justice system on reform and rehabilitation. First, the possibility of convicting an innocent person is often cited as an argument that the death penalty is unjust. One Internet source indicates that 350 people were wrongly convicted of homicide or capital rape from 1900- 1985. (2) (It should be noted that the article does not specify how many of these individuals were later released.) In our text, Ernest van den Haag refers to a study conducted by Hugo Bedau that found that of 7000 executions during that same period, only 25 were purportedly innocent. (Ibid. p.286) The execution of an innocent person appears much less a risk than the risk that a person guilty of this type of violence would repeat the crime. Criminals kill people knowing that they will live and either spend the rest of their lives in prison or get out in 10 to 20 years. Consistent application of the capital punishment laws would have a deterrent effect on some potential murderers if not all. While states that do carry death penalty provisions significantly outnumber those that do not, there appears to be a certain reluctance to apply the laws. As a result, many violent criminals no longer fear the court system. Further, capital punishment laws have undergone many decades of review by the highest courts in the country and are anything but capriciously imposed. A further argument against the "innocent are convicted" is found in a review of the extensive appeal system that has been mandated by the courts that may take as much as fourteen years to complete. Even if this were a legitimate concern, the chances of an innocent person being wrongly convicted are very slim.The second argument, discriminatory application holds that a disproportional number of non-whites receive the death penalty upon conviction, in particular, a black convicted of murdering a white. This is really an argument against a flawed justice system that favors one class of citizens over another. Unequal d...
