Capital Punishment – the Legal Justice System
Essay Preview: Capital Punishment – the Legal Justice System
Report this essay
Before watching this video I felt much more confident in the legal justice system. This video created doubt in my mind that perhaps the death penalty is not an effective way to punish offenders. Personally I believe in the old saying “an eye for an eye” and I think that if someone murders another human being that they should be put to death. The problem with our punishment system however, is that some offenders are getting the death sentence while others who committed similar crimes get life in prison. It is not right that poor people who can not afford a good defense, are getting sentenced to death while more wealthy people are committing the same crime and not getting the death sentence. If our country wants its justice system to work, we have to get rid of the arbitrariness in the system. There has to be a distinction as to what constitutes death and what constitutes life in prison. We can not have a gray area. We should be able to look at a criminals wrap sheet and see why they are in death row or why they have life in prison. There must be a clear difference between the two if we expect the system to be fair. We can not sentence offenders based on their socio-economic status or skin color. Each case must be judged based on facts, and facts alone.
I thought the case of “crazy Joe” Spaziano was very interesting. First of all Spaziano was convicted solely due to the testimony of 1 witness, which was Mr. Delisio. Second of all Delisio had been hypnotized by the police and apparently lead to believe things that were not true. Third of all, the jury in this case sentenced Spaziano to life in prison and the judge overruled and gave him the death penalty. Was Spaziano was really guilty? Why Delisio did recant his testimony? We may never know the answers to these questions. However, we do know that if Spaziano really was innocent, he almost died for a crime he did not commit.
In conclusion I would like to reiterate that fact that if the death penalty was being properly implemented then it would be an effective tool for punishing offenders. neverhteless, the way it is used today it is unjust and prejudice