The Death Penalty

It is obvious to everybody that there are several reasons to refuse the death penalty. For instance, the number of murders has not decreased (but increased), the murderer's death does not stop the victim’s family grief or that it is not clear if the person who receives the death penalty is going to suffer because of the mechanism used.

Personally, what I think is that one of the most important reasons is that a lot of people are found guilty by a miscarriage of justice. I will give two examples:

· People who do not have enough money to pay a good lawyer (or any lawyer): in the North-American trials it is very important to convince the jury of the defendant’s innocence with “beautiful” words said by a good lawyer. We just have to see the films and we will realize that this is sometimes more important than the proof.

· People who are Black or Hispanic: only because they are Black or Hispanic (or because they are not white) they have more possibilities of becoming guilty. People still have prejudices and a lot of persons really believe that no-white men and women are more dangerous or they can commit a crime easier than a white one. And, why do not say that, most of the society is racist.

Sadly, the two previous conditions usually go together, and poor Black or Hispanic people are a good target to show that the justice works and the “baddies” are caught.

But we have to remember that the death penalty is not only used in North-America. Although we like to criticize the US, we should consider also other countries’ ways of “doing justice”.