Equality for minorities, specifically black people facing the death penalty will remain a major issue until something is resolved. I feel that measures need to be put in place to protect minorities 14th Amendment rights. Specifically black people's rights to have "equal protection of the laws." One of the projects that covers this issue directly is the Kentucky Racial Act. In the McCleskey v. Kemp case the Supreme Court admitted to the existence of statistical differences between races in capital sentencing. Why is this important? For years, people debated over the "Racial Justice Act of 1990" and whether it should be approved. Ultimately, it ended up being written out of a bill because it the topic was controversial. Huge progress was made later with the "Kentucky Racial Act", however the Supreme Court still declined to recognize these cases of statistical evidence as evidence of discrimination. I think that this is a clear example of civil rights given by the 14th amendment not being honored. What does that say about our American society as a whole?
American's progressive values are put on trial and our role as leaders of the free world are questioned. Other countries have stopped using the death penalty altogether, though we continue to use the death penalty, and now theres evidence that we use it unjustly? Patrick Henry once said "give me liberty or give me death," which meant that he was ready to die for liberty. Have we taken the idea of liberty for granted so much that when we see a violation of it, we do not object? How progressive can American society be if we are still barbaric enough to execute people using the death penalty and then do so unjustly? Measures such as the Racial Justice Act and DNA testing are steps in the right direction but what happens if we never truly see equality on this issue? No, the world will not stop turning, but we will never reach our potential as a society and that will be the greatest failure of all.
2 comments:
Hi... I like the fact that you have taken a very strong stand in this issue. However, could you end with a sentence that shows everyone that you are still open to opposing views. Because, I think at this point, your argument is not developed enough to fully convince people (not with the word and time limit that we are given). Hence, it would be good to show awareness to the counter argument. Another thing is that in your example, even though the statistics do show a discrepancy, it seems a little hasty to conclude that there is racial biasness in the death penalty. I mean, there are so many other factors that come into consideration - like certain neighborhoods have higher murder rates and we all know that certain races tend to happen in certain neighborhoods. Also, whites tend to be wealthier, so they can afford better lawyers, have better education, better reputation and better connections. It is complex i know. So what you can do it to focus on a specific case and show how racism is a factor, how it came about (lack of protective laws), how these laws failed and is this pattern repeating, if so, how will it affect our society if left unexplored?
I definitely agree with your assertion that the United States administers the death penalty unfairly and arbitrarily. On the topic of race,however, I agree with yeo in that we must examine many other factors when analyzing the statistics that certain races are executed more than others.
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