Researchers identified three main errors that often lead to erroneous convictions: incompetent legal counsel, police officers or prosecutors who suppressed evidence and judges who gave jurors the wrong instructions. ... punishment as an effective deterrent, as well as a competent system in accurately sentencing criminals. ... It was also found that the courts, because of serious errors, reversed 68 % of all death sentences reviewed from 1973 to 1995 (New York Times 2002). ... With such a high rate of error surrounding capital punishment in this cou! ... The courts have less time and effo...

• Word Count: 1333
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

He was sentenced to fifteen years for a rape that he did not commit. ... Despite denying the crimes later, he was convicted and sentenced to two death penalties plus 725 years. ... Chapter eight discusses harmless error. ... Chapter ten informs about race identification errors. ... Two other white women identified him in their cases. ...

• Word Count: 1796
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

There were 45 men on death row in Texas and 7 in county jails with a death sentence. All of the sentences were commuted to life sentences by the Governor of Texas, and death row was clear by March 1973 (TDCJ). ... Others identify with the view that it's in-effective to attempt to stop murderers by sentencing them to death. ... Truthfully, there is always room for error; there will always be the question, what if What if the innocent was found guilty of a crime they did not commit? Great effort has been made in pretrial, trial, appeals, writ and clemency procedures to minimize the cha...

• Word Count: 517
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

However, the Governor General had the power to change the sentence from death to life imprisonment if he wished. ... He was found guilty, sentenced to death. ... Unlike imprisonment, the death penalty entails the risk of judicial errors, which can never be fixed. ... A study by the Bedau and Radelet stated that capital convictions for the period from 1900 to 1986 identified 350 cases in which defendants were erroneously convicted of capital crimes. ... However, it is more costly to execute an inmate than to have that person serve a life sentence. ...

• Word Count: 2365
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography

There is also the argument over the cost of death row prisoners compare prisoners who have been given a sentence of life without parole. ... Not only were they at least 50% in error with their 23 "innocents executed" claim, but 60% of those cases, were not sentenced to death. ... Bedau has written elsewhere that it is false sentimentality to argue that the death penalty ought to be abolished because of the abstract possibility that an innocent person might be executed when the record fails to disclose that such cases exist. . . . the Bedau and Radelet study . . . speaks eloquently about the e...

• Word Count: 2839
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

All executions currently used today involve inflicting some sort of trauma to carry out the sentence. ... State officials claimed that the botched execution was caused by, "inadvertent human error," the inappropriate substitution of a synthetic sponge for a natural sponge that had been used in previous executions (Barnett). ... There was not a warning sign posted on or near the pipe opening, identifying it as a confined space that contained potential fatally hazardous nitrogen ("Confined- 9). ... Nitrogen asphyxiation may be the ideal way to carry out the death sentence. ...

• Word Count: 1548
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

All executions currently used today involve inflicting some sort of trauma to carry out the sentence. ... State officials claimed that the botched execution was caused by, "inadvertent human error," the inappropriate substitution of a synthetic sponge for a natural sponge that had been used in previous executions (Barnett). ... There was not a warning sign posted on or near the pipe opening, identifying it as a confined space that contained potential fatally hazardous nitrogen ("Confined- 9). ... Nitrogen asphyxiation may be the ideal way to carry out the death sentence. ...

• Word Count: 1643
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

(Bedau) "[T]he eighth amendment's guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment mandates that the state, even when it undertakes to punish an individual who has transgressed laws, recognize the intrinsic worth of the individual as a human being this is why the sentence of death is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment, forbidden by the Constitution." ... Of the 19 people currently sentenced to death under federal law, 15 are people of color. ... Thirteen exonerations of people sentenced to death in Illinois - including three provoked by a journalism class at Northwestern U...

• Word Count: 3235
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: High School