Capitol punishment should be abolished

Slogan: En eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Capitol punishment should be abolished because of a high possibility for error, the fact that it is an unethical practice, and its high cost. 1) Capitol punishment should be abolished because of its high possibility for error. By ruthlessly killing people who are convicted, prosecutors are completely obliterating any hope of correcting their mistakes if it turns out the prosecutors were wrong. According to a study done by Columbia Law School Professor James Liebman, 68 percent of all death verdicts reviewed from 1973-1995 were revised by courts due to serious error. Of those revisions, 82 percent ended in less harsh sentences, and 9 percent of those people were found innocent and eventually freed. Since capitol punishment was reintroduced in America in 1973, 99 death row inmates have been exonerated, raising questions about its validity and leading to mounting pressure among opponents for it to be scrapped or at least suspended. If these convicted people are sentenced to death, and then are later found to be innocent, the legal system has just murdered NINETY NINE people who didn't deserve to die. http://www.cbsnews.com... Wrongful conviction is also present in modern times. According to the nonprofit Death Penalty Focus, there have been at least four men wrongfully killed in the past two years. Also, 139 men and women have been released from Death Row nationally… some only minutes away from execution. How many more might have been released, had then not been executed? We will never know… and that's just the problem. Examples of this include Troy Davis, executed despite the fact that, according to Amnesty International, all but two of the state's non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony and many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis. Another example is Cameron Todd Willingham, wrongfully executed under the charge of setting his house on fire and killing his three daughters. Just imagine the horror his parents must have felt, having lost all three beloved granddaughters and then having to watch their equally beloved son be executed! http://www.deathpenalty.org... If an innocent person's life is taken, that is murder. Murdering innocent people is something that belongs within the confinement of the past. Slaughter belongs to war, and countries that oppress their people. We cannot continue a ruthless practice without looking deeper into our society and our values. Is this what is at the heart of America? 2) Capitol punishment should be abolished because it is way too expensive. Capitol punishment is much more expensive than life in prison without parole because the Constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org, in the Report of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, it states that, "The additional cost of confining an inmate to death row, as compared to maximum security prisons where those sentenced to life without possibility of parole ordinarily serve their sentences, is $90,000 dollars per year per inmate. With California's current death row population of 670, that accounts for $63.3 million annually." Also, using conservative rough projections, the Commission states that the annual costs of the present death row system to be $137 million per year. And that is JUST in California! This is yours and my taxpayer money that goes toward murderers. Even worse, what if a person is innocent? That's millions of our money down the drain. If the death penalty was replaced with a sentence of "Life Without the Possibility of Parole", which costs millions less, the money saved could be spent on programs that actually improve the communities in which we live. The millions of dollars in savings could be spent on things like our $14 trillion debt, education, public safety programs, health services, the possibilities are endless. 3) Capitol punishment should be abolished because it is immoral. Article 3 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person". Most developed countries around the world recognized these rights have abolished capitol punishment or they are considering it. According to Amnesty International, in 1977, only 16 countries had abolished capitol punishment for all crimes. As of December 2010 that figure stands at 96 and more than two thirds of the countries in the world have abolished capitol punishment in law or practice. In 2010, only 23 countries used capitol punishment. http://www.amnesty.org... Deathpenalty.org lists the number of executions by country. In 2010, China led the world with over 1,000 executions, Iran had 252, North Korea had 60, Yemen had 53, followed by the US with 46. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... With capitol punishment in place, the US is consistent with countries that have horrible human rights histories with their people. Meanwhile, The European Union and the United Nations General Assembly have drafted rules to abolish capitol punishment. In order to keep up with democratic, modern, and civilized nations, it is neither wise nor moral for the U.S. to have capitol punishment in place.