arbitrary

Capital Punishment : Arbitrary or Unbiased Abstract

The paper discusses the major issues pertaining to capital punishment such as human factor in making such a decision , fairness of the system and jurors ' logic or the lack of it in inflicting the death sentence Varying standards in applying the capital punishment has compelled the Supreme Court to prohibit it . The imposition of the death penalty was akin to being struck by lightning : it was arbitrary , cruel , and unpredictable in its selective fury ( www .deathpenaltyinfo .org

July 2 , 1976 , became a pivotal date in the

ongoing debate on capital punishment . The United States Supreme Court in its decision in Gregg v Georgia , let the capital punishment to resume . For more than ten years no state had the right to execute its prisoners . The reasoning behind the decision to prohibit the capital punishment was that quite too often the decision was made arbitrarily , with jurors lacking certain expertise or rights to take away others lives . The majority of the Court opined that the potential for such arbitrarily decisions had been sufficiently safeguarded by the laws and enactments

The aforementioned website makes a point that African Americans are more likely to get the capital punishment , especially , if the victim is white . Thus , it may be concluded that the decisions in the capital punishment are not made solely relying on universal standards equal for everybody . If certain strata are more likely to be inflicted with the capital punishment , it means the human factor in making such decisions is overwhelming and determining . The overwhelming number of people from minorities is a clear cut signal that too much space and freedom is given to jurors . One of the defects in the older system of capital punishment that had led the Court 's majority to condemn it as arbitrary and capricious in 1972 is still operating full force in those same states . This , in turn , gives the right to say that capital punishment all too often is inflicted arbitrarily . The precedent settled by the arbitrariness of the process resulted in an influx of cases having one common trait : poor and minorities found themselves in an inferior position compared to other strata

The Supreme Court itself has accepted that the ultimate problem is not even the cruelty and unusualness of the punishment . The arbitrary decision making was the pivotal concern of the Court . Therefore , the notion that capital punishment is arbitrary has been circulating amongst lawyers for a long time already

Since capital punishment can be viewed as an arbitrary , and the room for human factor is more than ample , I do not support death sentence

According to the data from the same website , since 1976 , well over 5 ,000 people have been sentenced to death 330 people have been executed in 26 states 3 ,061 people remain on death row awaiting execution

Limiting the jury 's role to finder of fact is especially vital to carrying out the objectives of the Supreme Court in its death penalty decisions . Permitting...