me a hot issue during the 2000 presidential election. Texas leads the nation in executions and George W. Bush had to defend this practice. However, nobody saw Al Gore condemning Bush. Why?, because he believes in it too, so he just kept his mouth shut and let the press get on Bushs case. Many object to the death penalty on moral and religious grounds. Also, many are put to death and then later it is discovered that they were innocent. Plus there is something wrong with the idea of killing people to demonstrate that killing is wrong.Even if one agrees with the death penalty, there is evidence to prove that there are serious flaws in the system. There are more minorities and men on death row. Over two-thirds of all capital convictions and sentences are reversed because of serious error during trial or sentencing.3 The most common errors are incompetent defense lawyers and prosecutorial suppression of evidence. 3 Rawls would say that there is no veil of ignorance when it comes to sentencing people to death. Minorities do not get a fair shot and often when an African-American male is accused of kill a Caucasian person, he is many more times likely to be sentenced to death. 1There really is no reason for the death penalty to exist in the United States. Looking at the issue from a fiscal conservatives point of view, it is not more cost effective to kill a person than to keep them alive in jail. In a report from the Judicial Conference of the United States on the costs of the federal death penalty, it was reported that the defense costs were about four times higher in cases where death was sought than in comparable cases where death was not sought. Moreover, the prosecution costs in death cases were 67 percent higher than the defense costs. 1Governor Ryan of Illinois declared a moratorium in his state after 13 people were released from death row because of innocence. Ryan wanted assurances that the system worked before resuming exe...
