Capital Punishment is Murder Essays -- Against Death Penalty Essays

American history is replete with examples of brutality and foolery that will forever blot the American conscience. Early in this century, Sacco and Vanzetti were railroaded for a murder of which they were almost authorizedly innocent. The trial was a farce, and the verdict was a to a greater extent a result of bias against Italians than of the evidence. Their lives were forfeit. Later in the century, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were tried and true for conspiracy to commit espionage. Despite questionable evidence and even more questionable conduct on the part of prosecuting attorneys and government agencies, they were convicted the verdict was a statement of public hysteria and fear of Communism. They too met the executioner. Not stock-still ingrained in the annals of history, in the past months the state of Texas execute a man who even the state admitted had not pulled the trigger, but was unless an accomplice. If the recent elections prove anything, it is that these examples of the state-sanctioned murders of innocents have done nothing to change the American mind. Many Republicans ran and won on a law and order chopine in New York, Governor George Pataki defeated former Governor Mario Cuomo generally on the basis of Cuomos opposition to roof punishment. This article is an appeal to readers morality, to their consciences. It does plan of attack to show that the death penalty is costly and impractical (though it is), or that it is unconstitutional (which it may well be). The article is an appeal for mercy. Perhaps the greatest line with the death penalty, as the cases of the Rosenbergs and of Sacco and Vanzetti point out, is the chance for error incurred in capital cases. A study conducted at Stanford University found that, since 1900, more than fifty pe... ...run by criminals unless the criminals are all destroyed it is a war of us against them and we mustiness use whatever means are necessary to fight against them. until now more moderate advocate s of capital punishment tend to hold to a black-and-white morality that justifies the brutality of capital punishment as a necessary act of self- protection. However, before giving in to fear of offensive and justifying the deaths of innocents that inevitably result from the institution of capital punishment, we should remember that one of the a few(prenominal) things that distinguishes human from animal is the capacity for mercy. Even if we could be absolutely certain of a persons guilt, by killing him or her do we not behave murderers of ourselves. Darrow reminds us exactly what it means for society to abandon its mercy I would hate to live in a state that I didnt mean was better than a murderer.