hat, if Caught, he/she could be, electrocuted, gassed, or lethally injected? I highly doubt it. So why do people who support the capital punishment call it a deterrent? The death penalty violates constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. Although murderers come from all classes, those on death row are almost without exception poor and were living in poverty at the they were arrested. Capital punishment discriminates against the poor. The majority of death row inmates are represented by court appointed public defenders- and the state is not obligated to provide an attorney at all for appeals beyond the state level. Our criminal justice system is very flawed. For example Roosevelt Green was executed in Georgia two days before J.C. Shaw. Green and an accomplice kidnapped a young woman. Green swore that his companion shot her to death after Green had left, and that he knew nothing about the murder. Greens claim was supported by a statement that his accomplice made to a witness after the crime. The jury never resolved whether Green was telling the truth, and when he tried to take a polygraph examination a few days before his scheduled execution, the state refused to allow the examiner into the prison( Bruck,1985, P. 482)That is just one case. The criminal Justice system is so overworked no one really knows how many innocent people are on death row. It costs $2.8 million to try a capital case, over twice the cost of life in prison. (Deathpenalty.org) Proponents to the death penalty point to cost but as the numbers clearly show it is less expensive to incarcerate then kill. According to that same website 89 innocent men have been sentenced to death in the last 20 years. If the Criminal Justice system was not flawed why would the following be introduced Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), and Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL). have introduced legislation in the senate and house calling for a moratorium on all executio...
