Zadie Carlson

English 2010

Ms. Szetela

April 1, 2018

The Death Penalty and All of its Secrets

The way that judges and juries can determine

the outcome of a trial based on race can have

a big impact on the lives of the people that

they judge. Even if they make their decision

unknowingly, the lives that their decision

effects can go completely unnoticed. There have been many lives that have been

changed because of this.

Freddie Pitts is a great example for this. His life was

changed because he was accused of murder and sent to

the death row twice, even with the confession of the person

who actually did the crime. The governor at that time had to

give him a full pardon because he believed that he was

innocent and the person who confessed was telling the truth

(DPIC).

Even the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission states that “if something is illegal that is

biased toward a certain race, it will impact the

company negatively” (EEOC). Isn’t sentencing someone to death because of their race

illegal? Doesn’t that mean that it would impact the Justice System negatively? It

happens quite often and it goes unnoticed. This is going under processes of refinement

to help overcome the racial bias, but there will always be a trace of it within the Justice

System.

There is a law on the death penalty that outrules

it as a cruel or unusual punishment. This is why

they have gotten rid of some of the ways they

choose to execute the inmates, because the way

they were doing it was too cruel for the

punishment to be in the range of the law (LII 1).

Wouldn’t sentencing someone to have the capitol punishment because of their race be

considered cruel or unusual because they did not

commit the crime?

The fact that someone can give another person a

sentence to prison because of their race is

disturbing. It is not something that you can

change, you were born with it. When people are

judged on an action just because of their color, it creates a fearful society because you

would have to watch your actions carefully in order to, in this case, survive.
Being in a cold, dark cell; nothing you could do. You are

bored out of your mind. Might as well go insane before they

execute you. It was not your fault. You were only put in here

because somebody accused you of a crime because of the

color of your skin. There was little evidence.

This kind of thing happens multiple times a year and it

needs to come to an end.

When lawyers are defending their client, they should do it

with persuasion and truth. Is not defending a person of color

as well as a white person truth? It happens more than you

know. There is not a book that they have to study that goes

over how to defend a black person versus a white person.

They should all be defended with the same amount of

thought.

Jurors are given a questionnaire before they are

considered to be part of a jury (SLC Courts). They

are asked what race they are. Even in jury cases,

there are more white people selected than those of

color. This could provide in unfair advantages in

the outcome of the event.

Judges are required to abide by the law and judges according to the law yet, they still

make some judgements based on race. There are still more white judges than any other

race and that could affect the way the Justice System works. There should be equality

between the judges and the way that they think.

Overall, there should be equality within the Justice

System for everybody so that the outcomes are correct

and the wrong person does not die for something that

they did not do. The way that some people are judging

based on race show that they want the upper hand and

the control over society. They want to reign over their

own personal autonomy and control it. This is an issue

that needs to be addressed within our lives and most of the time it is going unnoticed.

Works Cited

Race/Color Discrimination, www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/race_color.cfm.

“Courts - Jury Information - Summons Questionnaire Received.” Courts - Jury

Information - Summons Questionnaire Received | Salt Lake City - The Official City
 Government Website, www.ci.slc.ut.us/courts/jury/summons.

“Death Penalty.” LII / Legal Information Institute, 30 Aug. 2016,

www.law.cornell.edu/wex/death_penalty.

“Innocence Cases.” Innocence Cases | Death Penalty Information Center,

deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-cases.