Blog #126 – Just Mercy
I thought that there was a lot of stuff going on in the movie, Just Mercy. We see that racism was still alive and well in 1980s Alabama, despite the amazing gains of the Civil Rights Movement (1954 – 1968). The town’s sheriff had it out for Johnnie D McMillan and used Ralph Myers to frame McMillan for murder. We also see the broken criminal justice system that takes the poor and chews them up and spits them out. We see that in the prisoners on death row. And we also see a major critique of capital punishment. Men are being executed who have mentall illnesses. We also saw two men, Johnnie D and Ray, that were innocent and would have been executed if not for the intense work of Bryan Stephenson. The men were also underrepresented by their lawyers which didn’t allow them to mount a sufficient defense.
Read over the link here about the problems with the death penalty. This comes from Bryan Stephenson’s organization, Equal Justice Initiative. It lists five areas to consider when thinking about the death penalty – innocence and error, inadequate counsel, racial bias, arbitrariness, and public safety.
After reading over the information about the death penalty, please answer the following questions:
- Which of the five areas do you think is the biggest problem with the death penalty? Why?
- What was your opinion about the death penalty BEFORE watching the movie and reading the info on the EJI website?
- Has your opinion on the death penalty changed AFTER seeing the movie and reading the info on the EJI website? Why or why not?
The biggest problem with the death penalty is innocence and error. To me, reading those statistics is mind blowing, 1 out of every 9 people executed is innocent. How can that happen? In this day and age, with all of the technology we have and all the bright and brilliant people working on these cases, really, how are innocent people dying? The way I see it, a case could have the most smart, hard-working lawyer and hard evidence that the defendant should not be put to death, yet they could still fail. Another thing that sticks out to me is that there are still false accusations by witnesses who are promised lenient treatment or other incentives in exchange for their testimony. The fact that this is still happening today is sickening, in the end, minorities are being unfairly represented due to corrupt people in charge who will do anything to get their way. I also feel that arbitrariness is on par with innocence and error. I looked up the definition for arbitrariness and this is what I found: the quality of being based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system. Nothing relating to criminal justice should be random and without reason or system, someone’s life depends on every decision made. Another thing that goes under this category is mental illness. This to me is devastating, people, like Herbert from the movie, shouldn’t even be on death row in the first place. If a defendant has a mental illness they should be in a hospital getting help, not a prison. This movie was eye opening and fascinating to me, but before seeing it, I didn’t realize the major problems with the death penalty. My opinion was that the only thing really deserving of the death penalty was if you were a mass murder. Before seeing this movie those were the only type of people I thought were on death row. After seeing the movie I know I was very wrong. I realized that I didn’t even know which states still had the death penalty, I looked it up asuming it would only be a few. To my surprise, 30 states still have the death penalty! After reading the website and watching the movie, I think this is a tough problem to tackle. Like the website said, lawyers working on these cases are overworked and underpaid, which makes getting people to help solve the problem is a challenge in its own. Overall the death penalty seems to be not only unfair, but also a significant cost to the taxpayers. I don’t know what needs to happen to change the way the death penalty works, but I do know that movies like this are extremely important to making people aware of real problems that we are facing as a country.
Out of the five listed problematic areas of the death penalty, I would have to say inadquate counsel is the most concerning. Public defenders are infamous for being overworked and undertrained, but according to the website (EJI), the issue is even more severe with death row public defenders, with many being uncertified by the Bar Association. This is very concerning, as if we are to have a penalty as severe as death, the accused need to have a trained and experienced public defender, as death penalty cases often have more arguments and work involved when compared to other cases. I also think that if the issue of legal counsel is resolved, there would be far fewer innocent people convicted, which would indirectly help resolve the “innocence and error” area.
Even before watching the movie, I was against the death penalty. In general I believe that giving a group of people or a judge the power to end someone’s life is very dangerous, as a wrongful conviction can end in the death of an innocent person. I also believe that the death penalty is inherently immoral. Here the phrase “two wrongs don’t make a right” fits the situation well. If killing is a crime worthy of death, shouldn’t the same punishment be given to the judge and jury? While this question is rhetorical, it does raise the question of whether killing in response to killing is justice, or revenge.
The movie didn’t change my opinion on the death penalty, it instead solidified it. Seeing the personal stories of death row inmates, some of which were on death row for decades, was disheartening but very insightful. It’s easy for people to look at something like the death penalty being forigen and abstract, but seeing the effects of the policy up close forces you to re-evaluate your positions with a new perspective. When the movie shows the Vietnam War veteran being executed, the sheer sadness of the penalty is shown. The hopelessness and somber as he enters the chamber, followed by the guard flipping the switch is enough to make anyone question the morality of such a thing. So while the movie didn’t change my opinion, it certainly helped me better understand the death penalty and its consequences.
1. The death penalty is a serious law, and takes lives away from people who may be innocent, and the death penalty takes them away from their families, and their lives most likely over something they can’t control. I think that all five aspects of the deal th penalty are big contributions to why there should be adjustments to it, but I think that the biggest issue is the innocence and error. Even though that racial bias, and inadequate counsel are awful and shouldn’t be issues in today’s society in the first place, I think that the mistakes they make are worse because of results. There is nothing else that compares to an innocent person being killed over something they didn’t do.
2. Before watching and reading everything that I have, I didn’t realize how flawed the death penalty was, I figured that it only happened to cerial killers and that they had legit evidence confirming that it was their wrong doing. I never figured that there were innocent people being killed. With something as serious as somebody’s life, the government shouldn’t have any doubts about who did it or anything like that. Also, before watching the movie I didn’t realize that some people really didn’t care that much is someone was wrongfully imprisoned, and they would just convict somebody based on the color of their skin.
3. I understand why they have the death penalty, and I understand the purpose of it, and nothing has changed in that aspect for me. But I do view it in a different way, like I said previously, I have never truly know everything about it or have followed all the rules to it. But after reading an article and watching Just Mercy, I understand more and can have a better opinion on everything. I think that there is a reason for the death penalty, not necessarily saying that I’m for it, but i’m not against it, I get why the importance of it is. But I also think that there are lots of things that the government can do to change the death penalty, making it more accurate and reasonable. This would help prevent the innocent people dying from it, and give the people proper representation that they deserve during their trials. My opinion would not of changed is I wasn’t exposed to so much information about it, but it all helped me gather a better view of the deal that penalty.
Inadequate counsel is the biggest out of the five areas involved with the death penalty. Yes, I know all five of them play a part in the whole thing but in my opinion inadequate counsel is the most corrupt and wrong. I prove my point because it goes after the poor and lower class people because they aren’t able to afford a lawyer and are usually given an unreliable and awful lawyer, making their case even harder. As we saw in the video, the previous judges given to Johnnie D were awful and had given him bad cases, making him stay even longer on death row and the dreaded date for his death. All in all, all five of the areas of the death penalty play a part in it but inasequate counsel is the most unfair.
Before reading the Equal Justice Initiative, I was opposed to the death penalty but I didn’t know much about and I just thought it was wrong. I thought it was wrong because if someone meant to commit their crimes and are pleased with themselves, they are just being rewarded death and no remorse or regret is going to take place. Another bad thing is if they take an innocent person’s life instead, like what almost happened to Johnnie D in the movie.
After reading the Equal Justice Initiative, I found about the different areas of the death penalty and how unjust it is while reading the statistics as well. I also learned how many states how gotten rid of the death penalty including Michigan who I didn;t know got rid of it but there are still states that allow it. Another thing I learned was the racial bias there is towards black and colored people. With 42% of black people making up death row alone, 34% of those people are executed. The other unjust thing is the amount of time people are executed but is found out after the fact they were wrongly convicted and killed for no reason. The margin of error in this operation is very high and innocent people are being killed for no reason.
When we went to see the movie Mercy, my prior knowledge I had of that time was that there was a lot of prejudice and segregation to other races, and whites thought they were superior, there was also many civil rights movements going on to make the world a better place and make all races equal. I also knew about death penalties and how they were / are very cruel because of my education and other movies and documentaries that showed the system of the death penalty. Yet, I did not know about the death row and that it had a specific name, even throughout some of Just Mercy, I didn’t really understand death row. But now watching this very powerful movie, I have learned a lot and added more evidence to my bad feelings toward the death penalty. The biggest issue I found of the death penalty is the racial bias, which we cleealy saw in Just Mercy. In 1950, seventy-five percent of the death penalty victims were african american. And even though times have changed greatly, the article says that racial bias is still occuring on 1972. I think it’s awful that race is a deciding factor of whether a person lives or dies. How can that be seen as a way to make the world a more equal place? Also from the article I found out that children were sometimes under the death penalty and I think that is the worst of all because no matter what a child does most times it’s because of the parent or thier influential person in their life and they don’t deserve to be so significantly punished, especially if they’re wrongly accused, which happened a lot in death penalties. Considering the I already thought the death penalty was a very bad thing and the movie portrayed it as that, my opinion towards the death penalty we’re just heightened. Watching Herbert get killed because of his mental illness and not for true hate crime, made the penalty seem so evil, I have seen other events like this in other movies where a person was wrongfully accused and each time it seems like a more tragic thing. The article showed me that the death penalty is just intended for culpable people it shows how truly wrong the penalty is. Overall I would conclude that my opinion hasn’t really changed it has just been heightened, from the new facts I have learned and the stories I have read or watched.
My top five problems with the death penalty are, mentaly illness like how some people who are mentaly ill are not getting the help they need but being put in a cage and waiting to be put down. That’s cruel they are still people and they weren’t in the right mind and that doesn’t mean they should just be put to death. Like in the movie , what happened to herbert. He was mentaly ill. He showed all the signs that he needed help, but nobody helped him.
My next problem with the death penalty is the racial bais. Race and color do not matter. What people are still likely to kill someone just as someone of color would. Rom the move to be arrested just because you looked like you would have done it.
