Proving points against the death penalty, 25 sources used.

Capital Punishment is the lawful taking of a person's life after a

conviction of crime. It has caused much controversy and has raised

difficult legal and ethical issues. Debates about it continue to wage in

both courts and political arenas. There is evidence that the death

sentence is put to disproportionately use to be carried out on the poor,

Negro, members of unpopular groups of society. The Death penalty

should be made against the law because it is a punishment that is

racist, sexist, and discriminatory against the poor.

Racism is the number one argument in the case against the

death penalty. In 1972, the Supreme Court halted executions in the

United States (Wolf 3). They did this mainly because they felt that our

justice system is fallible and our knowledge and judgment can be

influenced and distorted and our moral certainty in neither pure nor

absolute. It states, in the 14th amendment, section five, that it is

unlawful to carry out a sentence of death imposed on the basis of race

of the defendant or victim and allows a person to challenge their

sentences by using evidence that shows a pattern of racially

discriminatory sentencing (McCuen 39). This makes it so that no judge

or jury can rule out capital punishment based on the race or sex of the

defendant or its victim. A professor of law, David C. Baldus,

conducted a study of his own. The Baldus study, as we know it,

indicated that there is a discrepancy that appears to correlate with race

(McCuen 24). Apparent disparities in sentencing are an inevitable part

of our criminal justice system. A similar study showed that 90 percent

of those executed, in 1973 to 1977, for rape were of African American

descent (Baumgart 74). No white man has ever been...