The death penalty is not cruel and unusual. The rivals of the death penalty strongly believe that capital punishment violates the 8th amendment (Death). They dispute that executions are painful and torturous towards the condemned prisoner (Death). In 1990 and 1997 flames erupted when the leather face masks of the prisoners caught fire during electrocution (Death). In another incident in 1995, a Florida prisoner let out a muffled scream as he was executed (Death). Prison officials often say that it is not unusual to see smoke rising from the bodies of those put to death. (Death) Another point the opponents of the death penalty bring up is that capital punishment is unusual because 95 nations have already abolished the death penalty due to its breach of human rights (Tucker). These nations include France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Venezuela, and Peru (Tucker). Conversely, pro-death penalty people say that capital punishment does not breach the 8th amendment (Eddlem). Cruel, the death penalty is not. The killer was cruel for killing the victims. The death penalty is only a reprimand for the most vicious criminals who show no respect to others’ lives. Plus, the Old Testament encourages vengeance. The phrase, “… an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…” is a justification that the death penalty is moral (Eddlem). The person who takes life is compelled to give his life in return. Capital punishment is anything but unusual. In the 18th century B.C., the death penalty was included in the Code of Hammurabi (History). Hammurabi made the death penalty a punishment for 25 different crimes (History). Vlad III Dracula, from Southern Romania, made the death penalty famous (History). He'd spear criminals against the wall on sharpened stakes and allow the body to slowly slide down the stakes to cut every vital organ (History). Dracula enjoyed executions and would have feasts in front of the dying corpse (History). He was said to be the inspiration of Bram Stoker's fictional vampire, Dracula (History). The death penalty remained popular during the era of King Henry VIII in 1509-1547, who killed 72,000 people during his reign including 2 of his 6 wives (History). Every nation has had the death penalty in their law books at some point in history and remains in the statute books of half of the nations all over the world. How can the opponents call the death penalty, which has been around for centuries, unusual? In conclusion, the death penalty is not cruel as it is only a punishment for the actions that the criminal has carried out and it is not unusual since it has been in the history of mankind for many centuries.
Capital punishment today has eliminated nearly all mistakes. Still, the opponents of capital punishment say it is permanent, thus the argument against it is that humans make mistakes because it is in our nature (Dead). The court's mistake is not reversible, unless, of course, the human race has found a way to bring back the dead. On the contrary, supporters argue that recent technological advances in science have also made it possible to determine whether a suspect is innocent or not (Eddlem). The new technique is called DNA testing (Eddlem). Yes, the courts have placed innocent lives on death row before, but the figures that the opponents have reported are very much exaggerated (Eddlem). The contenders of capital punishment have said two out of three death sentences reviewed were seriously flawed and that about 68% of death sentences are of innocent victims (Eddlem). That is not true. When the opponents used the word “flawed” they do not mean two out of three of the death row inmates put to death were of innocent lives (Eddlem). These figures include any case needing review from a lower court. (Eddlem) DNA samples found at the crime scene can be compared to that of the suspect to validate whether the suspect was involved in the act (Eddlem). A small number of convicts have been released due to DNA evidence proving them innocent. Since 1976, not one person executed in the United States has been later proven innocent by later DNA evidence. (Eddlem) Hence the possibility for error in the court system is nearly eliminated.
Capital punishment is not racist towards minorities. The 1987 Supreme Court case McCleskey vs. Kemp confronted the racial inequalities on death row (Death). Warren McCleskey, the defendant, was a black man who was convicted of killing a white policeman (Death). He challenged the sentence as racially biased and that he was deprived of the 14th amendment of equal protection (Death). His lawyers showed statistics that in over 2,000 Georgia murder cases, black murderers who killed whites were more likely to be executed than whites who killed blacks (Death). Further research shows that in 1976, when the death penalty was reintroduced into the United States, 84 black convicts have been executed for the murder of a white victim and only 4 white convicts have been executed for the murder of a black victim. But the flaw to the opponent’s argument is that they neglect to mention that blacks statistically commit more murders and whites are the most common victims in crimes (Death).
The U.S. Bureau of Justice reports that between 1976 and 1999, blacks have committed 51.5% of the murders in the United States (Eddlem). Plus the U.S. Bureau of Justice informs: “Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up the majority of those under sentence of death” (Eddlem). Whites have continued to encompass the majority on death row in 2000 (Eddlem). There were 1,990 white inmates, 1,535 blacks, and 68 others. In the same year, 49 out of the 85 put to death were white (Eddlem). Plus, the fact of the matter is that white people are 2.6 times more frequently killed by a black person than a black person to be killed by a white person (Eddlem). Black people just tend to commit more crimes than the white population. Thus, how can the system be racist if it is only serving justice?
The death penalty is a controversy that has plagued the United States court system for many years. The United States has allowed each state to decide whether to prohibit the death penalty or to permit the harsh sentence. Currently, 38 out of the 50 states have capital punishment (Death). Even so, the public seems to support the death penalty rather than reject it. According to a 1997 Newsweek poll, 74% of people defend capital punishment for the reason that it eliminates the chance that the criminal will murder again. (Death) As the quarrel rages on, I agree with the 74% of Americans that are pro-capital punishment. The reason being that the death penalty is a deterrent, serves justice, not cruel and unusual, the mistakes are now nearly nonexistent, and the death penalty is in no way racist.
