Flores 1

Parker Flores

Ms. Oberg

English 11

November 10 2015

Death Penalty Position Paper

For many countries, the death penalty has been a major controversy. Many countries

(even countries with more conservative customs than America) have actually abolished the

death penalty. While America who prides ourselves in having our constitution, believing in

equality and freedom for all, are contradicting ourselves by keeping the death penalty. Not only

does the death penalty go against the constitution, it is immoral, and data does show that

economic class and race definitely show how much bias is in our system. Because of these

reasons, it does seem like our ruling system is not fit to make a decision of a persons life, and

therefore should be abolished.

In Americas constitution, both the eighth and fourteenth amendments do talk about our

rights as citizens, specifically about equality for all citizens, and how the government may not

issue cruel and unusual punishment. From a moral standpoint, the government issuing the death

penalty for any crime is very cruel and unusual. The government determining who should be able

to live and who should cease to exist is too much power to handle, not to mention that lately

citizens have been given the death penalty without a proper trial. In order for the death penalty to

be stable, there needs to be more regulation, which has been ignored.

As for morality, sentencing someone to death may be a very tough decision, but the

process of lethal injection or any other form of execution is absolutely horrible. Because most

executions are handled by prison staff and not actual physicians, makes the process even more
dangerous. Even if physicians did conduct executions, that would completely contradict their

career. If a physician is committed to preserving and saving lives, how could you conduct an

execution?

Racial and economic bias also play a huge role into determining who gets not only a

proper trial, but who also gets the death penalty. It is no secret that the most common race seen

not only in prison but also targeted by police are African-Americans. For some reason racism is

still very prominent in America, even worse it is in our legal system. When combined with

economic bias, it makes trials against not only people of color, but against anyone who lives in

poverty very unfair.

In conclusion, the death penalty is not an acceptable way of punishment. It completely

goes against the constitution, especially against amendments number eight and fourteen. The

death penalty is also immoral, and by oath could not be carried out by a physician, thus making

the practice even more dangerous. Finally, race and economic bias have no place in the law, it is

completely unacceptable to have this many minorities on death row while many white men and

women walk free while committing equal crimes.

Works Cited

Von Drehle, David. Death Penalty Walking. TIME. Jan 2008. Web.