Capital Punishment in the United States

Paper Summary:

This paper examines some of the investigatory tools that are used in death penalty cases. The paper discusses some of the history and motivation behind the death penalty and includes statistics about the number of executions and pending executions in the United States. The author then goes on to discuss the use of DNA testing and its affect on many pending capital cases. Although this author argues in favor of the death penalty, they argue that because several people currently awaiting execution have been exonerated as a result of advances in DNA testing. It is because of this, that there is a need for increased vigilance in the presentation of evidence in capital cases and although it does serve as a deterrent, rules and regulations must be stringently adhered to in order to prevent the innocent from being wrongly executed.

From the Paper:

"Death is irreversible. Therefore it is incumbent on this nation to be utterly responsible if a decision is made to put a man to death. Many times a guilty person gets off scot-free because of resources, whereas a poorer person might be unjustly be put to death. Therefore every effort has to be made to prove a defendant guilty without a shadow of a doubt. One of the contributions to this effort is the use of DNA evidence. This is an invaluable tool in the hands of forensic experts. A smudge of blood or a single hair is a blue print of the victim or the criminal. In my opinion therefore, every defendant currently on death row should be processed for DNA. After which each defendant should be matched with the crime scene evidence and DNA matches (or not) should be procured."

More papers on Capital Punishment in the United States:

• Analytical Essay # 86320 : "Capital Punishment in the United States"
• Analytical Essay # 41059 : "Death Penalty in the United States"
• Analytical Essay # 145386 : "Statistics on Capital Punishment in the US"

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