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

Petersburg Times 24 May 1992: 8A.

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

Bedau, Hugo Adam. The Death Penalty in America. Chicago: Aldine, 1964.

In most states where the death penalty is instated, it is done so to deter crime. I think the feeling toward capital punishment boils down to two things. It is a kind of feeling most of us have that death really scares us, and a harsh penalty, you have to say deters more than life imprisonment. But if you took the death penalty away, most of us would be just as scared by a life imprisonment. Secondly, most of us who are thinking about this subject are well adjusted, normal, non-murderers. We do not commit murder, not because of the existence of the death penalty, but because we are morally developed, life respecting citizens. The people that do commit murders are of a different sort, their minds do not work like the rest of us. Whether you call them insane, phycopaths or whatever, no amount of punishment could have an effect on them. Now that is not to say it is impossible that, in some few cases, the death penalty did deter a capital crime. These cases, if they exist, must be very few, since they do not show up in the comparative statistical studies. The states with the highest homicide rates are states still seeking to put people to death. While the states with the lowest homicide rates have abolished capital punishment. "On a national average, the states that have abolished state death penalty had a homicide rate of 4.6 per 100,000 population, compared to a 7.7 rate in other states (Bedau)." It is wrong for our government to kill in order to teach people not to kill. In fact it probably promotes more murder than prevents, because it is telling society that it is alright. It is proven failure because we have more murders and violence today than before the death penalty was reinstated back in 1976. We also have more murders and violence than states and countries without it. Far from deterring murder, the continued existence of the death penalty makes us believe are doing nothing at all about it. We have been killing murders for years and years but the murders still continue. The time has come for us to realize that we cannot stop killing with more killing.

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 = 1931
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)