In a capital case, there are many aspects of the stages that are designed to protect the rights of the accused. Arraignment, when a defendant is brought before the court to hear the charges and enter a plea, is a good thing for the accused because that person may share their side of the story just incase they actually are innocent or want to plead guilty. They get a voice in their trial. A pre-liminary hearing is also helpful to the accused because it is a hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute an accused person. If the accused does not have enough evidence against them, this can help them because the case will not be bound over for grand-jury review. The closing statements, during the Guilt Phase trial, also protects the rights of the accused because the lawyer for each sides asks the jury or the judge to consider the evidence and apply the law in his or her client's favor. Throughout the decision-making process, the accused always has a word in somewhere either by his/herself or by his/her lawyer. During the penalty phase trial, there is a stage called "mitigating circumstances", where there are facts that do not justify or excuse an act or offense, but may reduce the degree of moral culpability, and reduce the penalty. This includes mental impairments, deprived background, etc. The accused gets his crime factored into the big picture of their life, which can excuse them from the death penalty. The accused can also appeal to a state's highest criminal court and this could reverse a decision by bringing it to a higher authority. The defendant submits the trial court's decision to a higher court for review and possible reversal, which is extremely beneficial for the accused if their sentence is lessened. Anything under the Federal Habeas Corpus stage may be helpful for protecting the rights of the accused. This system is pretty sufficient to guarantee that only the guilty are convicted, there are many ways for a guilty person to appeal his/her case and I believe that is enough to show that someone is innocent, if they can prove that they are.
Lethal Injections are the most humane because it is the only method of killing that we are used to the method. For example, we would not be in a gas chamber or hung normally, but we go to the doctor and get IV's all the time. The IV is not the painful part, it is what they put in it that is the bad part. Firing squad and Electrocution and the Gas Chamber should be considered "cruel and unusual punishment" because they cause the accused to suffer, and not die immediately. While hanging a person or doing lethal injection is a quick process if done correctly.
There have been a lot of exonerations in response to the high number of mistakes discovered in death row, support for the death penalty has dropped in many states recently, most don't even believe that the death penalty deters crime. Most use lethal injection. The state by state data tells us that the death penalty is used but also used reluctantly sometimes and the states are trying to find other ways to get around the death penalty. For example, in North Carolina in 2002, a new law allowed life without parole as an alternative. Death sentences dropped by over 50% following the law. A trend is that the state officials have a say in the sentence, also most states have granted clemency. The data tells us that issues of equality exist everywhere and people must not be sentenced strongly based on their race or gender. the court is trying to get rid of arbitrariness so that there are less innocent people killed.
The crimes listed should have death as a potential punishment because they all include inflicting pain on other people. I don't fully understand why the capital murder statute had so many details about who the person was that was murdered, when I don't think it matters as long as someone is murdered. Each person has a valuable life. The data does not tell us anything about why the Illinois death penalty is no longer in effect but I think a good guess would be that the state came to realize that there were lots of faults with the death penalty. It started realizing this when there were only 12 executions since 1976 while there were 348 killed before 1976. There were 20 innocent people freed from death row and 187 clemencies granted in Illinois. This is a big deal because there is a huge margin for error and even the judges and court systems can make mistakes or wrongly accuse people.
The economics of the death penalty make it seem like the death penalty is not worth it compared to the money that the state puts into it. Just one example would be that the California death penalty has cost over $4 billion since 1978. Or even in Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, which is about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. The data says that in most cases, the death penalty is more expensive than holding a person in jail for life. Also, the data says that the influence of race is huge on the death penalty. The race of the victims in the death penalty cases were 76% white, while the recent study said that in Louisiana, the odds of a death sentence were 97% higher for those whose victim was white than for those whose victim was black. The data says that the public opinion for the death penalty says that there is more support for life without parole plus restitution (39%) than support for the death penalty (33%). In a 2010 poll a clear majority of voters (61%) would choose a punishment other than the death penalty for murder. Overall, the point of view that the Death Penalty Information center has is a biased one that is against the death penalty. The death penalty is costly, has racist undertones, and the public opinion shows clear disapproval of the death penalty. This is convincing because it covers many aspects wrong with the death penalty, not just one. I do not need additional information, I think this is enough to make an opinion about the death penalty. Curiosity would lead me though to wonder why the people were put on death row. What was the most recurring murder and why. How can this be prevented? How can we spread awareness about murder?
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