesis are; Where is capital punishment legal in the United States and has it been proven effective in deterring crime? What are the flaws in the capital punishment system that make it unjust and cruel? Is life without parole a more advantageous alternative to capital punishment? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay So, where is capital punishment legal in the United States and has it been proven to be effective in deterring crime? The Sun article titled “On Death Row: Which American States Still Apply the Death Penalty?” states that capital punishment is legal in 28 states, having been abolished in 22 states since it became legal in the United States. It also states that there has been a decline in support for capital punishment over the years. According to Gallup, public support for the death penalty has declined dramatically, from 80% in the mid-1990s to just 55% in 2020. This data makes me feel relieved and gives me a sense of hope that our society is recognizing the flaws of the death penalty. the capital punishment system and will soon be abolished in all states of the United States. A report by the American Civil Liberties Union titled “The Case Against the Death Penalty” states: “the death penalty is not a viable form of crime control.” When asked to rank the most effective methods for reducing crime, police chiefs ranked the death penalty as the least effective in terms of deterrence. They said the most effective factors in reducing crime rates were “curbing drug use and putting more officers on the streets, longer sentences and gun control.” This shows that the death penalty has not had a significant impact on crime deterrence in the United States. The most popular argument in favor of the death penalty is that the threat of execution has a greater impact on criminal behavior than incarceration. I disagree with this argument because the vast majority of capital crimes are committed under conditions of extreme emotional distress or under the influence of drugs or alcohol when rational thinking is impaired. This means that violence is often perpetrated by those who are unaware of the implications for themselves and others, implying that the threat of execution does not influence their decision to commit violent crimes. Furthermore, since most capital crimes are committed in the heat of the moment, it is difficult to see how the threat of punishment can deter an unpremeditated crime. I think all of this information clearly demonstrates that capital punishment does not solve America's crime problem. States where the death penalty is legal do not have lower criminal homicide rates thanstates where the death penalty is illegal. Between 2000 and 2010, states that practiced capital punishment had rates 25-46% higher than states that did not. The author argues that the reason for this is because “a return to the practice of the death penalty weakens the social basis of inhibitions against the use of lethal force to resolve disputes.” Although the death penalty guarantees that the convicted will not commit further crimes, there is no evidence that it has a deterrent effect on society. All this evidence reveals that the most popular argument for the death penalty is flawed, as it has demonstrated no effectiveness in deterring crime in the United States. This leads me to consider if the death penalty does not deter crime, what is another good reason to explain how it positively impacts society? I believe that the millions of dollars paid for these executions should be allocated to several areas that would benefit and improve the criminal justice system in the United States. By abolishing the death penalty, more time and money could be devoted to addressing the root causes of crime, such as mental health, housing, access to education and long-term employment opportunities. This information helps further prove my hypothesis that “capital punishment is an unjust and cruel system that should be abolished in the United States” because once these issues are addressed, it would help create safer communities and possibly prevent future crimes. What are the flaws in the capital punishment system that make it unjust and cruel? A report by the Equal Justice Initiative titled “Death Penalty” states: “the death penalty in America is a flawed and costly policy, defined by bias and error.” This source is reliable because it contains relevant information and is an official government website. The author argues that the death penalty system in the United States treats the wealthy and guilty better than the disadvantaged and innocent. I agree with this statement because the quality of a defendant's legal team is the primary factor in determining whether or not he or she will be sentenced to death, and hiring an effective lawyer is expensive. Because most defendants facing capital charges cannot afford to hire an attorney, they are assigned attorneys who are usually overworked, underpaid, and inexperienced in death penalty cases. Few states in America provide sufficient funding for capital defense consultants, meaning there is a serious lack of resources for investigations and expert assistance. This means that these appointed lawyers often fail to conduct thorough investigations, call witnesses and challenge forensic evidence, resulting in death sentences for large numbers of innocent people. Since 1973, 1,532 people have been executed in the United States, of which 183 inmates have been exonerated and freed from the death sentence. This shows that for every nine people executed, one person on death row was innocent. I find that not having adequate funding for the capital defense lawyer is a solvable excuse. I believe that insufficient funding for capital defense lawyers is an unacceptable reason why innocent people are placed on death row. I also believe this is a reflection of humanity prioritizing the wrong things. This is because these innocent prisoners are subject to long-term physiological harm, which could have been prevented if our society had prioritized improving the broken justice system in the United States. This article also states that “people of color are more likely tobe prosecuted for capital murder, sentenced to death, and executed, especially if the victim in the case is white." The author argues that the death penalty in America is a “direct descendant of lynching.” I agree with this because at Likewise, an article written by Emmaline Soken-Huberty titled “5 Reasons Why the Death Penalty is Wrong” states: “When researchers dig deeper, they discover patterns of discrimination