The Role Of Guilty Criminals In Death Row

Kirk Bloodsworth was 22 when he spent eight years in prison, two of those on death row. He was wrongfully convicted. A 9-year old girl was raped and killed on July 25, 1984. Two boys had seen her walking with a man before she suddenly disappeared. The boys described the man to the police and the police came to the conclusion that the murderer was Bloodsworth. He repeatedly claimed he was innocent but he was found guilty and sentenced to death on March, 1985. After 8 years he finally proved he was innocent through DNA testing. He was released from prison on June 1993. He was paid 300,000 dollars (“Correcting”). The US should not institute the death penalty everywhere in the country because it would put us at risk of executing innocent people, costs us millions of dollars in administering the penalty and there is a better way to help the families of murder victims.

Anthony Graves was living on death row for almost two decades while being in solitary confinement. While he was proven un-guilty of murder he still has the punishment of eighteen years of living while being mentally and physically dead. After Mr. Graves was let out of prison, he still has to rethink about almost being killed because of a prosecutor that didn’t want to lose her case. How unprofessional could that be, letting someone rot in jail for a crime he didn’t commit, while the prosecutor knew of doubts, but went along like he didn’t hear it. The cost of one’s life is more than all of the money in the world, because once someone is lethally injected, no one can bring them back. Now I am starting to wonder about the death penalty and questioning myself is it fit for the worst of crimes for is it not fit at all. Kerry Max Cook was a former death row inmate that had conversations with Robert Earl Carter, "Anthony, I really believe, is innocent. I'm stunned that an innocent person is this close to execution (Rice,2005), was stated by former death row inmate Cook, that was let off for being proven

The risk of innocent people being sentenced is high. About 14% of executions were of the innocent, and they weren’t found out until long after their execution. This supports my claim because too many innocent people are being executed against their will, and most of them aren’t even involved with the murder, just innocent bystanders who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In conclusion, there is just too much risk of innocent bystanders being executed for doing nothing wrong, and we should get the facts and evidence straight before we go kill an innocent

One of the worst part of the death penalty in the U.S. is the risk of wrongly convicting an innocent person and potentially killing someone for a crime they did not commit. What is one to do is to make up for killing someone and after the innocent man is dead, finding out who was actually responsible for the crime? There is no way to give them their life back. It is one of the worst things that can happen and there is no way in the justice system that can make up for doing this to someone. No monetary amount would suffice for a life, on top of the poor quality of life that prisoners on death row have to endure while waiting years to be executed, living in 23 hours a day in their room with only one hour to be exposed to the

The first thing that used to run through my mind when I heard that someone had been sentenced to death was the word: guilty. David Wayne Spence and David Junior Brown are only a few of the many that were executed by the judicial system, and later found innocent. There is no way to truly know how many innocent people were executed; because once an execution is carried out most cases are shut. Could a fabricated eye witness testimony play a role in a defendant receiving capital punishment? I know race does. I want to become a forensic psychologist, and a part of my job will be assisting judges with sentences in the court room. There is this question that has been bothering me for awhile now, and I would like to know, how has the United States judicial system addressed the problem of innocent death-row inmates being executed?

Can anyone imagine the life of an individual suffering in prison knowing they are actually innocent from the very beginning of trial, but the judge still sentences them to twenty years in prison or the death penalty? The teenage years and mid-twenties heading into the thirties are supposed to be the best time in life for any individual, but also imagine all of those years taken away because the time spent in prison. No marriage, no more activities with kids or watching them grow up, can’t travel anywhere for vacation, all the holidays with family will disappear and other lifetime activities are gone as well. Wrongful conviction has been a huge issue for centuries now and the criminal justice system has not changed anything to help improve the innocent people walking away free. This paper will be addressing the problems of wrongful conviction in America such as wrongful convicts not receiving their compensation, capital punishment, the innocence movement, and cases that involve wrongful conviction, although, there are many cases that still have been unsolved with innocent people suffering in prison. Today in the United States, there are wrongful conviction reforms to help free innocent people who are behind bars and those who are standing against the death penalty.