Other problem with the death penalty is being wrongly convicted. To be hoest I think it’s dumb and they neeed to put more work into looking into a crime befor convicting someone. You could just be putting someone who is innocent to death from a wrong conviction.
Also the cost is a problem too. It surprised me to know that it cost more money to be executed than to be sentenced to life in prison.
Along with that they do need better liars, not many people will help someone on death row. Most on death row can’t even afford a lawyer to help them and look into their case.
Befor watching just mercy i had thought of the death penalty as something that was nessasary. Like if you kill someone you should be prepared to have your own life taken. Kinda thought it was necessary to have kinda to keep order. To provent others from doing it out of fear knowing they culd get the death penalty. But I’d always know in some ways that this was a bit wrong. Killing another person is a bad thing to do. Also with that does it make you any better to kill them for a crime they did? Thats always bugged me about the death penalty was is it right.
My opinion on the death penalty has changed much. I still do think that it is necessary to happen for certain crimes like muder. With that I think that there cases should be looked at more. So that an innocent is convicted like in just mercy. Being accused and arrested on false accusations.
Although there are many issues with the death penalty, I believe that the most important problem is innocence and error. The death penalty takes the life of a person, but one out of nine people on death row are exonerated. This statistics is very scary because if the government kills a person, then the evidence should be definitive. The risk is way too high to send a convicted felon to death row if they are not deserving of it, or if there is not enough evidence to fully know the truth on the case. Also, false accusations can lead to wrong convictions. In 2018, a record high 111 witnesses lied on stand or falsely accused the defendant. This shows that many witnesses lie for some reason or another. But this is not fair to the defendant because their life is on the line. This is a serious problem that is hard to monitor, so error is common enough to end the death penalty.
Before watching the movie and reading the website I thought the death penalty was cruel. I do not like the idea of the justice system killing their own citizens. I think that is wrong just on the basis of death. But my stance was not very strong because I did not know much about the facts. The movie and EJI website have drastically increased my strong beliefs on the issue. The evidence persuaded me that the death penalty is not only wrong, that is should be abolished immediatly. There was much proof against the law in both of the activities stated above. It is unacceptable for a citizen of this country to be killed because of their racial and social status. The rest of the nation should see this issue and its issues that follow. These problems will continue to persist if they are not stopped. There should be worldwide support for the abolishment of the cruel American death penalty that impacts many families throughout the country. Many areas of the law have been proven to be wrong or ineffective. Change needs to happen in the federal government to stop the continuum of these issues.
1. I believe that the biggest issue with the death penalty today is innocence and error. Even if one found the death penalty morally right, which I do not, many people who have been on death row have been found to be innocent (1 in 9 to be exact.) When I think of that staggering statistic, I see just how corrupt the justice system is. With other issues such as racial bias, I believe that the root cause is found in the over-policing of lower-class neighborhoods which are unfortunately dominated by racial minorities. Inadequate counsel is the byproduct of over expensive attorneys and poor funding by the states. Arbitrariness is mostly an issue of the past; I am not shocked by the fact that an estimated 20% of death row inmates have a serious mental illness, as the National Alliance On Mental Illness reported that 20% of all Americans suffer from a mental illness, and I would expect that to reflect more dramatically among prisoners due to their stressful environment. The main problem with executing criminals is that factors such as a biased jury, racism, overworked attorneys, and even corporate greed can lead to the conviction and death of innocent persons.
2. Before watching Just Mercy and reading the information on the website, I was already fairly anti-death penalty. A long time ago, maybe three or four years ago, I was neutral or even slightly pro-death penalty, mostly because I was uneducated about the topic and believed that if you committed murder then you deserved your own death in return. Then after I started getting interested in true crime, my views began to change as I saw that many “criminals” were actually wrongly convicted. These opinions were solidified after I watched The Green Mile. The movie follows the story of a stereotypical dumb, big, black man who is on death row for the rape and murder of a little girl. We learn that he was wrongly convicted, and the prison guards (including Tom Hanks) are aware of this fact, but they still go through the process of executing him. It was a very touching film and one that I will never forget. Just before reading the website and watching the film, I was strongly against the death penalty due to becoming more educated about the topic.
3. After watching the film and reading the EJI website, my theories about the broken justice system were confirmed. I knew that death row is expensive and that we keep prisoners in cells to rot for decades before finally killing them, but I did not know the full extent of the problem especially pertaining to public safety. The specific issue of the death penalty has been caused by many factors, and I can’t help but sympathize with those who are facing the sentence today. Thinking that maybe if the accused person was white or had a good lawyer could mean that they would be acquitted breaks my heart. Even if you brush aside all of the corruptness of the legal system, I still believe that the death penalty is inherently wrong. Even the most monstrous and vile of people can have redeeming qualities, and we have to remember that these offenders have families and friends who love them. I’m not advocating for convicted murderers and rapists to run free in society; I have no problem with life sentences. But everyone is redeemable, and by ending lives we are not giving those people a chance to better themselves.
Racial bias seems to be one of the biggest issues with the death penalty. There are still plenty of racist people in America, despite recent social advancements, and it negatively affects the lives of many people of color (such as Jamaicans, African Americans, Hispanics, Latinos/Latinas and more) who live in the United States. There are judges that will try to overturn the jury’s sentence if they declare someone that the judge could potentially deem inferior innocent. On the flip side, a jury, especially in the early/mid-1900s, could claim an innocent person guilty because they grew up thinking that they would always end up as a criminal. Another example would be lawyers hired by wrongly accused citizens who plead guilty without consulting the person on trial first. This lets them go to jail easily, maybe it takes off a year, but they seem to ignore the fact that those wrongly convicted are often torn away from their families for a crime they did not commit. If a white person were on trial, many lawyers would fight harder to plead innocent or at least leave with only parole.
Before watching Just Mercy and reading the EJI article, I didn’t really know enough about the death penalty to have a definitive opinion on it. I didn’t truly think about it a lot, as it was never a major issue addressed throughout my life, but overall I think deep down, it never sat right with me. After watching the movie and reading through the article, I believe that there need to be major changes in the legal system. It’s obvious that, to this day, there is racial and economic prejudice in court and prison systems. Because of this ongoing issue, people are still wrongly accused and sentenced to the death penalty, leaving the true criminals free in society. It completely gives off the idea that if you’re white with a lot of money, you’re more likely to be wrongly freed, and, sadly, this idea remains true. So, I believe that the death penalty should not be used as often as it is, and most certainly should not be used as a threat for ex-cons unwilling to go on trial.
I think all five areas mentioned in the EJI article are very important and definitely need fixing. However, I think the biggest problem with the death penalty is the Racial Bias which still exists today because, in my opinion, the bias shown towards certain races then also contributes to the other issues. According to EJI almost half of the people who have been placed on death row were African Americans. With this data it is easy to see the prevailing bias when determining these cases. Not only is the high percentage such a problem but also all the other issues it creates. The article also mentioned a big issue is Innocence and Error. Since there is such a
succeeding bias during the trials a great number of innocent people are being charged with consequences which they don’t deserve. However, bias isn’t the only factor which contributes to Innocence and Error, it is also that too many don’t receive adequate legal defense, which is a factor of its own. Since the system targets the poor and innocent, good legal defense isn’t an attainable option for most people. The result of this, is that the innocent don’t have any representation and therefore no ideal chance of not being given the death penalty. This leads to another factor, which is Public Safety. Since the system is so broken and the wrong people are targeted and then charged the death penalty makes no one safer because some of those who are guilty aren’t charged and then are still roaming the streets. Overall the system is broken and is therefore affecting society in the wrong ways.
My information on the death penalty before viewing the movie was vague and therefore my view on the death penalty was vague as well. My perspective on the death penalty, however, has always been that it is inhumane and that the system is broken. However, I always knew that there were innocent people serving time for crimes they didn’t commit. Yet I was never aware as to why so many innocent people were being charged without people’s wrongdoings.
The movie emphasized how broken the system truly is and how much help and improvement it needs. The system traps people who have no way out. The ones who have no chance of saving themselves due to a lack of money or just the bare existence of racial discrimination. However, the movie did show that the recognition and realization of the harm that the system brings to the guiltless people does make people want to make a change. I did, however, realize how hard it is to change the system since it’s been in place for so long and too many people don’t see the wrong in the system.
I believe that innocence and error is the biggest problem with death row. People who are on death row might have a mental disability and are not able to react or act the same way that we do so how should they be responsible for the actions that they do not understand that are wrong. They might have the mental capacity of a child or baby and we might not even know it until we check which might not even happen most of the time. The truth of the matter is that when you get put on death row you will be treated differently even if you get out. My opinion before the movie and the website was that it is awful and should be stopped immediately. My first thought when I heard of it was that it was good to get the murders of the street but the more I thought the less I was so enthusiastic about the idea. It got me wondering what would happen if someone innocent was put on death row, I was thinking about this in fifth grade when I thought the world was sunshine and rainbows and the worst thing that could happen to me was being grounded and it was as clear as who was innocent and who was guilty as white versus black. This is not the case when I thought about it again in the seventh grade and realized the world was not about me. I had to assume that people who were convicted might not be guilty and things might not be all good all the time in the places where I could not see them. The thoughts kept going through my head saying that I had to be good or bad there was no middle area my head wanted to think that there were no flaws in the justice system and they knew who was innocent and who was guilty. My opinion that the deth penalty should be taken down has not changed after the move or the website because all people were created to have equal rights and one of them is a trial and some death row inmates don’t get any so how is this fair not to treat a human like a human should be treated.
Jack K.
