Death penalty

Yes, the death penalty is a punishment for a crime. I must argue however, that the majority of the people receiving the death penalty, are psychopaths and sociopaths who were most likely abused during their childhood. They didn't know any better. They were sick. And they needed help. And judging by the amount of executions that have been carried out in the U.S, the death penalty does not scare these people. If they really want to, they will kill anyways. Psychopaths and sociopaths do not feel fear the way people without these mental disorders do. It is also possible for a murderer to frame someone else, if they are crafty enough. Just think about that. It is possible for a person to kill someone, and blame you. If you were found guilty and got the death penalty, the government would be putting you, an innocent man to death. Doesn't that scare you? There have been many cases where an innocent man was executed. I got this story from the death penalty information center. "Ruben Cantu Texas Convicted: 1985, Executed: 1993 A two-part investigative series by the Houston Chronicle cast serious doubt on the guilt of a Texas man who was executed in 1993. Ruben Cantu had persistently proclaimed his innocence and was only 17 when he was charged with capital murder for the shooting death of a San Antonio man during an attempted robbery. Now, the prosecutor and the jury forewoman have expressed doubts about the case. Moreover, both a key eyewitness in the state's case against Cantu and Cantu's co-defendant have come forward to say that Texas executed an innocent man. Juan Moreno, who was wounded during the attempted robbery and was a key eyewitness in the case against Cantu, now says that it was not Cantu who shot him and that he only identified Cantu as the shooter because he felt pressured and was afraid of the authorities. Moreno said that he twice told police that Cantu was not his assailant, but that the authorities continued to pressure him to identify Cantu as the shooter after Cantu was involved in an unrelated wounding of a police officer. "The police were sure it was (Cantu) because he had hurt a police officer. They told me they were certain it was him, and that's why I testified. . . . That was bad to blame someone that was not there," Moreno told the Chronicle. In addition, David Garza, Cantu's co-defendant during his 1985 trial, recently signed a sworn affidavit saying that he allowed Cantu to be accused and executed even though he wasn't with him on the night of the killing. Garza stated, "Part of me died when he died. You've got a 17-year-old who went to his grave for something he did not do. Texas murdered an innocent person." Sam D. Millsap, Jr., the Bexar County District Attorney who charged Cantu with capital murder, said he never should have sought the death penalty in a case based on testimony from an eyewitness who identified a suspect only after police showed him Cantu's photo three seperate times. Miriam Ward, forewoman of the jury that convicted Cantu, said the jury's decision was the best they could do based on the information presented during the trial. She noted, "With a little extra work, a little extra effort, maybe we'd have gotten the right information. The bottom line is, an innocent person was put to death for it. We all have our finger in that." (Houston Chronicle, November 20 & 21, 2005 and Associated Press, November 21, 2005)." There were about 12 other cases on this website with extremely sad stories. These people were put to death, and afterwards police were either suspicious or they realized that they killed the wrong guy. Here are the names of all the other innocent people listed on this website. Carlos DeLuna Texas Conviction: 1983, Executed: 1989 Larry Griffin Missouri Conviction: 1981, Executed: 1995 Joseph O'Dell Virginia Conviction: 1986, Executed: 1997 David Spence Texas Conviction: 1984, Executed: 1997 Leo Jones Florida Convicted: 1981, Executed: 1998 Gary Graham Texas Convicted: 1981, Executed: 2000 Claude Jones Texas Convicted 1989 Executed 2000 Cameron Willingham Texas Convicted: 1992, Executed: 2004 Troy Davis Georgia Convicted 1991 Executed 2011 Lester Bower Texas Convicted 1984 Executed 2015 Brian Terrell Georgia Convicted 1995 Executed 2015 Richard Masterson Texas Convicted 2002 Executed 2016 I must also point out that life imprisonment is absolutely not giving people convicted of murder kudos for killing 10 innocent people. It is keeping a potentially innocent but most likely guilty person off the streets, so that they are unable to kill again.