The Death Penalty

Because of this people are being put to death because of the mistakes their lawyers made (Tushnet 44)."Poor people get poor representation. They are represented by overworked public defenders and private lawyers who aren't getting paid. That's not equal justice."" said a Louisiana lawyer (Wolf 72). We cannot sentence people to death because of the mistakes of other people.
             "Rights- and the Poor.
             "Perhaps we can shrug off and shred some of the dangerous myths laid on our minds like a second skin-such as the "right- to a fair and impartial jury of our peers; the "right- to represent oneself; the "right- to a fair trail, even. There're not rights-they're privileges of the powerful and rich. For the powerless and the poor, they are chimeras that vanish once one reaches out to claim them as something real or substantial."".
             -Mumia Abu-Jamal, Live from Death Roe, 1995 (Mitchell 164).
             There is also another very controversial point in the debate over capital punishment. The penalty of death is the most final punishment possible. Many death penalty opponents say that the capital punishment should never be used in a case where the jury or judge is not 100% sure of guilt. They say that, because it is impossible to ever be 100% sure about anything, the death penalty should not be used when someone might be innocent. New technologies, like DNA testing have freed many prisoners that were thought to be guilty. Maybe if this technology were available when death row inmates were standing trail, they too would be acquitted of their crimes. .
             A Dead Man is Good for Nothing.
             It hath long since been observed, that a man after he is hanged is good for nothing, and that punishment invented for the good of society, ought to be useful to society. It is evident, that a score of stout robbers, condemned for life to some public work, would serve that state in their punishment and that hanging them is a benefit to nobody but the executioner.