All 5 of the points brought up by EJI article are very corrupt, and those 5 points should all be fixed. I believe the biggest problem with the death penalty is Inadequate counsel. This is very important because if you have a good lawyer he will work as hard as he can so you do not get the death penalty, and usually when this happens the good lawyer finds a way to get the person off the death penalty. Even According to the article the failure to find good counsel to capital defendants is a DEFINING feature of the American death penalty
We saw in the movie how big of a difference it was for Johnny Ds case when he got a real highly educated non public defender. Johnny D told Bryan Stevenson when he met he his public defender had barely talked to him, and he was even really skeptical about Bryan because he could not possibly believe that a lawyer would put that much effort into helping, because of how bad hist past public defenders were. Capital defendants cases are very complex, time consuming, and take a lot of money. public defenders are notorious for being given huge caseloads that they cannot handle, they also receive a lack of investigative resources to help the defendant. Almost all the time the public defenders do not do an adequate job of investigating evidence, and witnesses. Most death penalty states do not even require lawyers to have their full training requested by the American bar association. Even in some severe cases of public defenders failures to help out capital defendants, some public defenders have shown up drunk, and slept through the parts of the trial. Lastly when you’re public defender is bad the first time and you are sentenced to death, it makes your appeal very hard to win, as we saw the perfect example of how hard it was for Johnny Ds case to even be reopened, because of the first wrongful conviction. In conclusion inadequate counsel is the biggest problem because in most cases it can be the difference between life and death.
Out of the 5 main problems presented, I think the biggest problem is innocence and error. It is crazy to think that you could have an issue so problematic that 1 in 9 people on death row is wrongfully convicted. When innocent lives are at risk it should be everyone’s concern, 166 people have been killed on death row that were proven innocent. Many people who were wrongfully convicted were also charged on wrongful eyewitness identification and coerced confessions as we saw in Johnnie D’s situation with Ralph Meyers. This corrupt system would benefit the wrongful witness through compensation, a prime example was the sheriff with Ralph Meyers, he promised him a decrease in jail time. I also felt like there wasn’t close to enough evidence to convict someone to the death penalty. Innocence and error are very important to the discontinuation of the death penalty because lives are being ended due to perjury and coerced testimony against the victim.
Before learning about the death penalty, I never really thought too much about it. I had always figured that was where serial killers and other terrible people ended up. I never thought there were any wrong convictions because you can’t just charge an innocent man to the death penalty. One thing I knew was the Scottsboro boys were wrongfully convicted and basically sentenced to death because they were young black men in the early 1900s. I was sure that any convictions like didn’t occur after the civil rights movement.
After watching the film and looking over EJI I learned many fascinating new things. I learned that most people on death row didn’t have an adequate lawyer to support them. Many wrongfully convicted barely had a chance to fight back. I also found that 42% of people on death row are African-American yet they only make up 13% of the population. I also learned that there was a strong racial bias in these situations concerning African-Americans. I learned that fake witnesses could put these people onto death row with coerced evidence and perjury. I also that the death penalty is legal in only 30 states and that it is more expensive than life in prison for a convict.
There are many problems with the death penalty but I think that the biggest problem is the amount of error that happens during death penalty cases and the number of people who are innocent but sentenced to death. For every nine people executed, at least one is exonerated, or found innocent. There have been 1512 people executed in the United States since 1973 and of those people only 166 have been exonerated and released from death row. The leading cause of wrongful convictions is false accusations. I believe that people are too quick to judge someone who is on trial and too quick to trust what they hear. In the United States our law system runs by the statement “innocent until proven guilty” but many witnesses lie on the stand whether it was because they were threatened or bribed. As citizens, we should be able to trust our police officers, the people who get paid to keep us safe. But, in almost 80% of cases where somebody who was convicted of homicide, sentenced to death, and later found innocent, misconduct by a police officer or prosecutor was involved with things such as concealing evidence that could help prove the defendant’s innocence, threatening witnesses, presenting false testimonies, and many more. Before watching the movie and learning more about the death penalty I didn’t agree with it, but for different reasons. I didn’t know a lot about it but I just didn’t think that other people should be able to choose when someone dies. In my opinion sentencing a murderer to death and then executing him doesn’t make you any better then the murderer, you both killed someone. Also, I didn’t know all of the flaws and injustice involved in death penalty cases and I didn’t know that children, people with mental illnesses, and even people who were innocent were being sentenced to death. After watching Just Mercy and reading all of the information and facts about the death penalty on the Equal Justice Initiative website it reinforced my opinion, it didn’t change it. Now, instead of just having an issue, morally, with the death penalty I am aware of all of the error and inequity that is also involved.
I personally believe that innocence and error is the area that imposes the biggest problem with the death penalty. I support the death penalty but this area is mostly the reason why the people that don’t support it don’t want to support it. Innocence and erorr plays a major factor on if people like the death penalty. This is because the death penalty punishment isn’t fair if the people can’t get a good lawyer. If they come from a poor background, then they’ll be forced to get a government paid lawyer that won’t help them at all. I remember my 8th grade social studies teacher telling us his sources, and his sources said that on average, public defenders only waste 3 hours total on a case and most don’t even communicate with their clients. The system isn’t fair for the people that can’t afford good attorneys, and due to this, people that are innocent are still imprisoned.
I thought that the death penalty was a great thing that was a nearly flawless system, people that are psychopathic killers deserve death! If you go on a massive murdering spree, then I believe that you should deserve the death penalty. People that commit horrendous acts like killing many people or other disgusting acts should get the death penalty. Personally, I feel like once you go that deep there’s no way you’re able to go back to your normal state if you had a mindset to commit atrocious acts. It’s different if you’re mentally ill, but if you supported and 100% knew what was going to happen when you commit the crime, then you deserve the penalty.
The movie definitely changed my mind on the death penalty, and I had a wider outlook on the death penalty. Note, I still support the death penalty but not as much as I used to. This is because the movie showed how corrupt, unfair, and unjust the system can be towards other people that can’t afford good legal representation. The movie showed the wrongs of the death penalty that I hadn’t seen before. I am less supportive of the death penalty now and I would like to see some reforms in the legal system.
1) I think that racial bias is the biggest problem. It is the biggest problem, because it can lead to many other factors that can cause problems. One that it can lead to is innocence and error, because like in the movie, in the past in racist areas, the police may try to pin the crime on someone innocent, because they know most people in that are wont protest it. Also , it could cause inadequate counsel. Unfortunately, most people in places where they face racial bias are also not in a position to obtain good legal counsel, causing them to be at a disadvantage. It is also shocking that African Americans make up to 42% of the people on death row despite only making up 13% of the population. It is also clearly a problem that they are 4 times more likely to face death row if the murder victim is white. That is obvious bias, that shows how broken the death penalty is, and how racial bias is the biggest problem.
2) My opinion before watching the movie and reading the info on the EJI website, is that the death penalty was bad. I believed that the death penalty was bad, and that it should not be used, exept for in certain rare conditions, maybe it could be only allowed on very rare occasions. Overall, I felt that it is inhumane, and almost makes us no better than the people that we are punishing. The death penalty gives us a bad shadow over us, making us look bad to other contrys, making us look like exicutioners. I also didnt know how much the death penalty was used, I thought it was not oftten used in the 1900’s
3) My overall opinion has stayed the same, but I learned a lot more shocking facts that further supported my opinion. It didn’t change because I already disagreed with the penalty, and in the movie on on the website, they expose how the death penalty is flawed and broken. It further gave me more facts and evidence of how bad and broken the penalty is, further cementing my opinion.
My biggest problems with the death penalty are its immorality, inaccuracy, racial bias, bad representation, and its treatment of the unwell. I see it as wrong to punish someone for murder, by killing them. It’s very hypocritical in my opinion. As seen in the movie, multiple cases of people set up for the death penalty, were wrongly accused, and weren’t able to be proven innocent, purely because of their poor representation. And most people who were blamed for unsolved murders were poor and or of a different race. It was also shown in the movie, a veteran who was going through PTSD was sentenced to death because of trauma that fighting for the U.S. gave him.
Before watching the movie or reading about EJI, I had always thought the death penalty was wrong. It is essentially trying to prevent something by doing that same gruesome thing. I am in disbelief that our country thinks that killing our population has been a good thing that we have done over these years. I believe it hasn’t done good and never will. Yes it kills someone who did something terrible most of the time, and sometimes it doesn’t get the right guy, but keeping them in jail will keep them from killing also.
After visiting the EJI website and looking at what they do, my opinion didn’t really change. The movie really gave me the perspective of the struggle of the poor and racially biased people and how they were treated and essentially how rigged their trials and cases were. It made me realize how important groups like EJI are, to find the truth of the matter for these people. But overall, their success and their work ethic and morals are what we need in this world. Their first sentence really got my attention, the question is not does someone deserve to die, but do we deserve to kill, and that will stay with me forever on this topic. I overall have always seen the death penalty as wrong, but not always for the right reasons. I always thought it was just too hypocritical of us to kill people for killing. But now I see it is wrong for the racial bias and its inaccuracy and unfairness.
I think that out of the five areas, the biggest problem with the death penalty is inadequate council. The reason why I think that is because is because it is almost impossible to be proven not guilty even if you are innocent when you are on the death row and have a bad lawyer. A lot of innocent prisoners on death row have false accusations made against them and it is very hard to defend yourself if your lawyer does not do any work and falls asleep during the hearings. Because most people on death row are poor, they cannot afford a good attorney, so they will always be stuck with bad, overworked and underpaid lawyers. This also makes it so that it is easier for the rich people to be exempted, and so creates even more inequality between the poor and the rich.
Before watching the movie, I thought that the death penalty was somehow bad, but not as bad as it really is. I did not know that so many people were put on death row, and I thought that all of the people were investigated for a long time and were given enough protection in case they were not guilty. I thought that the death row system was fair and prisoners that were executed were proven guilty on something that was obvious they did, and not based on false accusations, which happens on average 1 out of 9 times somebody is executed.
No, my opinion has stayed the same, I still think that it is bad, but I realized how bad it is. Before, I did not know that there were a lot of innocent people executed. I also did not know that racial prejudice played a big part in executions, and that a lot of false accusations were often made and the accused were not able to defend themselves because they were given bad lawyers that could not defend them and they were not rich enough to afford a good attorney. I also did not know that they executed people with mental illnesses, which they should not do since they cannot reason and control themselves well.
