The feeling of the condemned man was indescribable, as he was minutes away from being executed by an unjust decision. The verdict of his case was guilty on the grounds of circumstantial evidence. When in all reality, he was guilty because he was black, poor and socially unacceptable. His case never stood a chance, it was over before it started. The judge and jury sentence the man to die in the electric chair. The condemned man sat in the chair sweating profusely, waiting for a someone to wake him from this nightmare. A certain death awaited this young man's future. He could not believe that a country like ours upheld a system of such unfairness. Then as he was executed, he shouted his last plea, "I am innocent, please wait..." How can this innocent man be put to death in a system based on fairness, and a theory of innocent until proven guilty. There have been circumstances such as this, that were said to be true. This is one example why capital punishment should be abolished in our country. Or should it? Is capital punishment fair, and based on equality? Does it cost less than other alternatives? Is it considered cruel and unusual punishment? And does

In addition to that, capital punishment is also more expensive. Capital punishment ups court cost, takes up so much judicial time and expends so much judicial effort that other criminal penalties become less of an importance. As capital punishment becomes increasingly rare, and unusual, it also becomes increasingly costly to process capital cases. This is so because processing an unusual item always costs more. I don't know whether any body would take the view that we should kill people because it is a cheap way to deal with the crime problem. But, in any event, it is not cheap. Actually it is more expensive than its alternatives. Today, it is much cheaper to convict a man and keep him in prison for the rest of his life than to kill him. The reason is perfectly obvious. As capital cases become more and more unusual, they also become more and more costly to process through the legal system.

"Racial Bias Found in Death Penalty." St. Petersburg Times 25 May 1992: 4B.

Study after study turns up the same results, one can conclude that there is a pattern of discrimination. One study shows that prosecutors seek the death penalty most often when the victim is white. Prosecutors sought the death penalty twice as often when the victim was white as when the victim was a member of a racial minority. "In cases of white victims, 27 percent sought the death penalty, where only 19 percent in cases of minority victims (Bedau)."

The constitutional prohibition against 'cruel and unusual punishments' cannot be constructed to bar the imposition of the punishment of death (Billitter).

Since 1930, 89 percent of those executed in the United States for rape have been black, as were 76 percent of those executed for robbery, 85.5 percent of those executed for assault by life-term prisoner, 48.9 percent of those executed for murder, 100 percent of those executed for burglary. All together, 53.5 percent of those we have put to death in this Nation since 1930 have been black (Bedau).

Some common words found in the essay are:
Bedau Study, Death Penalty, Eighth Amendment, Supreme Court, Keith Coleman, death penalty, Court Justice, Unusual Clause, Justice Stewart, capital punishment, Petersburg Times, Fourteenth Amendments, cruel unusual, percent executed, unusual punishment, cruel unusual punishment, capital punishment abolished, punishment abolished, st petersburg times, petersburg times, st petersburg, supreme court, deter crime, punishment abolished maintained, considered cruel unusual,
Approximate Word count = 1929
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)