“It would make much more sense to just execute every 10th or every 100th murderer than it would to figure out the reason for juries picking the ones they are.” says Atlanta defense attorney Jack Martin in a recent AJC article. The sad but undeniable truth is that the Death Penalty sentence isn’t sufficiently distributed. Everything from race, gender, wealth to the emotions of the jurors themselves is factored into the decision of the sentence.
Another reason the Death Penalty is a Faulty method of punishment as it stands today, is the amount of innocent people that have suffered on death row and the amount of government resources being wasted sentencing those proven guilty to death row only to be commuted to a lesser sentence of life in prison later. In the U.S. judges have handed down 5,997 death sentences since 1973, when the Supreme Court approved guidelines for states to resume executions. Of those cases, 1,642 have been reversed on appeal, while another 76 death sentences have been commuted to life. In the past 30 years, 124 inmates were found to be innocent and released from death row. Many more innocent people are among the 3,549 awaiting execution.
(EXONERATION-to clear, as of an accusation; free from guilt or blame; exculpate)
