t capital punishment. They found there to be no visible influence on the homicide rates (Zimring). Looking at capital punishment as a deterrent can be dangerous for society, because society is holding on to false hope. If they continue to implement capital punishment, people will have lost their lives, but the crime rate will still remain unchanged. They feel people should be spared their lives and separated from society by sentences of life imprisonment. They argue that capital punishment lacks consistency; some are sentenced to death while others, who commit the same crimes or worse, are sentenced to life imprisonment. Theyre view that capital punishment is administered arbitrarily, is supported by the 1972 United States Supreme Court ruling to abolish capital punishment. The Supreme Court ruled, in the case of Furman v. Georgia, that the state statutes were void of standards, and gave too much discretion to the judge and juries. The Supreme Court found that blacks that killed whites were more likely to receive a sentence of death than whites that killed blacks. Those who received death sentences were financially challenged and could not afford good legal representation. Opponents point out that the trials of death-row defendants are littered with stories of lawyers who were drunk in court, racially prejudice against their clients, or had no experience with death penalty cases (Death). They feel supporters of capital punishment no better than the criminals themselves.Although there are no specific organizations that rally to support capital punishment, there are people and groups that when asked, do express their views in support of it. One such group is the United States Justice Department. In response to a letter from Amnesty International they say, This administration and this department support the death penalty as an appropriate sanction for the most heinous crimes... (USA). When they speak of this administration, the...
