This essay is about the flaws of the death penalty and the fact that humans should not decide who lives and dies. The title is : An infallible penality given by fallible people.

Essay by JaZzyShAyHigh School, 11th gradeA+, April 2002

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An Infallible Penalty Based on Fallible People

The death penalty is defined as execution by hanging , firing squad, lethal injection, asphyxiation (to eradicate by inadequate oxygen) or electrocution. This is one of most controversial human issues of our time. It is a policy that does not take into account the imperfection of the legal system (human beings in general), which implicates cruel and unusual punishment and exemplifies moral unjustness. For these three primary reasons, the abolishment of this policy is warranted.

Since the death penalty is an irrevocable punishment, it demands the infallibility of the human beings who are part of the legal system which imposes death. As human beings are fallible, innocent people have been executed in the past and will continue to be executed in the future. Earl Washington, Jr. is one of the very fortunate people that was nearly executed for a rape and murder he didn't commit.

He was just recently released from prison after serving seventeen years! The death penalty is a lethal lottery; of the twenty-two thousand homicides committed every year, three hundred people are sentenced to death.

The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. In 1948, the Declaration of Independence ("Declaration") was pledged among nations to promote fundamental rights as the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world. The Declaration proclaims each person's right to protection from deprivation of life, and it categorically states that no one shall be subjected to cruel and/or degrading punishment. The death penalty -- the pre-meditated, cold-blooded killing of prisoners in state or federal custody -- violates both of these rights.

On a biblical note, the death penalty defiles one of the most common commandments found in the Bible, "Thou shalt not Kill." This commandment...