Proponents of the death penalty say it is unlikely an innocent person would be executed. Discuss the evidence from the Innocence Network and biases that still exist in the criminal justice system. Do you find this evidence convincing?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Those who support the death penalty say that the many legal controls and appeals currently in use make it almost impossible for an innocent person to be executed for the death penalty or for it to be used in a racist or capricious manner. Researchers have found this might not be the case. An estimated 2,000 innocent defendants go to prison every year. The Innocence Network has worked to exonerate these people. According to the Innocence Project, 350 DNA exonerees have been released after being convicted of crimes they did not commit-almost all of these were for the crimes of murder and rape. Experts and criminal justice officials estimate that at least one-half of 1 percent of all types of felony convictions are "wrong-person convictions," and research done by Samuel Gross and his colleagues estimates that 1 in 25 death row inmates is innocent. The pressure to ensure conviction in homicide cases may lead to a higher rate of wrongful convictions in murder cases. Furthermore, there are biases present in capital punishment. For example, homicides with male offenders and female victims are more likely to result in death sentences than homicides involving female offenders and male victims. Homicides involving strangers are more likely to result in the death sentence than homicides involving acquaintances. Prosecutors are also more likely to recommend the death sentence for people who kill white victims. A male minority group member killing a white female is more likely to result in the death penalty than any other race/gender combination. This might explain why African Americans make up 42 percent of inmates on death row, a number disproportionate to the minority representation in the population. This suggests that there are still biases in the system and that the likelihood of convicting certain people is higher than for others. Student answers will vary on whether they find these arguments convincing.