Death Penalty

Overall, I think that the stages in a capital punishment case are pretty fair and protect the rights of the suspect. Between the preliminary hearing and the grand jury stages, there is lots of time and people working to find evidence and decide if the suspect is guilty of his or her crime or not. The defendant will go through the preliminary hearing and it will be decided if there is enough evidence to prosecute a person. If there seems to be evidence, then the trial will move into the  grand jury where 23 people decide if indictments should be issued. Throughout this process, I find it hard to have a loophole in evidence. I think it would be real hard to prosecute an innocent person through those two sets. If the person is being charged with a crime, it moves into the guilt phase trial. Here the defendant goes through a fair trial with all the steps. Once a person is found guilty, they have so many chances and possibilities to appeal. A person then may appeal to all different levels of court, file for proportionality review, and petition to the Supreme Court. Throughout all these steps and phases, I think the criminals are treated with every right they deserve and the process is extremely long which helps the court make sure they have the right person.

The only method of execution that I found somewhat humane was lethal injection. That is why most states have that option today because it provides the least chance for pain and is quick and easy. The only way for the victim to feel anything is if the doctor misses a vain, which could cause pain. The victim is put to sleep and in his sleep he dies. I think that is the most peaceful way to execute somebody. I think the gas chamber, electric chair, and firing squad all should be ruled cruel and unusual by the 8^th Amendment. The electric chair fries a person’s body and it is said to have results where, “the prisoner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. The body turns bright red as its temperature rises, and the prisoner's flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. Sometimes the prisoner catches fire....Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber.” I think that is absolutely disgusting and very inhuman. It is tearing apart their body and flesh which is not right. The gas chamber is inhumane because I learned that the gas makes the victim feel like they are having a heart attack and their eyes pop. This process seems to be very long as well and not an easy way to die for a person. The firing squad, even though it can be done quick and easy, is not right because putting a black bag over somebodies head and shooting them seems like they are murdering somebody straight of a movie.

After looking at the map and looking for trends, I found that all of the western states as well as the southern states all have death penalty laws. Sorting through the amount of black people vs white people on death row, the numbers seem to be pretty proportional. This proves that there is not much arbitrariness and racial discrimination involved. There are very few women on death row and I don’t think that has anything to do with arbitrariness.

Personally, I think the death penalty shouldn’t allowed in any state but if when the death penalty was legal in Illinois, the rules and regulations regarding capital punishment were fair. Everything on the statement clearly shows that a person who intends to murder another person, with exceptions like a juvenile, will be sent to death.  I think that all the crimes listed are good for capital punishment. For example, “The defendant has been convicted of killing two or more individuals” or “the murder was intentional and inflicted torture.” These statements without a doubt should lead to execution if the state was in favor of the death penalty. The stats from the Illinois death penalty history show that 20 people have been released from death row. I am not sure why Illinois got rid of the death penalty, but I am guessing they thought that too many people are put onto death row that are innocent.

The death penalty information center information is very convicting and the statistics really show that racial discriminations really don’t exist in the death penalty issue. The stats show that more white people are executed than blacks by 21% and there is just about as many black inmates on death row as white inmates. The amount of money to execute an inmate is in the millions and costs 3 million in Maryland. “In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell atthe highest security level for 40 years”. The amount of money that it takes to kill somebody is ridiculous. The stats about the public’s opinion on the death penalty are pretty close. 39% of people said they would like to see no death penalty while 33% of people said they wanted the death penalty. The issue over the death penalty will be debated and debated for a very long time.