based on race.” 13% of the US population, make up over 40% of prisoners sentenced to death. I think all this information clearly shows that the capital punishment system in the United States is biased and full of errors on capital punishment you emphasize that the death penalty is unjust and cruel and must be abolished in the United States and should cause our society to lack trust in the United States criminal justice system. The article “Botched Executions: Infamous Examples of Trouble on Death Row” written by Crystal Ponti, explains the cruelty and effect that botched executions have on a prisoner. I find this source to be reliable as it was published in August 2020 and contains recent and relevant information from a qualified journalist. According to Austin Sarat, professor of law and political science at Amherst College and author of Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions “A botched execution is an execution that does not follow legal protocol or, more importantly, does not fit what could be defined as the standard operating procedure”. It is estimated that approximately 3% of all executions in the United States between 1890 and 2010 were botched. These estimates show that the prisoner execution process in the United States is seriously flawed. When executions fail, the result is a long and extremely painful death that causes the prisoner to suffer immensely. Although lethal injection is the most “humane” option, it has the highest error rate. This article documents several failed or incorrect executions. One such botched execution occurred on July 23, 2014, when Joseph Wood was executed by lethal injection. Joseph Wood should have died within 10 minutes of receiving his first shot, but it took two agonizing hours due to a violation of Arizona protocol. The blame for this botched execution was placed on the fact that the state had used a new cocktail of lethal drugs. This proves to me that this is cruel punishment as several witnesses stated that for an hour and forty minutes Joseph continued to pant, swallow and struggle to breathe. I also believe that these botched executions should receive more attention and not be described as a slight admission error. According to Sarat, history has shown that it is unlikely to find a safe method of taking a human life during execution. I agree with this statement as it is in our nature for humans to make mistakes, so as long as humans are responsible for the process, there is always the risk of human error. This information demonstrates that the process of executing a prisoner is cruel, causing great suffering if performed incorrectly, and it is unlikely to execute a prisoner without complications every time. According to a report titled “Aging Death Row: Is It Executing the Old or Cruelly the Infirm Inmates?” written by Kim Chandler, The death row population in the United States is aging. There are approximately 2,800 people on death row in prisons across the United States, of which approximately 1,200 are over the age of fifty. It is claimedoften that executing someone who is mentally fragile or whose medical condition might complicate the execution procedure is cruel. This article provides information about the case against someone serving a death sentence named Vernon Madison. Vernon Madison is sixty-seven years old and has served decades on death row. He was convicted in 1985 of the murder of a police officer. Since being incarcerated his speech has become slurred, he suffers from confusion, sometimes making him believe he is close to release. Maddison's lawyer, Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, argues that "killing a frail man suffering from dementia is unnecessary and cruel." The source “On Death Row: Which American States Still Apply the Death Penalty?” was also relevant on this point, as he stated that, for those convicted, the average time between conviction and execution is fourteen years and eight months. I found this source reliable and helpful as it was published on November 20, 2020, so the information is recent and relevant, but it also made me question the long process for executing a prisoner. As I considered this new information I realized that the long process between sentencing and execution is one of the major flaws of the capital punishment system. I think we have to consider that after this period the prisoners who will be executed will be the same people who committed the crime? The case of Vernon Maddison brings me back to this question. I believe that if the convicted prisoner has developed a mental illness during his time in prison that causes him to have no memory of the crime committed, he need not be executed. They are no longer a threat to society or anyone else, so I think they should be allowed to live out the rest of their days in prison. If the execution procedure was complicated due to a medical condition, which made the process extremely painful, it would be inhumane to subject any prisoner to this punishment. Is life without parole a more advantageous alternative to capital punishment? Christopher Reinhart, a lead prosecutor, explained the differences in how death row inmates are treated compared to inmates serving life sentences without parole in an article titled “Prison Conditions for Death Row Inmates and to life imprisonment without parole”. I find this source to be reliable as it contains relevant information and the author has credentials and is qualified to write about capital punishment even though the article was published in April 2011. It is often argued that life imprisonment without parole, or commonly known as LWOP, it is a more ethical alternative to capital punishment. The article explains that life without parole inmates have fewer restrictions than death row inmates and have more access to exercise, sunlight and social interactions. Death row inmates are allowed two hours of recreation outside their cells six days a week and are always isolated from other prisoners, while those sentenced to life in prison can spend six to seven hours each day outside their cells and can interact with others prisoners. . This has had a positive effect on prisoners, as they have been shown to have better mental health than death row inmates because they are not subjected to the same isolation as death row inmates. I believe that conditions for inmates in US prisons need to be improved, but conditions for those on LWOP are better than those on the death penalty. This makes me believe that replacing the death penalty with this sentence would be an improvement. Another.