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

(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