Off With His Head!

Today in class we talked about the death penalty. We learned about what factors actually go into the resolution of these death row cases and the speakers also helped debunk some of the myths associated with with row and life in prison without a chance of parole. One of the common misconceptions is that the death sentence is cheaper than life without parole. Wrong, the death penalty is much more expensive because of all the appeals and extra hearings while also keeping the person in jail still.

Historically the death penalty stemmed from lynching. Lynching was outlawed and people needed a legal way to do the killings, so they came up with the death penalty. The term ‘not guilty’ just means that there was not enough evidence to put a person in jail, not that the person was innocent. This gives a chance for someone who is innocent to be given the death penalty. These inaccuracies are completely unfair and may ruin lives of innocent people. Some politicians want the trials for death penalty to be shorter in an effort to save money but this urgency may cause even more mistakes and more innocent people given the death penalty.

In our group discussions we talked about the rehab process the legal system has for inmates. The death penalty contradicts this system as people who are given it will reject any form of rehab to become a better citizen. On the other hand, life imprisonment gives inmates a chance at reflecting on what they have done and allows them to change for the better. One example is of an inmate who had life with no chance at parole. He had a son outside of jail and he made sure that his son still grew up a good life, so he talked to his son every night giving him advice and other life lesson from behind bars.

There are many reasons why the death penalty is a flawed system just like many others in our country. I personally don’t completely agree with it and how it is run. People like our speaker are working to make the justice system reliable and trustworthy in between many more things. 

The rest of my day was spent going through the motions. After class I spent my time doing some more research for my capstone project and preparing for class the next day.