The Death Penalty Is No Different From Murder - 1994 Words

The death penalty is no different from murder. In both cases, a human’s life is taken. How is there any justice in taking away someone else’s life? Of course, some might say, â€Å"It is only an eye for an eye†, that it is only right they pay with their lives for what they did; however, how are we any different from these murders if we repeat the actions they committed as they took away our loved ones? Killing someone will not bring back the people we lost; so, why do we kill them? The death penalty does not bring justice to anyone. It just shows the absolute power and supremacy of a state as they seem to think they are in charge of one’s life. A government-sponsored system that kills its own citizens? A system that shows us killing is wrong†¦show more content†¦To begin with, does this system actually punish the true criminals? Do they always have the right person to blame? Sadly, this does not seem to be the case as the death penalty has been pr oven to put innocent lives at risk. â€Å"Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, 138 innocent men and women have been released from death row, including some who came within minutes of execution. In Missouri, Texas and Virginia investigations have been opened to determine if those states executed innocent men† (The Facts: 13 Reasons to Oppose the Death Penalty). To execute an innocent person is morally reprehensible; this is a risk we cannot take. This is a point that, Bryan Stevenson, an American lawyer, social justice activist, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law, tries to argue in his book, Just Mercy. In one of his most famous cases that he discusses in his book, Stevenson helps exonerate a man on the death row. Walter McMillian was convicted of killing 18-year-old Ronda Morrison, who was found under a clothing rack at a dry cleaner in Monroeville, Alabama, in 1986. Thre e witnesses testified against McMillian, while six witnesses, who were black, testified that he was at a church fish fry at the time of the crime. McMillian was found guilty and held on death row for six years. Stevenson decided to take on the case to defend McMillian, but a judge tried to talk him out