I think the largest problem with the death penalty is the inadequate counsel given to the people who cant afford a lawyer. As shown in the article it is nearly impossible for an overworked underpaid court appointed lawyer. If everyone could get a good lawyer then they could help combat some of the other problems addressed. They can help their client if they have a mental disability. They are more likely to care more about the case and would be more likely to bring up biases they see. If every defendant had a good lawyer who cared there would be less error in the system. A good enough lawyer will help tremendously in all aspects of the criminal justice system. If lawyers had the minimum training set by the American Bar Association they could defend their clients from the death penalty much better.
Before I saw the movie and read the article I thought the death penalty was bad, but it was just the sense of killing people as wrong. It was only that killing was morally wrong. I always assumed that the people sentenced to death were people that had done a horrible crime and believed that most were rightfully convicted.
Now after watching the movie and reading the article my opinion that the death penalty is bad hasn’t changed that much. I still think the death penalty is bad, but know I have more worrys about the system. I had no idea that even today the system was messed up. I thought it was fixed. The movie showed the injustice done to these people and I thought most of it was fixed now until I read the article. It showed me that even today there are still wrongfully convicted because of race. One thing I forgot to think about beforehand was how bad court appointed lawyers are. I remember talking a little bit in eighth grade about how most court appointed lawyers are put on tight schedules and aren’t paid enough to care. It disappoints me that America still has the problems. It angers me that some places use the death penalty as a modern day lynching. We need to eliminate racism from the justice system.
I think racial bias is the biggest problem with the death penalty as well as the entire criminal justice system. It appears in other areas listed, such as Innocence and Error, Inadequate council, and Arbitrariness. As we saw in the film, Johnny D was innocent, vulnerable as the town already disliked him, and his family couldn’t afford a good lawyer. Too often Americans of color are wrongfully convicted, or they’re given harsher sentences, but the theme of racism with the death penalty is more dangerous than normal cases. Racism fuels other problems, but unlike other cases, death row doesn’t allow for people to get justice as easily. They’re put on a clock and not everyone can get good lawyers in time, like what we saw with Herbert. Or, their appeals can easily be shut down (because they’re black) as we saw with many other cases in the movie.
Before seeing the movie I felt that the death penalty was a justified one under circumstances. However, I was only considering the most extreme circumstances, like cannibalism, mass shootings, or serial killers/rapists. Even when considering the death penalty, I never thought of the criminal. I just felt that the victims and families should get peace knowing there was no chance that person could hurt them again. I was unaware of how onesided my view on things was. I never considered innocent people or the ones who were given unfair sentences. As a forensic studies enthusiast, I’m aware of many horrible crimes that have taken place. However, I never focus much past the process identifying the person who did it. I’m aware of the racial bias in America’s prisons and how some kids are charged as adults while grown men walk free from rape charges, but the death penalty is only really talked about when it’s justified.
After watching the movie and reading the article, I feel that under no circumstances should the death penalty stand in any form of the justice system. There are too many uncertainties about those receiving sentences and I don’t see how anyone can be deemed fit enough to take someone’s life. I do think there are definitely people who should pay for what they’ve done with their life, but there are too many undeserving people who get swept up with them. Besides, sometimes people change. It should never be too late to improve.
When glancing over the top five problematic errors when discussing the death penalty, I would have to sat that inadquate councel is the worst. Although all five play a very large role, in my opinion inadequate counsel is the most corrupt. Many of the death row public defenders are being uncertified by the Bar Association. Not only that, inadequate counsel goes after the power and lower class citizens and people who won’t be able to find a lawyer or even afford one. Without a reliable lawyer they are left in the dust. The death penatly and death penalty cases in general are very important and without a reliable lawyer the citizen will not be convicted accurately. If this big issue following the inadequate council was to be fixed we would have less people wrongfully convicted and more that are given a far chance in court.
Before watching the movie and learning more about the death penalty I hadn’t known how bad it had made people’s lives and what impact it had, more so I didn’t realize that it was very flawed. I had always thought that the death penalty was used on those people who had done something extremely bad and harmful, I hadnt relized that people were being wrongfully convicted. With the death penalty having hold of the destiny of someone’s life, I don’t think that the government should be so weary and contemplate wether someone did something for real or someone might have done something.
I had, like previously stated, always understood why the death penalty was there and what it would be used for, but now my opinion on the death penalty and understanding have both changed. I know I have a better and more well rounded expression towards the penalty. My ideas have changed because I now know how it can be easily misused and cause someone(who is innocent)their life. I understand the importance of having a death penalty around but I do think that there needs to be many adjustments to the penalty in order for it to be fair and not cost someone their life.
1.) I think that the biggest error with the death penalty is inadequate council. The article said that most states that have the death penalty don’t require the defense lawyers to have based the Bar exams. These lawyers are “overworked, underpaid and inexperienced,’’ they are also appointed to people who can’t afford better ones. This means that these people aren’t always getting good lawyers who take the time to properly investigate and challenge claims. This is the most unfair part of the death penalty because if the lawyers were more dedicated to winning the cases, like Bryan Steveson, the trials would be more accurate and a fairer sentence could be given.
2.) Before watching Just Mercy, I knew little about the death penalty. I thought it was a rarely used and uncommon punishment since you never hear about it in the news. I also thought that once people were convicted, their execution occurred quickly. Before I watched the movie or read the article, I didn’t have a strong opinion on the death penalty. It seemed wrong and contradictory to kill someone for killing someone.
3.) Now after watching the movie and reading the article on EJI’s website, I have a stronger opinion on the death penalty. After seeing how seeing how many people on death row had been wrongly convicted, it didn’t make sense to have the death penalty if it risked accidentally killing innocent people who did not have proper representation or trails. Another reason my opinion changed was because I realized that once they are convicted prisoners usually spend around a decade on death row. It seems wrong for them to wait so long, especially those that were later proven innocent. I think that instead of the death penalty there should be a long sentence and a more accurate trial. This way we aren’t endangering the lives of those that are actually innocent as they would have been proven innocent in the trial. It would also be a better punishment for people who are guilty, because they would have to spend more time thinking about what they have done. I read an additional article about a teen who killed a woman in a hit and run. Her family asked that the teen only go to juvie until he is an adult and while he is there he has to read all the favorite books of the women who died. I felt that this is a better punishment than the death penalty and a similar technique could be used in other cases.
I think that the public safety aspect that is described on the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) website is the largest problem today. If, according to the EJI website, the death penalty does not help deter violet crimes, then all of the purpose is practically lost. The point of such a strict punishment, in my opinion, is to deter people from committing violent crimes in the first place. As there is a lack of effectiveness, cost is another large problem that exists. The EJI website describes that it costs taxpayers more money to use execution rather than life imprisonment. According to the article, even law enforcement officials say that the death penalty as a deterrent is ineffective. Additionally, as voters are becoming increasingly unsupportive of the death penalty, it makes little sense to continue the practice overall.
Before reading the EJI article, I though of the death penalty as a punishment created to deter violence and to (what I though was the sad truth) save the taxpayers’ money. I originally was leaning more on the side against it because it seems highly unethical to take someone else’s life no matter what they did. If a person commits a violent offence, it seems that life in prison with no chance of parole would be the most ethical method, even if not the most economical. Life with no parole not only prevents the death of another human being, but also (in the fair conviction of a crime with a victim) brings restitution and peace to the victim and/or their family knowing the offender would not be released back into the public population.
Reading the article has changed my perspective on the death penalty. The article rebutted the arguments about how the death penalty is designed to save money for the tax payers while providing justice to Americans and proved that the contrary is more evident. The EJI, taking a firm side in the highly controversial topic, choose the side of being against the death penalty and presented numerous facts to back up the position. This rational and factual support for their argument is what solidified my views against the death penalty.
I believe that the presence of racial bias within death row cases that include african americans is one of the biggest problems with the death penalty. Even though it is not so common nowadays, the use of racial bias in order to further help accuse an african american of a crime was much too prevalent in the 1980s. According to the EJI website, a defendant was four times more likely to be sentenced to death if they were black instead of white. This was an insane statistic which should not even be possible, and I think it’s even more absurd that this existed even after the civil rights movement took place. In the film Just Mercy we witnessed Walter get wrongfully accused of a murder by a sheriff who knew he didn’t commit the crime. Just because the victim was white, Sheriff tate went as far as terrorizing Myers into lying about what he had seen the day the crime happened. I was surprised to see that the sheriff had no charges pressed on him in the movie, and if he did end up walking away with some sort of penalty then it really shows how corrupt the government was during the time period. Before watching this film, I was okay with letting the death penalty exist, it was a way of effectively getting rid of the more extreme criminals that were too dangerous to be released. I never really saw any problems with it until after watching the film and reading more about the statistics on the website. I thought it was unfair how 1 in 9 death row inmates are wrongfully accused, and how they still end up getting executed for nothing. I didn’t take into account racial bias either, even though I should have seen it as a possibility. Although many horrible things surround the death penalty that were seen in the 1980s, I do believe that it’s still effective in it’s main purpose. And although racial bias was prevalent back then, I feel as if it is much better now since african americans have gained a lot since.
After reviewing all five major aspects of the problems with the death penalty, I believe innocence and error is the greatest one because the four other categories will ultimately make it harder to get out of death row, but innocence and error will put you in there in the first place. In the case of Johnnie D in Just Mercy, he was sentenced due to a false accusation from a perjury eyewitness who was promised an incentive in exchange for their testimony. Additionally, Johnnie was continuously provided lawyers who would not work for him due to what he was accused of or due to the fact that they couldn’t find a loophole. Racial bias, arbitrariness, and public safety did not certainly help the victim’s case, but it was not the main reasoning for leaving Johnnie D fighting to escape the death row. Before watching the movie and reading the EJI website, I barely knew anything about death row. I assumed the people put on it rightfully belonged there and were never able to escape. My judgment was wrongly clouded with false information, as well as missing details. After taking in the story behind the conviction, I learned how absolutely cruel and inhumane all of the people and lawyers were who put a good amount of innocent victims on the row. Little did I know, many of these people were heroes or mentally ill, and in the movie Herbert was both. Herbert could not get proper representation in time before his execution date and was killed. This scene was especially gut wrenching for me to watch due to how sweet and innocent he was and how he truly needed help with what he sacrificed to fight for our country, which was his mental health. Unfortunately, I also quickly realized that Herbert wasn’t unique, and his story just happened to be told. This uniqueness is due to the fact that so many other innocent and caring victims were additionally sentenced to death and ended up facing their execution date. I now have a better and deeper understanding of what took place in areas such as Alabama with death row prisoners and know to not assume they were there because they deserved it, but I could never imagine experiencing what them and their families went through.
