Introduction
Some people might agree with the death penalty. Families are devastated when someone they love and care about has died. Especially when that person is a member of their family. That feeling becomes more intense when that person has been murdered. Those devastated people want the murderer to suffer as much as their loved one. The want retribution, or an eye for an eye. This is were the death penalty comes into play. This punishment, in the past, has been brutal and painful. A horrible way to be killed. Now though, it's supposedly human. Why should we have pity on those who choose to kill? If they felt powerful enough to kill, then we should be able to do the same to them. Whatever their reason is that they choose to kill they should be punished someway, somehow. However,the death penalty isn't as fair as we'd like to think it is. A strong case can be made against it.
Why People Are Sentenced To The Death Penalty
People that have been sentenced to the death penalty have committed a murder with extenuating circumstances. These circumstances usually include torture or rape Race and gender has played into the death penalty, even if no one wants to admit it (Egbert, 2002). There has been many more males sentenced to death row then there have been females. This is because society doesn't think that women are capable of such crimes, but they are wrong. There have been four white females and 153 white males. Three black females and 185 black males. There were no Hispanic females and there were 100 Hispanic males. For other there was 0 females and 5 males (Issues and Controversies, 2006). Women are capable of these crimes, but less of them are punished as severely as the men. So women commit the same crimes but are less severely punished, is that truly fair?
Trying To Forgive And Forget
Dr. Van Den Haag, who's done research on the impact of...