No Justice for the Innocent

Where do we humans intervene between God, life, and death? Do we have the power over God to end someone’s life when we feel that it serves them right? I believe we do not have the right to give out the death penalty. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 20 out of the 36 states that give out the death penalty are because of a first-degree murder. A first-degree murder is a murder that was planned and carried out. Our society flips through the channels on the television to CNN, Fox News, and other local news stations and hears the horrible details of these murders. We listen to the news anchors believing that these murderers are monsters. We think that the death penalty should be their sentencing, but giving out the death penalty is making us just as barbaric as them. The Death Penalty Information Center recorded 48 executions in this year alone. 47 of them were through lethal injection and one came from the electric chair.
“Carlos DeLuna Texas Conviction: 1983, Executed: 1989
A Chicago Tribune investigation released in 2006 revealed groundbreaking
evidence that Texas may have executed an innocent man in 1989.
The defendant, Carlos DeLuna, was executed for the fatal stabbing of Texas
convenience store clerk Wanda Lopez in 1983. New evidence uncovered by
reporters Maurice Possley and Steve Mills casts doubt on DeLuna’s guilt and
points towards another man, Carlos Hernandez, who had a record of similar
crimes and repeatedly confessed to the murder. A news piece aired on
ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ also covered this story.

The new evidence casted strong doubt on DeLuna’s guilt. This is the fourth
investigation in the past two years pointing to the execution of a probably
innocent man. Similar questions have been raised in the cases of
Cameron Todd Willingham and Ruben Cantu in Texas, and Larry Griffin in Missouri.” (deathpenaltyinfo.org)
The thought of innocent people being sentenced to the death penalty is so frightening that it makes me believe that we should not have it all. This is not the only person who has evidence that supports their innocence and was still given the death penalty. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are at least 86 cases that have had eyewitness errors, false confessions, and other incorrect data. That is just the number of people that they are aware of. If you think that 86 innocent lives isn’t much compared to the other billions of lives that exist on this earth, then you take life for granted. I took a survey of the 8th graders at my school. I asked if they felt that the death penalty was appropriate in some cases or not appropriate at all. Based on their responses, 56% of the students surveyed felt that the death penalty was not appropriate, but when looking at the survey I took of adults at or over the age of twenty-one, only 6% of the adults surveyed felt the same way as the 8th graders.
When the convicted person is sentenced to the death penalty, they are executed even if like Carlos DeLuna, they are innocent. I believe that no human may decide to take the life away of another. I believe that the death penalty is an immoral and wicked punishment that no human, even if guilty, should have to undergo.