The biggest issue with our current capital punishment system is the lack of forensic evidence. In many cases which the crime is punishable by death, there is more than enough forensic evidence to test on subjects, and it is relatively easy, too. Hair sampling, which is like a fingerprint, different for everyone, can be tested along with hair from the crime scene. Bite mark evidence is a total sham, and rarely holds up in front of any judge who knows better. DNA testing never fails. Blood from the suspect and attacker can both be identified through blood typing and Gel Electrophoresis. If the blood type matches the one found at the crime scene and the suspect, he is a top suspect, and if the DNA matches through Gel Electrophoresis, he can be entirely convicted for the crime.
My opinion before reading the article and viewing the movie were that the condemned should not have to wait so long to be put to death and should be executed immediately like they did in the old days. Gruesome yes, but our taxpayer dollars shouldn’t have to house them. Like the Boston Bomber; he should not be alive still, because we know he did such a horrible thing. But after viewing the movie, I realized the time the convicted spend in their cells can actually save them. One out of nine inmates on death row have been found innocent, and that number could go up. It is important to save time for a legal team to look at evidence against the convicted, and to see if it can save them.
My opinion has greatly changed since viewing the movie. Killers should have an extensive trial with many different forms of individual and class evidence to back one case up. Different juries should look at the same case, and make different decisions, and the majority decision is the ruling in the case. The problem is, if the convicted is tried in the town where the crime was committed, there will be some prejudice. They need to come up with a better system for death penalties, and they need to add and take away crimes. Child rape and murder of just one child should gain a death penalty. They took the life of an innocent, defenseless child. But on the other hand, the courts should not judge on brutality, but number of lives taken.
Area five, public safety, is the biggest problem of the death penalty. The reason this section is the biggest problem is because is shows that the death penalty is just worse than any other meathod. In the first section in the article, deterrence, under public safety it tells us that the death penalty can’t even do somthing that we thought it would do, and that is deter crime. In section three,cost, the article tells us that execution is far more expensive than life without parole. In section four,distraction, the article tells us that the death penalty “draws attention away” from other and more effective forms of public saftey. Public safety is the largest problem because it does not function as advertised, is the most expensive option, and is getting in the way of other public safety programs. The reason this area is more of a problem than others is that these problems, except for cost, will always be present and cannot be fixed.
Before I watched Just Mercy and read info on the EJI website, I thought that capital punishment should be saved for serial killers and terrorists. I believed, and still do, that the death penalty, as long as its still around, sould be used sparringly because human lives are precious. I also thought that the death penalty would cost less than keeping someone locked up for the rest of their days.
My opinion on the death penalty has quite significantly changed. Through the reading, I learned how inefficient capital punishment is. If it costs more to kill someone than to lock them up for life, then it’s obvious that you should just imprison them. If instead of giving the death penalty, we gave life imprisonment without parole, the government would be saving money.
Another way the movie and the article changed my view, was by showing how racism and prejudice are still found in our justice system. I thought that racism would not cause large problems like this because great strides have been made towards equality, but the data showed in the article totally disproved my thought.
1. I believe that the biggest problem with the death penalty is inadequate council. Although I believe that all of the aspects regarding the death penalty are very serious, inadequate council is the largest problem and steps need to be taken to help improve the situation. From my point of view, it looks as if the inadequate council is an extreme issue because the majority of the defendants are unable to afford a good lawyer. Because of this, they receive poor representation from lawyers who are underpaid, overworked, and very inexperienced. It is extremely difficult to win a case if you have a bad lawyer. With an inadequate council, there is very little chance that you will achieve justice.
2. Before watching Just Mercy and reading the Equal Justice Initiative article, I never really had a strong opinion on how I viewed the death penalty. Whether or not I deemed the death penalty as right or wrong was a question I had never been asked before and was something I rarely considered. However, the few times I had previously thought about this, I came to the conclusion that I was anti-death penalty, but because I was never previously educated on this topic, it was somewhat difficult to form an opinion.
3. Now that I have seen the Just Mercy and read the EJI website, I have received a much better understanding of the problems with the death row. The statistics on the website helped me figure out how unjust the system regarding the death row is. I now can confidently say that I am against the death row. After I saw the stories of the inmates on death row, especially the ones on death row for many years, I was both shocked and sad. I am empathetic towards those experiencing the complications with the death row today. When the Vietnam Veteran with the mental illness was killed, I realized how evil the death penalty seemed. Overall, it is very easy for me to conclude that I am against the death penalty. I believe that the death penalty is immoral and wrong.
I believe the largest issue with the death penalty is innocence and error. After watching the film and seeing how an insufficient investigation, an agenda against the convict, or simply not sufficient representation in court to lower or dismiss the punishment, I can truthfully say I am shocked by how many people on death row turn out to be innocent. According to the statistics of the website, one in nine people on death row are exonerated, meaning they are proven innocent and their sentence is completely reversed and they are let go. This is an incredibly high number to see in something so serious as the death sentence. The amount of people who have been proven innocent illustrate how much of a flaw in the system it is.
Before watching the movie I was neither for or against the death penalty, but I did believe some of the worst criminals were deserving of the penalty, especially if they had put a large amount of people through suffering. I was unaware of how unfair the death penalty system was before watching the film. I didn’t realize how race played a big part in unfair or stricter-than-necessary punishments.
After watching the film, my opinion towards to death penalty shifted slightly, but the most notable shift was my belief that if a convict is given the death penalty, they deserve to have their case investigated as thoroughly as possible in order to prove beyond any doubt that he/she is deserving of capital punishment. Seeing how characters like Herbert were executed despite clearly suffering from a mental illness illustrated how the system is often unjust and many cases need further investigation to accurately assign sentences.
I think that innocence and error is the biggest problem with the death penalty. If any piece of evidence needed to be used to prove that the death penalty was ineffective in punishing people, one could simply look at the error rate with the death sentence. Yes, inadequate counsel, racial bias, and arbitrariness are problems too, but their effect is the error rate. Furthermore, the innocence and error in death penalty can be used to show why it is not an effective way of enforcing public safety.
Before watching the movie and reading the website information, I was still leaning towards not using the death penalty, or at least making changes in the way a death-row criminal was conflicted. However, I was not completely sure about my stance. I knew that supporting a bunch of prisoners in the prison system was expensive, and perhaps the prison system would be more effective if there were not as many prisoners to worry about. Of course, I was somewhat aware of the conviction of many innocent people, and I also felt that it was pretty immoral to kill another human, no matter their crime. On the other hand, I asked myself the question, what punishment would I feel was just for someone who had killed my whole family (under the assumption they were not a child, mentally ill, intellectually disabled, etc.)? I did recognize that everything depended on the circumstance, but a grief-ridden person or family might be less hesitant to let the murderer live. Overall, though, I decided that killing another person, even if they were a murderer, was still just as bad because they had loved ones too that did not deserve to go through the same pain. I was definitely not aware of the full extent in which the death penalty was flawed.
After watching the movie and reading the website information, I realized that it was not fair to frame the issue in terms of what was a just punishment for the murderer. The fact was that the death penalty system in its conviction of several innocent people was just as evil as any other murderer. Reading the website, I saw that the cost of the death penalty was just as much as life without parole in jail, and that crime rate was not improved by the death penalty either. Now, without a doubt, I can say that I now believe that the death penalty is not a way we should punish criminals.
Out of the five areas is innocence or error. I think that all 5 of the areas of the death penalty are an issue. The death penalty is something that should be taken very very seriously, and if you are going to kill someone you need to be 100 percent positive that they commited the crime. There is no room for error, because you are dealing with a human being. So if you are wrong you are ending an innocent person’s life. The article says that 1 in 9 people are exonerated. That may seem like a low percentage but it was still an innocent person’s life that was ended. Some of this may relate to other areas like racial bias. Some of the innocent people who were killed on death row were put in death row because of their skin color which is an absolute error in the system.
Before i watched just mercy i was in favor of the death penalty. I think that if someone was to murder another innocent human being just living their own life that that person should be punished. I don’t think putting that person in jail for life is a worthy punishment because the person can learn to accept the living conditions and be somewhat happy when they should be living a life of punishment. I do think that the use of the death penalty should be very restricted. I think that the crime would have to be very severe and there would have to be straight up evidence that proves the person did it. I also think that people with mental illnesses should be allowed to be punished with the death penalty becase they still commited the crime.
After watching the movie i still think that the death penalty should be allowed but it was very eye opening. It was eye opening that people were falsely accused and then sentenced to death. I could never imagine being in the shoes of someone who did nothing wrong but i was still being killed. That would be absolutely horrible. It was also eye opening that people in the 1980’s were still being mistreated because of their skin.
