Protecting The Innocent

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and legal machinery, far outweighs the expense of maintaining in prison the tiny fraction of criminals who would otherwise be slain (Draper 46). A report issued in1998 by the Judicial Conference of the United States found the cost of sentencing a defendant to the death penalty is higher than imprisoning the accused for life. This is due to the high cost of providing representation in federal death penalty cases (www.uscourts.gov/dpenalty.htm). Cases involving the death penalty take longer to prosecute and therefore have higher costs than other cases. The state is usually responsible for paying the accused legal fees, as most cannot afford a lawyer. Some legal firms do handle capital punishment cases pro bono but the majority of defendants are unable to obtain legal representation on their own. The death penalty was abolished in the United States from 1972 to 1976 after the Supreme Court ruled it cruel and unusual punishment and therefore violated the 8'th Amendment of the U.S. ...

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The majority of society will never know anyone sentenced to death row. This makes it safe to be a supporter of capital punishment. I believe that if these same supporters were to watch an execution it would become harder to support. I know that just thinking of the innocent people who have had years of their lives stolen away from them is enough to make me oppose the death penalty. Many of the supporters of capital punishment believe that murderers and sex offenders have nothing to offer society and do not deserve to live. However this is not necessarily true. This point of view is partially correct because there is usually no chance for rehabilitation. However people who commit the ...

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