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Capital Punishment In this world, terrible crimes are being committed daily, the harshest of punishments for a deadly crime is the controversial method of execution; the death penalty. Many people believe that criminals that commit such a crime deserves to be executed; an eye for an eye. While it may seem a fitting sentence, the system is flawed. The following essay will debate the pros and cons of capital punishment, discussing issues of morals, innocence, deterrence, the cost and retribution. One of the main issues that a lot of people would have is: “What if the criminal were really innocent”? There is considerable evidence that many mistakes have been made in sentencing people to death. Take for instance the true short story The Firing Squad by Colin McDougall, the Canadian military hierarchy needed to make a point to all military personnel that going absent without leave was something to not even consider, to make their point a young AWOL soldier was put before the firing squad for a crime he didn’t commit. Since 1973, 108 people within the United States have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence; the latest was John Thompson released May 9th 2003. During the same period of time over 1000 people have been executed, this means that for every 7 people executed there is one person on death row that is innocent. In the film Dead Man Walking the condemned man Mathew Poncelet mentioned that there were only poor people on death row: “No never find no rich folk on death row” (Poncelet, Dead Man Walking) Although Poncelet confessed in the end to the crime, he did make a valid point. The jury could be biased on looking upon a person that came from a poor background, coming to the conclusion that they must be guilty, and therefore condemning an innocent man. Poncelets comment was true, there are no rich people on death row, they have the funds to be able to pay for good lawyer guilty or not, unlike Poncelets lawyer whose previous background was in tax.
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