My previous knowledge on the death penalty was minimal knowledge. Previously I only knew what happened, and was unaware of the legal process and steps that has to be done in order up until you get a final execution date. Honestly, I was in favor of the death penalty before watching this movie, and I think my opinion has not changed but it has been affected. I say this because I cannot agree with the death of innocent people, when the legal system gives up on people who cannot afford to get a lawyer to fight for them even when their literal life depends on it. I think that during this time period when the racial prejudice was such a major component in the conviction of people onto death row, I would not have supported the death penalty. Just Mercy changed my perspective on how the south was in the late 1900’s, I was under the impression that the death penalty was a rare occurrence, and only awarded to the worst and most severe criminals almost in a way of respect. I guess I thought that if you were ever put on death row you were there because u were truly an evil person, and this movie showed that sometimes terrible situations in which you could be falsely imprisoned and even have your life forfeit just because someone disliked your skin color. Despite this, I still agree with the death penalty and think it should stay implemented where it is. Because I think it is the best example and deterrence of big time criminals. After reading the websites article I think that the most important factor on the topic of the Death penalty is either racial Bias, or Innocence and Error. because although the fact that people are racially profiled and put into a place where they do not belong is terrible and shouldn’t happen, you cannot ignore that the biggest flaw with the Death penalty system is the amount of people that are exonerated. Having that many people exonerated (1 in 9) compared to the amount of people actually executed in the past 40-50 years is astonishing and scarily sickening.
The five areas with the biggest problems with the death penalty are innocence and error, inadequete counsiling, racial bias, arbitrations, and public saftey. Innocence and error is the reality that the justice system treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent. In wrongful convictions for the death penalty perjury/ false accusations and offical misconduct are the cause. With inadequate counseling the death penalty is often opposed on poor people who can’t afford a lawyer to suffiecently help them. Usually they are provided with a counselor that is often overworked, overpaid, and inexperienced. Racial bias is often an excuse to give minorities especially African Americans the death penalty. Arbitrations is the fact that the death penalty is enforced on the most vulnerable instead of the most culpable people, including children, people with mental illness, or intellectual disabilities. Lastly Public Safety, to effectively prevent crime and keep the criminals off the street as a way to take any person that looks criminal and put them away. Before watching Just Mercy and reading the article on the EJI website I strongly opposed the death penalty. The death penalty was some people’s excuse to sentence groups of people they don’t like. Many people are often accused of a crime they didn’t commit and just put in jail/prison to rot while other innocent people are killed for a crime they didn’t do. There are people out there that have committed horrendous crimes but that doesn’t justify killing someone else it’s better that they constantly are thinking about the crime they committed. After reading the article and watching the movie my opinion hasn’t changed at all. The movie only reestablished my feelings and increased my sorrow for the struggle these men have to go through. Reading the article helped me to understand the facts that back up the emotional part of my opinion.
1) The areas of the death penalty that stand out as the biggest problems are the inadequate lawyers and innocence and error issues. The inadequate lawyers are an automatic option for the people who can’t afford an overly expensive lawyer. If you don’t know your rights do the details, you probably will need a lawyer to protect you from portraying yourself in an unattractive light. The American legal system, as I see it, want to put what they see as a risk that may cause trouble in a place where it cannot cause trouble anymore or have the opportunity to; to ensure the safety of the rest of the U.S. as well as justice. In that sense, it would be a disadvantage for their targeted suspect to know how to be able to evade their plan, so they will not inform you of your rights descriptively at first glance. Your lawyer has the job to explain those rights and fight for them to be established so the American legal system cannot go to lengths that are unconstitutional. With inadequate lawyers who have multiple cases and who are paid less, there’s a large decline in having your case thoroughly examined and understood by the people who rule what will happen to you legally rather than when a lawyer is being motivated with financial support, where large amounts of effort is expected on one specific case.
2) Before watching Just Mercy, the death penalty had seemed like a very overlooked situtuation. Whenever it was brought up, it just seemed like a violent method. I wouldn’t think too hard on the process, not realizing it wasn’t simply just a legal punishment that was determined in a court but the act of putting a human life on a date to be stopped because of an action they had committed in the span of their complex lifetime.
3) After watching the film, it seemed that to take a man’s life is to take control of their last few minutes of natural becomings. The aspect of creating life to creatures that are not organically made seem to show how unnatural it is to determine when and how a human should die, as well as by the hands of people who do not have the right to judge. After reading the article, it seemed to deeply resonate with me that the cost of a life is not much to people who don’t care to save it. America’s legal system specifically states that it has the right to determine, to judge, if any crime you committed is worth your life even when they don’t put value on your life in the first place.
Out of the five listed problematic areas, I would have to say that inadequate counseling is the most concerning to me. Especially with the death penalty, your life is in the balance of this trial, and you can’t even get a fair lawyer who can help you. Another thing that is surprising to me is that some states don’t fund enough for capital defense counsel. Some states don’t even require the lawyers to meet the minimum training for the death penalty. They are pretty much ending the trial already and sentencing them to death as they don’t get a fair lawyer. If this problem was fixed, I think we would see more people no longer convicted and the problem with “innocence and error” would be resolved.
My opinion has always been against the death penalty even before watching the movie and reading the article. In my opinion, a group or a single person can’t be the one or ones to determine if this person must die due to what he did. There is no place in humanity for someone to take someone’s life for what they did. If someone did something way out of line, then something may be wrong with them like we saw with Herb in the movie. In that case, we shouldn’t be sentencing them to death, rather, we should be helping them by putting them in a hospital or a mental illness facility. I find that much better than taking their life away from them.
My opinion has not changed after watching the movie and reading the article as I was already against the death penalty. If anything, I am more against this law. When I was reading and watching the movie, I learned much more about the death penalty than I’d ever known before. I realized how terrible it truly was, and that we should put an end to the penalty. Like I said before, with the death of Herb, you can see how terrible it is taking someone’s life away with the flip of a switch. You can see this through the story with the white security guard. He starts off the movie as a strong figure believing he is above the law and such. After watching the first death of Herb, you see him start to change. He feels more sympathetic and realizes how terrible it truly is. After watching the movie and reading the article, my opinion has not changed.
All five areas discussed in the EJI website are absolutely important, but I feel like racial bias and innocence and error are by far the biggest problems, because they shouldn’t be problems in the first place. Racial bias has contributed to the sentencing of 42 percent of death row inmates, even though only 13 percent of the American population are black. Considering that one in nine people sentenced to death are exonerated as innocent, it’s safe to say that most black people who are accused of such a crime, are somehow guilty until proven innocent, which is the exact opposite of how court cases are supposed to turn out. Before watching the movie and reading the article, I thought the death penalty was absolutely immoral, with no crime able to justify the horrors the criminals are put through. However, my opinion had also been swayed by Last Week Tonight’s episode on Lethal Injections. There really is no justifying giving someone a sedative as a replacement for an anesthetic, then paralyzing that person while they’re most likely still conscious, making them feel unable to breathe, move, or function, and finally putting them into cardiac arrest. If they’re still conscious, they’ll feel like their heart’s on fire. After watching the movie and reading the article, my opinion is very much reinforced. Knowing that there were 366 kids executed before a law was finally passed in 2005, which is much too late to make this law, is just absolutely appalling. I honestly don’t understand how the lawyers that defend people that might end up with an irreversible punishment have lower standards to be put on a case than the federally mandated one. People like Herbert Richardson exemplify how people with a mental illness like PTSD should be helped to find a way to continue their normal lives, but somehow find themselves executed. Execution is much too medieval a punishment for the late 1900s and early 2000s, and many countries have outlawed it, including Germany, perpetuator of some of the most horrifying atrocities in modern history. There’s just no real reason that the United States have kept it around for all these years.
These five areas, innocence and error, inadequate counsel, racial bias, arbitrariness, and public safety are very important. But the most important one to me is innocence and error. After reading all of those different statistics really shows how bad things are. For example, 1 out of every 9 people on death row that were executed was innocent. That is such a high rate. It’s not like there are a whole bunch of people trying to prove that death row convicts are innocent. Once they get sentenced, its basically game over. Imagine you were wrongly convicted and you were sent to death row. You don’t have a great chance of getting exonerated. That is what is wrong with the death penalty. There are so many people being wrongly accused. Then they have to pay for a crime that they didn’t commit with their own life. That is horrible to think about. The death row and the death penalty system needs a revamping. My opinion on the death penalty has been the same before and after the movie, and as well as after the reading that was provided. My opinion before was that the death penalty was causing way too many problems than what it was intended for. It was supposed to get rid of the bad people. Before the reading knew that there were some wrongful executions but I didn’t know it was as bad as 1 out of every 9 people on death row that were executed was innocent There are so many things wrong with the system of death row. If 1 out of every 9 people were executed and innocent, the system is just killing innocent people. My opinion has stayed the same, in a way. I knew that the death penalty came with some bad things that people didn’t intend on. But after the movie and the reading, both showed me how bad things truly are for people on death row. I didn’t realize that a lot of the people on death row could be innocent/ wrongly accused. The movie and the reading enlightened me on how horrible things are for people on death row. It is shocking how bad the system truly is.
1. I think the biggest problem with the death penalty is the innocence error. Every one in nine times, someone is wrongfully killed for a crime they did not commit. Whether it’s because of their social status or race or if the accusation was purposeful or not, it is unfair to sentence someone this severely especially because it might not be certain. As we saw in the movie, people of different ethnicities us holly, were wrongfully accused or given extremely harsh punishment that was completely unfair were given this penalty. We also saw how police would chose ablack suspect and find them guilty just because they wanted to make the community feel more safe. This ruins people’s lives and still does today for people who are innocent and murdered.
2. Before watching the movie, I was still against the death penalty. I think this is because my cousin is a lawyer who fights the death penalty. She had talked to me to a great extent all about the death penalty and why it is so bad. She has represented many people in different situations. She is very passionate about this particular topic and when she talks about it, I can see how much harm it causes to her clients in their families. Several times people who she has represnted have been given the death penalty and later were found innocent. I don’t agree with the opinion that if you do something really bad, you should be killed because two wrongs don’t make a right. Although some may argue that really bad people who certainly are the correct suspect, I don’t agree with this punishment because it is very cruel and in my opinion atrocious.
