Death Penalty: a Research Whether It Should Exist

Death penalty a controversial topic in each modern society. This is death penalty research paper in which the topic is analysed, whether the death penalty should be banned or not. The death penalty still exists today in 53 countries including China, Indonesia, and the United States. The death penalty has been around for over 300 years, but it’s time to change. It is an outdated, uncivilized, and primitive penalty that must be eliminated from our world. Hello, my name is Ryan Byrd, I feel truly privileged to be speaking to you today at the international youth to youth summit 2019. As future representatives, we have the power to enact change right now, so that we can live in a world that we are proud of. However, that will not be achieved unless we speak out about the implications of this desperate issue. The death penalty should be banned because it is an injustice, cruel, and wasteful procedure.

Countries like China, Indonesia, and the United States have deceived the public to think that their legal systems are implementing fair and justified punishments. But in reality, they are wrongfully sentencing innocent people to death due to prejudice beliefs and lack of strong evidence. In 2014 Samuel Gross, a law professor at the University of Michigan reported at least 4.1 percent of defendants put on death row are innocent. Anthony Ray Hinton, a man of black ethnicity living in America was wrongfully sentenced to death for the murders of two fast-food restaurant managers. He was identified in a photo line up from a victim of a similar crime. In the United States, eyewitness misidentification is the single biggest source of wrongful convictions. Australian Psychologist, John Dunn conducted research showing how fallible our memories can be and how easy it is to forget important details. After a state forensic examiner concluded that the bullets in the two murders came from a gun inside Hinton’s home, he was put on death row. His Lawyer did very little to combat this claim, refusing to seek funding for a qualified firearms expert to get a second opinion on the evidence. Mr. Hinton believed he experienced an unfair trial because he had a white lawyer, a white judge, and an all-white jury. He also had a white prosecutor with a known history of racial discrimination who said that just by looking at him, he could tell that Anthony Hinton was guilty and “evil”. This racist assumption would have given him a majorly biased perspective on his investigation. Hinton was released in April 2015, after three top firearms examiners testified that the bullets didn’t match the weapon. These justice systems should not be given the power to sentence people to death without knowing for absolute certainty that they were responsible for the crime. It is because of these broken justice systems, that many innocent people are suffering horrific and inhumane executions amongst thousands of other criminals.

These countries with the death penalty are allowing unnecessarily cruel natured executions. The most common forms of execution today are Electric chairs, Lethal injection and firing squads. The Electric chair is less common now because of the introduction of lethal injection. The process of the electric chair begins with the criminal being strapped into the seat, then they would have an electrode attached to their head. Approximately, 2,000 volts would be passed through the individual's body to cause immediate unconsciousness and eventual cardiac arrest. Lethal injection is growing globally and is the most commonly used form of execution in America. The procedure for lethal injection begins with the criminal being strapped in, followed by the injection of three drugs. Midazolam to sedate the individual, Vecuronium bromide to paralyse the muscles and potassium chloride to stop the heart. Although lethal injection isn’t as inhumane as the electric chair it is far riskier. Attorney, Scott Jones from Knoxville, in the United States, says “In the past century, 7% of lethal injection executions have failed whereas only 2% of electrocutions have”. The firing squad is most commonly used in China and Indonesia. The execution will start with the individual being strapped into a chair that is in front of a wall. There are three to six-shooters who stand behind it, and once the command is given, they all fire at the chest. The most infamous case of a firing squad execution is the Bali Nine. The Bali Nine was a group of nine Australians convicted in April 2005 for trying to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin worth $4 million from Indonesia. On the 29 April 2015, the ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad for their crimes. Both criminals and their families begged for clemency, however, due to Indonesia’s hard stance on the death penalty for convicted drug traffickers, President Joko W idodo denied them a second chance. Rather than a long prison sentence in Australia, the two drug smugglers had to experience a brutal death by firing squad in Indonesia. It is both confusing and worrying that these countries are allowing these inhumane forms of execution. The worst part is that there are no positive outcomes from these torturous deaths.

The death penalty is wasteful because it doesn’t deter crime and is more expensive than a prison sentence. The governments of the countries that have the death penalty in place justify that it will discourage crimes such as murder and drug trafficking. Surely there are more reasonable and humane ways to deter these crimes than the death penalty. These governments can implement certain regulations such as gun control to prevent many of these crimes from happening. The majority of the leading experts in the field of criminology in America believe that the death penalty doesn’t deter crime. They say that the states that have the death penalty don’t have lower homicide rates than the states where capital punishment has been banned. Also, many scientists theorise that the death penalty increases crime. They believe that it creates a desire for retribution rather than a fear of getting caught. These countries are ending thousands of lives a year without a purpose. They are also wasting millions of dollars on their sentences. Incarceration can cost up to $56,000 per year for each inmate. The average sentence for a criminal is around 3 years, however, the average sentence for criminals on death row is about 16 years. Additionally, the most common form of the death penalty, lethal injection can cost up to $16,500 per dose. The court date for a prison sentence typically costs $100,000, in contrast, a court date for capital punishment can cost up to $400,000. The majority of this money that is being wasted belongs to the governments of these countries, which can be alternately utilized to benefit their civilisations. Why are we spending millions of dollars and thousands of human lives a year on the death penalty if we know it is damaging our societies?

To conclude capital punishment research paper, we must do something to bring an end to this pointless torture. Or else there will be more unjust, inhumane and unnecessary deaths. So how can we create a future in which we are proud of, where the death penalty has been abolished? As the youth community, we must speak out and spread awareness through social media and campaigns. We must force these countries to reconsider their broken justice systems and cruel forms of execution that are having negative impacts on our society. Thank you for listening.