Death Penalty Essay
Lena Baker, a poor African American female, was put to death by an all white, rich male jury for the murder of Ernest Knight. Knight was a white rich man who hired Lena to be his personal maid. He unfortunately abused his power towards her. He enslaved her, even though slavery was, and still is illegal. He was killed in the early 1940’s by Lena Baker. The jury overlooked the whole case, because of her race, wealth, and attempt to defend herself. She was sentenced to death in 1945. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org her case was very quick and simple, no actual time and effort was put into the case. This may have happened over 70 years ago, but nothing has changed. Innocents are still being put to death, and inequality is being brought upon those who do not deserve it in court. This is an endless battle that needs to end. As stated by “Introduction to Death Penalty,” death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is an eye for an eye punishment given when a serious, life changing crime such as first degree murder happens. Death penalty has been around since the government was adapted. The death penalty is controversial because some people believe it is an unbalanced system while others believe it is applied with fairness. We believe this is a cruel and unusual punishment to give when the defendant is not given any other options, such as life in prison, and no equality is given in a death penalty trial. The death penalty shows no mercy for people of color, or people with not a lot of money. …show more content…
If the defendant is a penniless person of color and commits a serious crime such as murder, odds are the government will show no mercy compared to a richer white person. Stated by “The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished” an anonymous research project happened back in 2002 which stated, only 6 white people have been put to death for killing a black person while 112 black people were put to death for killing a white person over the span of around 50 years. A prime example of this is a true story that happened back in the late 90’s. According to The Washington Post, and “The Death Penalty Should be Abolished” three Starbucks workers were killed in 1997. 2 out of the 3 workers were white and the location was in a rich neighborhood. Not to long before this incident , three McDonalds workers were killed. Those three workers were black and the location was in a poor neighborhood. The differences in these two cases is even though both the shooters were black, the Starbucks shooter was put to death while the McDonald's shooter was sentenced life in prison. There was no actual social or wealth justice in these cases, rather than discriminatory between race and money. Death penalty is extremely expensive to run, around a million dollars are put into each case, depending on the area it can be even more. We believe doing such an absurd act alone is completely insane. Putting millions of dollars into death penalty only to find out 30 minutes before trial that the defendant is innocent is simply a waste. , but that has happened a handful of times. We believe life without parole is not only a better option, but is not as costly and doesn’t involve as much effort. The government, adults, and non-profit organization put money into these trails when really, that’s unnecessary because according to the article “Death Penalty Should Be Abolished” the states actually cut funding for death penalty. They will test drugs on death row inmates, spending even more money, simply to abuse their power, they being the government. To sum this all up, the government is a wealthy and emotionless system towards death penalty. All the facts are laid out, but are overlooked by society. One factor that goes into any trial is the quality of the attorney. In a death penalty case though, the attorney has to have very amazing quality. But of course that’s not required because well, that just shows equality and no one gets that anymore. Some attorneys are unprepared for their case. Some will know nothing about the trial, or only have information that
Lena Baker, a poor African American female, was put to death by an all white, rich male jury for the murder of Ernest Knight. Knight was a white rich man who hired Lena to be his personal maid. He unfortunately abused his power towards her. He enslaved her, even though slavery was, and still is illegal. He was killed in the early 1940’s by Lena Baker. The jury overlooked the whole case, because of her race, wealth, and attempt to defend herself. She was sentenced to death in 1945. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org her case was very quick and simple, no actual time and effort was put into the case. This may have happened over 70 years ago, but nothing has changed. Innocents are still being put to death, and inequality is being brought upon those who do not deserve it in court. This is an endless battle that needs to end. As stated by “Introduction to Death Penalty,” death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is an eye for an eye punishment given when a serious, life changing crime such as first degree murder happens. Death penalty has been around since the government was adapted. The death penalty is controversial because some people believe it is an unbalanced system while others believe it is applied with fairness. We believe this is a cruel and unusual punishment to give when the defendant is not given any other options, such as life in prison, and no equality is given in a death penalty trial. The death penalty shows no mercy for people of color, or people with not a lot of money. …show more content…
If the defendant is a penniless person of color and commits a serious crime such as murder, odds are the government will show no mercy compared to a richer white person. Stated by “The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished” an anonymous research project happened back in 2002 which stated, only 6 white people have been put to death for killing a black person while 112 black people were put to death for killing a white person over the span of around 50 years. A prime example of this is a true story that happened back in the late 90’s. According to The Washington Post, and “The Death Penalty Should be Abolished” three Starbucks workers were killed in 1997. 2 out of the 3 workers were white and the location was in a rich neighborhood. Not to long before this incident , three McDonalds workers were killed. Those three workers were black and the location was in a poor neighborhood. The differences in these two cases is even though both the shooters were black, the Starbucks shooter was put to death while the McDonald's shooter was sentenced life in prison. There was no actual social or wealth justice in these cases, rather than discriminatory between race and money. Death penalty is extremely expensive to run, around a million dollars are put into each case, depending on the area it can be even more. We believe doing such an absurd act alone is completely insane. Putting millions of dollars into death penalty only to find out 30 minutes before trial that the defendant is innocent is simply a waste. , but that has happened a handful of times. We believe life without parole is not only a better option, but is not as costly and doesn’t involve as much effort. The government, adults, and non-profit organization put money into these trails when really, that’s unnecessary because according to the article “Death Penalty Should Be Abolished” the states actually cut funding for death penalty. They will test drugs on death row inmates, spending even more money, simply to abuse their power, they being the government. To sum this all up, the government is a wealthy and emotionless system towards death penalty. All the facts are laid out, but are overlooked by society. One factor that goes into any trial is the quality of the attorney. In a death penalty case though, the attorney has to have very amazing quality. But of course that’s not required because well, that just shows equality and no one gets that anymore. Some attorneys are unprepared for their case. Some will know nothing about the trial, or only have information that