Abolish The Death Penalty Analysis

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In Alex Shalom’s paper Abolish the Death Penalty he talks about many points on why he feels it should be abolished. Shalom gives the example of when a murderer in Florida during execution his head burst into flames. Reactions apparently varied about the situation. Florida’s Attorney State General feels that murderers should be particularly wary of committing crimes because they could suffer greatly. Others feel that the country should abolish the death penalty all together (1). Shalom gives the response that many of our neighboring countries do not practice the death penalty. These include Western Europe and Latin America. There are many reasons why they have abolished the death penalty; one of them being that it is unjust (2). The author…show more content…
By giving you the statistics about the two states, he says that if the death penalty is such a greater deterrent then life in prison, then Illinois should have a lower murder rate. But in turn Michigan has the lower murder rate (4). Shalom says that people feel that prisons are too costly and that murderers should be sentenced to death. Those who are on death row are entitled to numerous legal appeals. In saying this Shalom says that since many of the inmates are of lower income the state is expected to pay for both sides of the defense. So it is not really a cost-effective solution since the rates of lawyers are very high (5). The author brings up the common phrase “an eye for an eye”. Many people would feel this to be true. Shalom gives the example of Coretta Scott King who had a husband and mother-in-law killed in an assassination. Mrs. King felt that the death penalty is unjust to humans and stands opposed to the idea (6). Shalom feels that the system of justice is infallible. He mentions how many innocent people will be executed. He got this information from a study that was done in 1987 by Stanford Law. The study gave the figure that at least 23 innocent people have been executed in the United States just in this century (8). A famous trial that played into the fact that innocent people were killed was the Salem Witch Trial. The Judge at…show more content…
The author feels that the death penalty is a racist institution and kills the poor. It is more common for an African American to be killed then a White person. It is also said that African Americans who kill white people are more likely to be sentenced to death, then if a white person kills a black person. A study brought forward the information that murderers whose victims are white are 139% more likely to get the death penalty then if their victim was white. Shalom wonders what this is saying about our current system that is in force (10). The author reveals that murderers that are unable to pay for their defense are more likely to be sentenced to death then those who are capable of getting a lawyer. Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall says that “the burden of capital punishment falls upon the poor, the ignorant, and the underprivileged members of society” (11). Shalom concludes that the United States is not the only country that is continuing to practice capital punishment. The other countries are considered to be far from world leaders in human rights. Shalom stats that only five countries execute criminals who committed their own crime while under the age of 18. These countries include: Yemen, Saudi Arabia,
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