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Capital punishment is one of the most controversial issues in the United States of America. Most Americans believe that death penalty is the best punishment for murderers. However, capital punishment should be abolished in the United States.
Even though some people are heartless, there are a few reasons as to why the death sentence should not be given.
Firstly, this punishment is offered in a skewed manner. Consequently, most of the convicts facing the death penalty are blacks or Latinos who have mostly killed whites.
Secondly, it has been proven that capital punishment does little to curb crime.
Finally, a good number of people in the death row are innocent. This paper is, therefore, a critique of Cynthia Tucker’s article on the death penalty.
The question posed by Cynthia Tucker in the article is whether the criminals in America deserve the death penalty or not. Author’s answer is “No”. In this article, Tucker argues that capital punishment serves no good and is inconsequential.
According to her, capital punishment does not prevent people from committing crimes. She supports these claims by arguing that America should be a crime-free country by now. This is because the criminal justice system has applied capital punishment for a long time.
The article also proceeds that capital punishment does not apply equally to all. To say the least, there has been inequality in the American justice system for a long time. Surprisingly, nowadays, most death row convicts are still blacks and Latinos sentenced for having killed whites.
Therefore, it is very rare to find the likes of John William King in this list. For that reason, Tucker believes that there is no equity and fairness as far as the death penalty is concerned. For centuries, the criminal justice system has taken the lives of black and Latino people.
Accordingly, those who take such persons’ lives go unpunished or get a lighter punishment than those who kill a white person. In fact, getting a capital punishment for killing a black or Latino person is rare.
Most capital punishment victims are also people faced with one or more forms of social injustices. In the article, Tucker states that many death row inmates are poor, dumb and marginalized. Therefore, criminals from a higher social class often go unpunished for similar crimes.
For instance, the educated and highly connected individuals escape the capital punishment in most instances. According to Tucker, William Lumpkin is a typical case. Lumpkin escaped capital punishment after beating Stan White to death with a hand bag.
This was because he was a lawyer and his family had connections with the Supreme Court. However, John William King was tried quickly and sentenced to death.
This was because he came from a lower social class. John William King’s case was mounted by the prosecutor in five days and the jury deliberated for only two and half hours before coming up with the verdict. To many, he did not get a fair hearing.
The article also affirms that capital punishment has had a tormenting effect on the innocent. According the study, seventy eight innocent people have been released after being sentenced to death. This means that some of those people were innocent.
Tucker reiterates that errors in the criminal justice system have abruptly ended the lives of many innocent people. However, though the Criminal Justice Department has acknowledged flaws in the FBI forensic labs, little has been done to notify the defendants (National Whistle Blowers Center (NWBC)).
Additionally, only a few of the affected cases have been reviewed by a task force established to find the truth in these cases. However, the findings of this task force are yet to be made public (NWBC). The effects of a flawed and inconsiderate justice system are too much to handle.
This article clearly states that wrongful conviction of even a single person should not be tolerated. This is because these convictions make law-abiding citizens realize that they are only a step away from their maker. It also compels people to think that the wrongful convicted person is in the same league with murderers.
Many people believe that the death penalty is the best punishment for people perceived to be murderers. However, people should know that most of these rulings are flawed. For instance, it has been proved that the FBI forensic lab could be wrong in its investigations (NWBC).
Therefore, most people have been convicted using flawed evidence. In addition, whites hardly receive the death penalty. This means that this punishment is skewed towards the blacks and Latinos. As a result, there is no guarantee on the fairness of the death penalty.
Moreover, a good number of people in the death row may be innocent. These reasons are, therefore, enough to do away with the death penalty. There is no way the criminal justice system can provide justice using such injustices. For that reason, to clean the criminal justice system, the death penalty must be abolished.
Works Cited
National Whistle Blowers Center. FBI Whistleblower First Exposed Forensic Flaws: Frederic Whitehurst Vowed to Help Wronged Defendants. n.d. Web.
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