A third argument is that the infliction of capital punishment is arbitrary and discriminate so it needs to be abolished. This argument is not unique to capital punishment since the same argument can be made for any punishment. Statistics show a high percentage of blacks and Hispanics receiving capital punishment. Other punishments show the same trend. If capital punishment should be abolished because it is arbitrary and discriminate, then other punishments must also be abolished, which is irrational. It does not show that capital punishment should be abolished, but rather, capital punishment needs to be imposed in a non-discriminatory manner. The fourth argument commonly made is that capital punishment does not deter crime. I do not believe we can accurately say if capital punishment deters crime or not. Evidence is shown for both arguments since the statistics are biased, and therefore cannot be considered. .
Capital punishment introduces the unavoidable fact that there is a possibility that an innocent person will be executed. This is another common argument made for abolishing capital punishment, which I will further develop and analyze much more deeply than the previous arguments. An average of five exonerations are made from death row each year. There were seventy one executions made in 2002. These statistics show that the risk of executing the innocent is real and important in deciding the moral issues of capital punishment since it is morally impermissible to kill innocent people. Many philosophers provide a strong argument for the moral impermissibility of capital punishment due to the risk of executing the innocent, but there has been no strong counterargument to this. I will provide the counterargument that capital punishment is justified despite the risk of executing the innocent. .
Statistics show a fair amount of exonerations per year, but the risk of executing the innocent is much smaller than it seems.
