The Truth About Capital Punishment
lCapital punishment is a topic that our country has struggled with for many years. Both the government and the general public have been divided about the moral problems that are raised from this issue. Capital punishment is defined as the legal infliction of death as a penalty for violating criminal law (?Capital?), but there is a great debate about how just it is. Some feel it is appropriate punishment for certain crimes against society. Many feel it is unjust, for three main reasons: it often punishes innocent people, convicts are often subjected to prejudice, and statistics show that the abolishment of the death penalty lowers the crime rate.
People convicted of a crime that is punishable by death have later been found to be innocent. Between 1900 and 1992, there were 416 documented cases in which a person was convicted with a death penalty and later were proven innocent (?Five?). In addition, since 1976, eighty-two people (or one-seventh of capital punishment convicts) were later released due to their innocence after being sentenced to death (?Five?).
The death penalty is, of course, a permanent punishment, and it cannot be rectified once it has been carried out. This is especially disturbing, when
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