Execution of innocent prisoners, does not produce an overall net intrinsic value compared to alternative punishments. According to statistical data collected, as of October 2015, a total of 156 people have been exonerated while on death row- since 1973. A total of 1,414 people have been executed since that time, meaning one out of ten people on death row are innocent. (“Exoneration of Innocent Men and Women”) This data brings forth the scenario of innocent victims being killed, by flaws in the criminal justice system. Murder of an innocent individual is not morally justifiable, because it would fail

Just as Ray Bradbury has said, “The gift of life is so precious that we should feel an obligation to pay back the universe for the gift of being alive” (DeathPenaltyInfo.org). A lesson taught from practically birth, is that the human life is sacred. If the gift of life is so special why do cities and states in the United States find it fair to kill someone instead of keeping them in solitary confinement? These statements are only a few of many that spark a controversy over the issue of prohibiting or allowing the death penalty to continue. In recent studies of six U.S. states, 44% supported the death penalty, while fifty-six percent believed it should be banned. Out of the group who disagreed with the penalty, a majority explained their reasoning

Every single death row inmates face executions there have been cases that many innocent individuals is waiting to be executed or has been executed. Research lead by Samul Gross, a professor at the University of Michigan Law school stated that “At least 4.1% of all defendants sentenced to death in the US in the modern era are innocent” (Capital Punishment). But not all men and woman run the same faith; there have been many cases where inmates on death row get a second opportunity in life and get exonerated from death row. For example “As of today, 150 individuals have been exonerated from death row” (National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty). Another significant factor that there is a lot of innocent people on death row it has to do with a false eyewitness and authorities pressuring victims. For example, Kirk Bloodsworth from Maryland who was convicted of a crime he didn't commit in 1984, he was sent to death row by a “false eyewitness identification.” (National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty). How about the case of Ruben Cantu a 17-year-old who has never convicted of crimes. On till he was framed with a capital murder case that took place on November 8, 1984, and sentenced of the murderer. One of the victims and only survivor of the crime gave his statement that Cantu was the killer, he was pressured by the authorities to place Cantu in the scene of the crime. “He

"Since 1973, over eighty people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence" (Innocence and the Death Penalty 1). Statistics say that of the three-thousand six hundred people on death row right now, at least one hundred of them are innocent (Capital Punishment 1). When an innocent person is executed, the real killer is still on the streets ready to victimize someone else (Pragmatic Arguments 1). The most important problem is that when an innocent person is executed, they represent another human being who did not deserve to die.

Although supporters of capital punishment argue that there has been no proof of an innocent person being executed in the past century, more inmates are being exonerated from the death row (SB). It is evident that the criminal justice system makes mistakes as errors have gone through the process. In “Death Penalty Debates: Is the capital punishment system working?” Kenneth Jost stated that a Texas death row inmate, Anthony Graves, spent nearly two decades in prison for a crime he did not commit, becoming the 139th former death row inmate to have been freed of his alleged crime (AP). Some death row inmates were proven innocent by DNA analysis and some were released based on a reexamination of evidence. “Most of the exonerations, like Graves’,

I have the understanding of death penalty convictions are not delivered effortlessly and the fact that the offender has committed a horrific act such as murder, rape, child abuse or he or she would not be placed on death row in the first place. Let me indicate that out again, I have obtained the understanding of the crimes performed are the reasons for placement on death row.

Every day innocent people are convicted of crimes they did not commit. In many cases there are people who were later found innocent but were put to death. David Spence is an example of an innocent man that was executed for a murder he did not commit. David Spence is an example of an innocent man that was executed for a murder he did not commit. David Spence was executed in 1997 for murdering three teenagers in 1982. Spence was convicted of raping, torturing, and murdering two 17 year old girls and murdering an 18 year old boy. As the original allegations go, Spence was hired by convenience store owner Muneer Deeb to kill one girl and he ended up killing these three teens by mistake. Muneer Deeb was charged and sentenced to death but later received a retrial and was acquitted. Authoritative sources even had serious doubt about Spence’s guilt. Although there was no clear physical evidence to link Spence to the crime prosecutors used bite marks that were found on one the girl 's body and matched it to Spence’s teeth. Even jailhouse witnesses were bribed into snitching on David Spence. Despite weak evidential support and jail mate testimonies, Spence was executed. (Bonner and Rimer, 2000) Situations like David Spence’s case lead me to disagree with capital punishment. I believe giving someone the death penalty is wrong because taking somebody’s life is something humans should not have control of.

There are many innocent people on death row. Someone can easily set another person up and make it look like that person has committed a heinous crime worthy of the death penalty. The criminal (or innocent person) can be held in a special high security location until the evidence is solidified. Although the innocent people would still have some of their lives stolen from them it wouldn’t be their entire lives taken. Not to mention that the number of cases later proven to have had an incorrect conviction is alarmingly high. Therefore, the case should have to have hard evidence in order for the human to be put to

In the United States there have been more than 1,420 prisoners executed since 1976. There are many forms of execution such as hanging, death by firing squad, lethal injection, and electrocution, but the execution that is frequently used compared to the others is lethal injection. More than 85 percent of the prisoners that have been executed since 1976 were put to their death by lethal injection. How many of those people that were put to death could actually be innocent? Everybody makes mistakes even police officers, judges, lawyers, and jurors. Nobody wants to make the mistake of killing an innocent person. After a prisoner is executed there is no way to bring them back to life and apologize for keeping them in a prison and killing them for