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Why are some people against the death penalty? - Part 2

Welcome to the Part 2 of "Why are some people against the death penalty?"

Today, I am going to explain the details of these opinions. 

1. There is racial and economic discrimination in application of the death penalty.
2. Application of the death penalty tends to be arbitrary and capricious. Many cases are biased.
3. The death penalty involves medical doctors, who are supposed to preserve life. But they have to be involved in the act of killing.
4.There are many religious reasons for some people to oppose the death penalty.



1. There is racial and economin discrimination in application of the death penalty.
→ Many convicted criminals are biased. All five of the prisoners executed since 1977—one shot, one gassed and three electrocuted—were white. This looks like a morbid kind of affirmative action plan, making up for past discrimination against blacks. But the five were not representative of the death-row population, except in being male. About 99 percent of the death-row inmates are men.

Black persons in Florida who commit murder, "those who kill whites are nearly 40 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill blacks. (Crime & Delinquency, 1980)"


2. Application of the death penalty tends to be arbiterary and capricious.
→  For example, for similar crimes, some people are sentenced while others were not. Furthermore, there are many cases that innocent people got executed due to the arbiterary judge or inaduquate research for complicated cases. Once a person's life is taken away, there is not way to compensate it. So why support the system?


3. The death penalty involves medical doctors who are supposed to preserve life. But they have to be involved in the act of killing. 
→ The death penalty involves medical doctors, for example, when the country uses lethal injections for execution. Doctors who are supposed to save lives have to be involved in killing.

4. There are many religious reasons for some people to oppose the death penalty.
→ One of the men who answered to the question which was asked by the writer of thie article, said "that Christ would oppose the killing of a human being as punishment for a crime." This view is supported by the New Testament story about the woman who faced execution by stoning (John 8:7, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone").  Furthermore, Japan and USA are the only countries that hold democracy. If freedom of belief is guaranteed, why do these countries still have such a system that opposes their ideas? Why such rights are not guaranteed?

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