Throughout countless research they say that the death penalty is the most controversial and most angering topic out there in the news of modern times. The cases range from mass murderers to rapist and robberies, psychotic to religious. All very controversial and twisted due to the state laws and the amendments rights that protect the perpetrator/s accused in each case. There are many states that uphold the death penalty and there are some that just chose life imprisonment instead to be kept alive by taxpayers’ money. It is said that an average death row inmate cost more to sustain than a regular inmate accumulating the value of $92,000 per year ("Costs: Complications of," 2012). One of the most controversial states that abandon the death penalty for life imprisonment without parole seemingly even though that ballet was defeated is California. California has accumulated a value of $4 billion since 1978 ("Costs of the," 2012). This shows sign of a broken legal system towards death penalty and wasteful efforts placed into it bankrupting the state and over all the country. There are many cases that show such corruption and unethical decisions that prolong the perpetrators life and deepening the debt the state is in.
Case 1 Caryl Whittier Chessman Vs California Caryl Whittier Chessman also known as the “Red Light Bandit” is classified as a robber and a rapist in Los Angeles was convicted and sentence to death for flashing a red light that tricked them into thinking he was a police officer and when they opened their windows or exited the vehicle, he would rob and, in the case of several young women, rape them (Richard Bevan, 2012). In July, 1948, Chessman was convicted on seventeen counts of robbery, kidnapping and rape and condemned to death (Richard Bevan, 2012). It was said that Caryl was a deviant and a liar due to the fact that he was his own attorney and claims he was innocent man in a case on false identification and is begin framed (Richard Bevan, 2012). He lost the trail and was sent to death by gas chamber where it toke a 12 year period before it happen, due to the fact of him escaping execution several time (Richard Bevan, 2012). This is a prime example of a case where no murder was committed but instead a series of robberies and rapes were committed and he had a very short sentence.
Case 2 California, sits on 'Symbolic' killer on death row for decades, costing billions On June 28, 1984, Richard Ramirez a 24-year-old man also known as “the Night Stalker” had killed no less than 13 people and viscously raped and blemished numerous more (Ed Barnes, 2010). Ramirez earned the title symbolic killer for the reason the satanic pentagrams he left on his victims along with the sexually abused women who were sometimes forces to sing praise Satan before he raped them (Ed Barnes, 2010). A case of where the full brutality of Ramirez was shown is with the Vincent and Maxine Zazza. Vincent was found with a bullet hole in his head while his wife, Maxine, Vincent’s wife, was found naked in her bed with her eyes gouged out and with stab wounds on her face, neck, breasts, abdomen and groin (Ed Barnes, 2010). That was just a sample of the things that Ramirez did and he showed no remorse for all of what he did. “When he was found guilty of capital murder in 1989, he remarked, "Big deal. Death always went with the territory." (Ed Barnes, 2010)” Ramirez still lives until now in prison on death