The image of the United States has undoubtedly evolved since its birth. It has been admired by nations around the world and inspired them to follow in the footsteps of the founding fathers. Now, instead of being awed at like a young basketball player aspiring to be a great like LeBron, we are being viewed as a bully. As role model we should lead the world in humanity, civil rights, economy, and the list goes on. We must differentiate ourselves from dictatorships that kill their own people. Most people would agree, but they would agree hypocritically as they advocate the death penalty. As the only industrialized Western nation that implores capital punishment, we need to reexamine its effectiveness, fairness, and morality.
If we focus on the demography of the inmates on death row and those that have been executed, there is an overwhelming majority of minorities and people that come from a low socio-economic background. It is undeniable that there is a higher concentration of crime within this group of people but there are other contributing factors that lead to the death sentence as opposed to life without the possibility of parole (LWOP). So how do you “get away with murder”? You hire Johnny Cochran (r.i.p.). That’s big bucks, bucks that most of these people don’t have and are essentially forced into being represented by public defense attorneys. It’s not that these lawyers aren’t qualified but too much of the decision that goes into the death penalty rests in capabilities of these lawyers. This is a steep disadvantage and an obstruction to blind justice. Just because justice is blind doesn’t mean it comes cheap and fairness should be the predominant virtue the court upholds. All too often in states like Texas and Pennsylvania, the prosecutor will seek the death penalty in any case where it can be imposed. There is an alarmingly disproportionate ratio of executions in these states in comparison to more conservative areas such as the Northeast and the Midwest....