Criminology

Dear Governor,
I am writing this letter to express my position regarding the death penalty. I strongly believe that in this modern era, executing people for a capital crime is a barbaric form punishment. It belongs to the state of nature aptly described by Thomas Hobbes as being  solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short .
One of the reasons I hold such strong views about the death penalty include the high possibility of executing an innocent person. Juries are often influenced in their judgments by the eloquence of the lawyers rather than the bare facts (Amsterdam, 2007). A skilled lawyer can convince the jury that the accused is guilty of committing the crime when in reality the accused may be very innocent. Fear and intimidation by police investigators may cause an accused person to confess to a crime (Baldus et al., 1990). How then will the state compensate the family of the bereaved when fresh evidence acquits an executed person of the offense

The American justice system seems to apply the death sentence more liberally when it comes to black persons than it does with white offenders (Bright, 1995). Studies conducted by the justice department reveal that accused persons in a murder case involving a white victim were more likely to get the death sentence than if the victim was a black person (Gaglioti, 2000). Black people similarly situated with a white person were less likely to be offered a plea bargain than their white counterpart. This obvious bias means that various elements in the justice system are not following the application of the law impartially.

In light of these findings, it becomes ethically wrong to continue executing people when their only mistake was their color of their skin HYPERLINK httpwww.amazon.comHugo-Adam-BedaueB001IGOE0Mrefntt_athr_dp_pel_1 (Bedau,  HYPERLINK httpwww.amazon.comsrefntt_athr_dp_sr_2_encodingUTF8sortrelevanceranksearch-aliasbooksfield-authorPaul G. Cassell Cassell, 2004). For these reasons I believe the death penalty should be abolished to save innocent victims from the gallows. Until
such a time that the justice system can dispense justice in equal measures, the death penalty should be put in abeyance pending a review which will decide whether or not to abolish it. 
Thank you
A.N.Other.