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California Does Not Need Capital Punishment

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California Does Not Need Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is the legally authorized killing of a person who has committed a heinous crime. Capital punishment has been around for centuries and is still used today in various countries including the United States. All though throughout the years capital punishment has lost its appeal and is gradually being ruled unconstitutional in the United States, the earliest being Michigan in 1846. Some of the 18 states that have already abolished capital punishment are New York, New Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii, and Iowa. Sadly, California is not apart of the list of states that have abolished capital punishment. Capital punishment should be abolished in the state of California because too many innocent people have been executed, it cost too much money, it does not act as a deterrent to crimes, and life without parole is a more practical option than capital punishment.
There are too many flaws in the capital punishment system and many of them lead to innocent people being executed. According to John W. Whitehead in his article “The Death Penalty Should be Abolished”, “In a Columbia University study on 5,760 capital cases, the report found an overall rate of error of 68 percent. In other words, courts found serious reversible errors in nearly 7 out of 10 capital cases.”(1). If one innocent person was executed that would be one to many, but the fact that there is an error rate of 68 percent is unacceptable. The most infuriating thing however, is that these innocent people are being executed because the law enforcement are cutting corners and not doing their jobs right. In Juan Roberto Meléndez-Colón’s article “DNA Testing Cannot Solve Fundamental Flaws in the Capital Punishment System” he explains the evidence that was used against him in his case, “I was convicted and sentenced to death based on the testimony of two questionable

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