“This system violates the fundamental norms because it is haphazard and because it is regionally and racially biased.” He adds, “the minuscule number of executions nowadays cannot achieve the grand moral aims that are presupposed by a serious societal commitment to retribution”(1)

For the same reasons he points out that the death penalty should be considered unconstitutional based on the fourteenth amendment provision for equal protection of the law. Because the goals of neutral administration of j

In 1972, the Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional, in violation of the Eighth and the Fourteenth Amendments. (Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238) Since

In conclusion, it is difficult to consider the rights of people who have committed terrible crimes but I have to say my first reaction has always been to say, “Lock them up and throw away the key.” After studying the writings of many philosophers and lawyers who are familiar with the judicial system I am sticking to that position. I cannot justify killing another human being when the punishment of life imprisonment with no chance of parole is available.

The United States Constitution is based on the moral principle of equal justice to all. As it is now enforced it violates the Constitutional guarantee of equal protection, as well as due process of law to all. It has been proven that it is arbitrarily imposed. The arguments of deterrence and retribution are emotionally charged issues but I will show why I share Mr. Greenberg’s view that the arguments cannot be justified under our current legal system.

“The most abhorrent perpetrators of the most execrable crimes have escaped the penalty on grounds wholly unrelated to moral desert-for example, because defense counsel, the prosecutor, or the judge acted ineffectively or improperly on some matter of evidence…others, far less detestable have gone to their death because their trials went well.”(8)

In the book, Equal Justice and the Death Penalty, the authors have done a very comprehensive legal and empirical analysis of capital punishment statistics during the periods between Furman v. Georgia (1972) to McCleskey v. Kemp (1987); they have found that: “prosecutorial discretion continues to dominate the system and th

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