Abolish the Death Penalty The death penalty is used as a capital punishment in the United States for decades. This controversy topic is debated between Congress, states and individuals. It’s time for the debates to end and to start abolish the death penalty. The death penalty should be abolished because it’s not used the way it was intended to. Also, there had been innocent people released from death row as well as wrongly executed. The presence of the death penalty is expensive for taxpayers especially during this rough time. These reasons have to take into consideration to end the death penalty once and for all. The death penalty has been misused by discriminating and targeting the poor. As reported by Amnesty International organization, “Even though blacks and whites are murder victims in nearly equal number of crimes, 80% of people executed since the death penalty was reinstated have been executed for murders involving white victims.” For the poor, defendants cannot afford their own lawyers as how can a wealthy person could. In many cases when the poor defendants are assign to a lawyer, the lawyers are overworked, underpaid and lack of experience for death penalty cases. The death penalty has abuse its power and we cannot let it continue.
Another reason to abolish the death penalty is the error rate. The error rate is simply appalling and unacceptable when we’re talking about something that can’t be reversible. Since 1973, 139 men and women were released from death row because DNA has proved their innocence. While researching this topic, I came across a guy name Ray Krone. He was released from death row in 2002. He spent ten years in prison in Arizona for a murder that he did not commit. DNA testing proved his innocence. Ray Krone is one example of those 139 people released from death row since 1973.
The United States is currently under recession and the vast expenses going towards the capital punishment is not helping. Executions cost far more than to keep that person in prison for life. As reported by