Capital Punishment in the United

Capital Punishment in the United States

According to David Phillip in his 2009 article "Capital Punishment," new death sentences in the United States have gone into decline, but in the last year the rate of executions among previously convicted criminals has risen. Some states are experimenting with new execution methods. For example, in December of 2009 Ohio experimented with a new type of one-dose lethal injection that included a large dose of anesthetic. The state system hailed it as a humane and relatively painless improvement over the current three-dose system that is in use in most states, but death penalty opponents saw it as a form of human experimentation because the drug was not yet endorsed by the legal or medical establishment. Some states are attempting to repeal the death penalty on the grounds that it is too expensive to maintain the system because of the current economic crisis. There is also concern about the numbers of mentally challenged people who are being executed. The judges cite unfairness in sentencing individuals who are not cognizant of their crimes. The numbers of judges who oppose the death penalty have increased in recent years because they believe that the Supreme Court has set up too many barriers that make it difficult or impossible for prisoners to appeal their death sentence convictions.

The article indicates that the death penalty is being reexamined in many states for two reasons in particular. First, the cost alone makes it bad for society. Secondly, mentally impaired individuals often end up receiving death sentences even though they do not have the ability to understand their wrongdoing. I feel that the article brings up some valid points about the death penalty being costly to implement and maintain, and I agree that the mentally challenged should not be executed. However, I believe that a comparison study needs to be implemented that will compare the cost of keeping prisoners housed and fed as opposed to the cost of the death penalty.

Human Rights in the United States

In Adam Liptak's 2008 article "New Look at Death Sentences and Race," Liptak notes that the capital justice system of Harris County, Texas is currently under review because a new study has found that it is more likely for a defendant to be sentenced to death for killing whites than for killing blacks. Twenty other studies in the nation have found similar results in their studies. It has also been found that the race of the defendant plays a major role in whether or not he or she is sentenced to death. Blacks tend to be overrepresented in shootings that include robberies, while white offenders are more likely to commit crimes that involve rape and violence to the victim during the murder. Despite the fact that the evidence shows that crimes committed by whites are often more brutal or more apt to involve vulnerable individuals, blacks are 1.75 times more likely than whites to receive the death penalty. Many proponents of the death penalty, including the Supreme Court, believe that racial disparities are not unconstitutional. Opponents, however, believe that minorities are overrepresented in the capital justice system.