When a convicted murderer is released from prison and goes out and kills again, or if an innocent man that was on death row has been pardoned because of DNA evidence, debates on capital punishment inevitably stir up controversy. Many believe that the death penalty is a successful deterrent to those contemplating committing heinous crimes, but does imposing a lesser sentence of life in prison without parole really serve justice when convicted of murder? or does the judicial system somewhat discriminate against defendants of minority? is the possible execution of an innocent man reason enough to abolish the death penalty in the United States?
While most democracies have abolished the death penalty, capital punishment is widely supported throughout the United States. However, A great deal of citizens continue to oppose it. Those who are against capital punishment in America in the years since executing murderers ended, has expanded tremendously. Over the past twenty years or so, the courts have made anti-death penalty advocates rely less on litigation strategies that used to be helpful to their cause.
Their efforts to launch a political war on what they view as the most ineffective, racist, cruel, and costly action in the criminal justice system, has fallen on deaf ears. Even with the huge efforts of anti-capital punishment advocates, executions in the US have increased.
Why is it that America still employs the death penalty while 50 other democracies around the world have completely abolished it? Why is capital punishment becoming more of a problem each year? will this conflict find a resolution? The debate on the death penalty reflects a dividing in the values of Americans, one that will likely bring an end to capital punishment in the United States. On one end of the spectrum, execution seems to violate our countries highest legal standards and sets us apart from our allies who regard it as barbaric. But on the other end of the spectrum, it represents an American belief in justice to the socially violent.
The states that still embrace the death penalty are mostly in areas of the South where the lynchings took place hundreds of years ago. It is this reason, that justifies the appeal of capital punishment in the US and the most compelling reason to abolish it.
