Anti Death Penalty Research Paper

“Today the death penalty is still used in 32 states in America, including the state I live in—Ohio” (Bushman). There are 50 states in America, and over half of them have legalized the death penalty. The consequence of the death penalty could be considered people getting what they deserve for taking someone’s life, but there is a huge debate on whether the death penalty is unconstitutional or not. Although some say the death penalty deters crime, it should be illegal in the United States. Historically, murdering or raping ended in the death of the defendant. It is now an issue, because of the civil rights era and the bill of rights. Ever since people started getting punished for crimes, the death penalty was the punishment for murder(Bushman).

Based on. “Although African Americans make up only 13 percent of the population, they constitute 48 percent of all murder victims—93 percent of whom are killed by other blacks—and they commit 51 percent of the murders in which the case is solved. A standard argument against the death penalty is that it is racist because 40 percent of those on death row are African American”(Tucker). This is saying that out of 100 people sentenced on death row, 40 or more of them are usually african american. That is a high number of people to be executed for murders, which occur daily across America. Another reason is, according to The American Bar Association study, 12% of the American population is of colored people, and the odds of being sentenced to death goes up by over 50%. Colored people also make up over ½ of the people executed on death row. (Bushman). This shows that 12% of the human population in America are African Americans, but they make up almost ½ of the people on death row. Thats a lot of people. Many people claim that the legal system is killing people just because of their race, but that is not always the case. The death penalty should be illegal because it is a racist form of