3.After watching the movie and reading the article, my views are solidified. I also have more knowledge about some of the horrible cases of the death penalty weaknesses in the past. I truly believe that the death penalty should be completely eliminated for several reasons mentioned in the article. All of these things prove the dangers and inhumanity of using this punishment. Although it is expensive to house and feed prisoners, This horrible act of murdering with such risk is cruel and horrible.
The biggest issue with the death penalty today is innocence and error. it is estimated that one in nine prisoners are innocent. With the gravity of this penalty, you would assume that our justice system would be extremely careful with who they put on death row; however, that is not the case. Although there are several other problems with the death penalty, such as inadequate legal counsel and racial bias, innocence and error are the most problematic, since there is a probability that the convicted criminal is innocent. Even just one case where there is an error in determining guilt is too many. The fact that someone will lose their life when they might not even be guilty is too high a price to pay. That is not the case. The truth is, there are many errors and many are deemed guilty when they are truly innocent. It is too risky to apply the death sentence when we can not always prove that the person is actually guilty. In our judicial system, a jury decides guilt or innocence yet many times juries are wrong. While our system is the best of the worst systems, there is so much room for error. The death penalty is too grave and too barbaric.
Before watching Just Mercy and reading the information on the EJI website I hadn’t really given the death penalty much thought because I didn’t know much about it. After learning about the death penalty it has become something that captured my interest and in my opinion now definite. I one hundred percent disagree with the death penalty and further, it is a cause that i now want to fight to abolish. Since seeing the movie, my dad and I have spoken about it and he informed me that for years he has donated money to the innocence project in an effort to prevent people in prison and even on death row who were mistakenly found guilty from being killed and help the innocent be exonerated. I have now begun researching the innocence project and I am now going to get involved.
After watching the movie I now take a stand on the issue and believe that it is wrong in every single case. No other human should act as G-d and decide who should live and who should die. Even when the person is actually guilty, I still disagree with the death penalty. Even if the criminal murdered one of my own family members, I still don’t believe in the death penalty as a form of punishment for crimes. No matter the crime, it shouldn’t be resolved by taking another person’s life. I don’t believe that serves any purpose and it does not fit the punishment for many of the crimes committed. Just because there is one less criminal in the world doesn’t mean it will prevent the sorrow or pain the family feels or make the act any less illegal. There are many other repercussions and penalties that can be given to people who commit crimes that are serious enough as punishments. The death penalty is barbaric and something that should not exist in an evolved society. An eye for Eye justice is antiquated and unacceptable.
The most problematic thing about the death penalty is the innocene and error. This was portrayed in the movie through McMillan being falsely accused of murder. I found it very shocking that for every 9 people executed, 1 person was falsely accused. This is murder because we are killing innocent people who did nothing wrong. Even though there are lawyers that could help them, there is still a chance that they could be executed without having done anything wrong. Although we can’t guarantee that everyone that we arrest is definitely guilty, it is not fair to kill them before they even have a fair chance to prove their innocence.
Before watching the movie and reading the information on the website I didn’t know much about the death penalty but I never say anything extremely wrong. I always just assumed that everyone being punished was guilty. I knew that sometimes people were imprisoned unjustly based off of the color of their skin but I never realized that they would be executed in the future. My opinion has definitely changed after watching the movie and reading the information on the website because before I did not know very much about it but now that I know a lot more and was able to see it happen I am very much against it. Watching the movie especially really gave me insight into the lives of prisoners on death row. I now know that people are being falsely accused whether it be because of the color of their skin, or other ulterior motives. I don’t know how we can improve it or change it in order to make it better, but I do know that something needs to change. Innocent people are being taken away from their families and friends, arrested and thrown in jail and then executed for no reason. Seeing the movie made me very upset and provoked many feelings of sympathy for those on death row. A few men had mental illnesses that weren’t even taken into consideration during their conviction. The unjust treatment that they receive is not ok and needs to be changed.
One thing almost every black person goes through is the talk, not about drugs, or sex, but the talk about how to try to not get killed if you ever are stopped by a police officer. Be respectful, talk properly, hands on the dashboard, tell the officer what you are doing, and don’t talk back. I remember when me and my brothers were told about this, and it made me infuriated about the situation, the fact that black people had to have a special set of rules of how to act, even though you could still be killed following all these rules. When innocent black people are killed or convicted without the evidence to back up the action, they ask questions after the harm is done, causing more ache to the already broken community of black people. In the movie Just Mercy , you can tell that Walter ‘ Johnnie d’ McMillan has been through these rules, he is polite, his hands are in sight, and he doesn’t fight back. Johnnie D was guilty before the girl was murdered, and that is because of the color of his skin. This is still relevant; Trevon Martin, Stephon Clark, Philando Castile, and many others. This is the reason why the death penalty shouldn’t exist, because if these victims of hate and racism were said to have committed a murder they would have a higher chance of being found guilty because of the color of their skin. The death penalty is horrifying. Even though the death penalty is illegal in Michigan it is still legal in 29 other states, and unsurprisingly the historically racist southern states it is perfectly fine to legally kill the black, poor and disenfranchised.
Before the movie and the website I thought the death penalty was an unnecessary, harsh, inhumane punishment that was the opposite of what the justice system should do. Why would you kill someone for killing another person, in a sense you would just be killing more people than if you didn’t punish someone with death. “When you put him on death row you put us all on death row”, the actor of Jackie McMillan said. This captures one of the reasons why the death penalty is inhumane. Also it is not anyones place to kill someone to ‘protect’ other citizens, there are other ways of punishment.
After watching and reading about these injustices I still believe that the death penalty is unjust and wrong, especially because of how many errors the punishment has. This just enforces the idea that the justice system needs to be better and not to wrongfully convict innocent people, like my uncle. He was wrongfully convicted and his appeals were denied. Just placing an innocent person in prison is enough to devastate a family imagine killing someone who is innocent. To take away a family’s hope in a system, put pain in a person’s eyes, take away their life is more inhumane than a plethora of crimes.
I would say that the biggest problem with the death penalty has to be innonce or error. The fact that you could lose your life over a crime you did not commit is astonishing to me. In my opinion, the statistic that for every nine men on death row, one is innocent is crazy. This just shows that the current system that is being used is very flawed and should be changed. Since 1973, 163 people have been released from death row. I believe that this number is way too high. That is over 3.5 people per year who nearly lost their life for something they simply didn’t do. I think that there needs to be a way to fully prove someone is 100 percent guilty before they are sent to death row to have their life taken away.
Before the moviue and reading i wouldnt have told you i had a very strong opinion on the death penalty. While I think that it is pretty harsh, I believe in many cases it is extremely necessary. For instance in a case where someone is a clear and obvious killer such as a mass shooting i believe that there is no doubt that they should be put to death. but in a case like the ones we saw in the movie, i felt like they should obtain all necessary evidence before giving someone an execution date. So i guess before learning more about the death penalty through the movie and article i would have said i was pro death penalty.
After learning all the new information about the death penalty i would say that my opinions have changed. I think that crimes should have to be much more severe for a person to be put to death. In a case like jonnie d’s where only one person was killed and it was obvious he was framed as the murderer, i think that they should ease off on the death penalty. But i think in a case where multiple people were killed and its obvoius who did it, then the death penalty is necasary. It’s hard for me to really say exact specification on when it should or should not be used because i really believe that it depends case to case. I think that what i learned made me see further into the death penalty than i had before.
I think that the “innoence and error” area of capital punishment is the worst of all because it’s the government wrongfully taking the life of one of it’s citizen in the name of the law. I think it shows that the current legal system cares more about putting people in prison, rather than looking for truth and justice. When the justice system slaughters 1 innocent person for every 8 guilty people, it comes to the point where it shouldn’t be doing it at all. That’s a success rate of 88%, and when you’re talking about taking a person’s life away from them, you need to have a rate better than a B+. If any other organization killed 166 innocent civilians in the span of 50 years we’d call it a terrorist organization, so why do we call this one the United States Government?
I saw the death penalty before the movie as a barbaric practice perpetrated by a lazy government that would see it’s citizens expensivley, inefficiantly, andmercilessly killed. One that would leave some victims in horrific pain for minutes before they died. I also saw it has horribly defeatist for such an impactful part of a social fabric, that the legal system would rather kill and punish the people they’re supposed to protect instead of trying to rehabilitate.
I was appalled to find out, even though it was obvious, that those target by capital punishment are black and poor people. I saw the targeting of black people to be the modern replacement for lynching in today’s world. They’d target black men who got out of place, and as in the movie, wrongfully convict him. The only difference now is that it’s not an angry mob of racist whites killing black people, but the state government, whose job it is to protect them. The other group targeted were the poor, which once again shows a defeatist approach to poverty. Instead of trying to lift these people out of poverty, that forces them into crime, by creating social programs and instigating a more progressive tax code, the government would rather kill their impoverished citizens.
I believe that the biggest issue with the death penalty is innocence and error. Many people are put on death row and sentenced to death, although they are innocent of their convicted crimes. Out of the five areas, innocence and error is most relevant to the death penalty and how tragic capital punishment can be. To be totally innocent of a crime, and put through the horrors of living on death row for months to years, knowing your death date could be set at any time, and then executed for a crime you never committed must be one of the most broken and devastating flaws in our system. Not only is it so disastrous, but it happens more often than one would think. The statistics are expected to be 1 in 9 prisoners on death row are innocent, which is a terrifying number.
Before I watched this movie and read the information on the website, I wasn’t necessarily supportive of the death penalty as it does not agree with my Catholic religion, but I definitely didn’t view it as an issue in our society. I was not well educated on the subject, so I didn’t have a well formed opinion. I had usually associated capital punishment with the most extreme serial killers, and I had not realized that there are many different crimes that put convivts on death row, and I definitely had not realized that the number of death row inmates was so large.
After seeing the movie, I see it as one of the most problematic issues we have today in our justice system. I believe it is too heinous of an act to risk making the mistake of possibly sentencing an innocent person, which seems to happen at a very alarming number. I believe that another very important aspect of capital punishment is racial bias, and the fact that some are sentenced to death on simply baseless accusations rooted in racism and hate. Racism is already a very unjust and sickening defect in our justice system, and to combine it with the possibility of a death sentence is abhorrent. The movie has since changed my opinion, and now I believe that capital punishment should be illegal.
Out of the five largest issues, I believe that the most concerning issue with the death penalty is innocence and error. As the website states; “For every nine people executed, one person on death row has been exonerated.” This means that only one person per every nine people gets released from death row, which is a shocking statistic. The other issues all fall under this one main problem as they almost all lead to the issue of innocence and error. A shockingly high number of those put on death row are sentenced because of faulty testimonies, and yet are still executed. Innocence and error is the result of all the the others combined into one leading to a horrifying result: the death of an innocent and or undeserving person.
I was mostly anti-death penalty but I felt slightly conflicted because I wondered about extreme cases. So despite being practically against it one hundred percent, there was still a part of me that felt unsure. I knew of the many issues death row had, and I believed that the improvement of rehabilitation for these people was extremely important. My thoughts can be reflected in a quote from Ghandi, “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. In the end, I believed that despite what the person may or may not have done, no person should ever have to unwillingly put to death.
After the movie, my viewpoints didn’t change as much as they did solidify. I now heavily believe in the improvement of all five of the issues discussed on the website. The movie and the website helped open my eyes what causes the extreme problems with the death penalty, one that I didn’t really think of before being mental health. So many people needed mental support but were instead cruelly killed because of their issues. It was heart wrenching knowing that when these people needed support from the government they were tossed aside. This includes the lack of a proper counsel as well, especially for those of specific races and social class. All these problems join together to create a horrific and pathetic means of delivering “justice”. So overall, the movie and the website strengthened my thoughts and put any doubts I had originally to rest.
out of the five areas mentioned, i believe that the biggest problem with the death penalty is innocence and error. of course, all 5 problems are very important , but i believe that innocence and error is the biggest issue with the death penalty. As mentioned on the website, the justice system will treat you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent. one in nine people on death row are innocent, and I think that with the advanced technology we have today, and many new ways of solving crimes, there is no reason innocent people should be getting killed. no matter if you think that the death penalty is right or wrong, a person should never have to suffer consequences for something they did not do, especially consequences as harsh as being on death row. of course, the issue of innocence and error mostly affects minorities and poorer people, because of unfair representation, if any at all, and corrupt people leading the judicial system, based on hurting minorities. people shouldn’t be put on death row if there isn’t very clear evidence, and a certainty that any “eyewitnesses” weren’t fake.
before watching the movie and reading the website, i believed that the death penalty is wrong and shouldn’t be allowed in america. I believe that giving a judge and jury the power to kill a person is wrong, and no matter the crime, death is not a solution. I think that giving criminals life in prison is a better, if not more humane option, as they can reflect on what they did. Also, I believe that people who don’t believe that they have done anything wrong, therefore aren’t able to regret their actions, should receive professional medical help, rather than be executed. No matter what they did, these people are still human beings and should at the least not have their right of simply living taken away, especially with such a high rate of innocent people being put to death.
after watching just mercy and reading the article, my opinion on the death penalty has not changed, but maybe has became stronger. i am still opposed to the death penalty and believe it is wrong. I got to have a deeper look at just how unfair it is while reading the statistics on the website, which claimed that 42% of black people make up the death row, and 34% of those people are executed. Unfortunately, I was disappointed but not surprised to learn this information, due to the fact that the justice system is.. a mess. I also learned how much innocent people have been executed, making me even more opposed towards the death penalty.
I believe that the biggest problem with the death penalty is the Innocence and Error area. I think the fact that one and nine people who were found guilty and later exonerated is just mind-blowing. It makes me wonder how many people were innocent and never found a proper trial and wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. The problem of innocence and error also occurs is that no way to really compensate all the time lost an innocent person on death row has faced while waiting for the verdict to be changed. I also think is crazy that just under half the exonerations in 2018, the victim was falsely accused of a crime that never happened.
My opinion about the death penalty before watching the movie Just Mercy and reading the info on the Equal Justice Initiative website is that my options on the death penalty are mixed. I believe that there are some crimes that a person can commit that is justified by the death penalty. But I think what is the more conflicting part of the death penalty is giving a judge/jury the power overtaking someone’s life. As this becomes a state’s rights issue and how much power should be given to the state in terms of taking someone’s life.
My option on the death penalty has not really changed after seeing the movie and reading the info on the EJI website. Instead, the movie Just Mercy and the Equal Justice Initiative has helped inform me of the injustices about the death penalty and this is why I think that the importance on a fair trial for someone convicted of the death penalty is one of the most important tasks when dealing with the death penalty as the number of innocent people on death row is a shocking amount. Next, I think it is important to quickly take into account people with evidence that could help their case to an exoneration to decrease the amount of time an innocent person is on death row. As years go by I think the number of innocent people on death row will go down as forensic science and DNA testing improve.
Innocence and error is the biggest problem, although each problem is extremely significant, with the death penalty as it results in the deaths of innocent people and encompasses more than one problem – it includes erroneous witness identifications, false and coereced confessions, inadequate legal defense (often because the defendent can’t afford a lawyer, therefore giving advantages to wealthier defendents), false or misleading evidence, and false accusations or perjury by witnesses promised incentives for testimony. Racial bias can be an underlying factor in all of these areas. An eyewitness might be inclined to identify a person that they find “looks suspicious” for example. Police and prosecutors may perform actions that are based on racial biases such as coercing a false confession from someone. This is one type of official misconduct among others, such as concealing evidence that may contradict the defendant’s guilt. Also, because many officers and prosecutors count prosecutions as victories, they are often incentivized to misbehave even when lives are at stake. The same is said of the false accusations of witnesses who stand to benefit if they provide the testimony the police and prosecutors favor. The group of individuals not incentivized is the court-appointed attorney who is being paid a lower, flat rate regardless of the outcome. This can lead to inadequate defense as well. Prior to watching the movie and reading the information on the EJI website I was definitely anti- death penalty. I believed this because I knew wrongful convictions were very possible and I knew that taking a life for a life (in the case of the death penalty for a murder trial) was not justice. Instead, I felt that it was barbaric and morally wrong. I was also aware that the death penalty was taken advantage of by racists to kill black people along with other minorities with it still being under the law. But before taking in the information from the movie and the website, I had no idea of how often wrongful convictions occurred. My opinion that the death penalty is wrong has been solidified and now I have evidence to back it up. Watching the stories of the wrongfully convicted prisoners on death row confirmed my thoughts about the wrongfulness of the death penalty. Also, the information on the website helped me better create a more informed opinion and explanation on my opinion about the death penalty. I now know that counties where the death penalty is in effect actually have more crime. I am also now aware of the frequency of wrongful convictions and how many convicted have some form of mental illness (and therefore they belong at a mental health rehab facility). Therefore, the death penalty policy is morally wrong, often wrongfully convicts people, often convicts those with mental illness or a disability, is open to corruption and racial bias, and doesn’t actually prevent crime better than a life sentence.
1. I think that all of the problematic areas of the death penalty are very important and should all be fixed soon but, I believe innocence and error is the biggest problem out of the five. The statistics are crazy to believe, especially how for every 9 people executed one of them is proven to be innocent. It is also shocking how today there is still a lot of people being falsely accused of crimes they didn’t commit. When you factor in racial bias, the situation is way worse especially when it comes to official misconduct. There are 20% more innocent black people who were sentenced to death than white people who were sentenced to death because of official misconduct. There are also other minorities, like the mentally disabled who also have to be taken accounted for. People with mental disabilities shouldn’t even be put on death row in the first place. So many cases were and still are built on made-up evidence or skewed eye witness stories, which is why this should be considered a bigger issue.
2. Before watching Just Mercy and reading all of the information on the website, I was very much so against the death penalty. I first learned about it in fifth grade when my teacher explained it in the most kid-friendly way she possibly could. She told us that capital punishment was a legal thing in Texas, so I promised myself to never let me or anyone I knew move there so no one would be convicted of something they did not do. I believed, and still do believe, that we should get rid of the death penalty.
3. While my opinion did not change before and after, both Just Mercy and the website have greatly supported my opinion on the death penalty. My reasoning for wanting to get rid of the death penalty in fifth grade was because I didn’t want any innocent people, or anyone for that matter, to die especially with the chance of them actually being innocent. Now, thanks to the movie and website I know much more about capital punishment and more about why it’s so wrong.
1. Out of the five areas, the biggest problem with the death penalty is the racial bias perspective. Since many judges and police accused many criminals of a crime because of the color of their skin. For example, in the movie Johnnie D was falsely accused of a crime he did not commit. There was no evidence at all that proved him guilty. The only source that got him a death penalty was a man who claimed it was Johnnie D, even though the man wasn’t even a witness on the seen. The man claimed it was Johnnie D because he was a black man. The man thought Johnnie D was vulnerable to the cops because of his race. The cops believed the man that it was Johnnie D without a doubt or any investigation because he was black. Without hesitation, they sentenced him to death penalty, rather if it was a white man, I don’t they would have even been found guilty. Th racial bias played a big role in portraying the movie and how it demonstrated the death penalty to be seen as a bad route.
2. Before watching the movie, I looked at the death penalty as it was vital for these criminals to deserve a harsh punishment because of their harsh crime. These prisoners that get the death penalty are messed up in the head. I always thought it was meant for them because those people don’t belong to be on earth.
3. Those are all the thoughts I had before I watched the movie and read the info on the EJI website. After I watched the movie and researched this topic, I have seen many different perspectives. I have recognized that multiple people on death row were actually innocent people, but they were mainly convicted because of false investigation or racism. It is proven that 42% of death row are African Americans, mainly because they are targeted. Most of these men are guilty but some aren’t, and the only reason they are there is because of their skin color. This make me think that the death penalty is a bad route to take because there is always a chance of one being falsely convicted and also keep in mind that it cost an expensive amount.