Capital Punishment in Canada
Shreya Sawhney
Ms. Atwal
ENG3U
2 August, 2013
Capital Punishment and Canada
As violence becomes an increasing concern among Canadians, people are calling for the reinstatement of capital punishment. This controversial issue has been ailing politicians and public morality since its abolition in 1976. As one examines the arguments for and against the reinstatement of capital punishment; examples of modern day cases dealing with capital punishment including wrongful convictions, the uncertainty of death penalty 's role as a deterrent for crime and the cost, one can better appreciate the reasons why this barbaric form of punishment should remain in the past. There are many examples of wrongful convictions that have led to deaths of innocents. When a person is sent to prison for a wrongful conviction, there is a chance of getting that person their life back, but for a person who is wrongfully convicted and sent for the death penalty, there is no way of giving the person their deserved life back. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed February, 2004, for murdering his three young children by arson at the family home Corsicana, Texas. Gerald Hurst reviewed the case documents, including the trial transcriptions and an hour-long videotape of the aftermath of the fire scene and said in December 2004 that "There 's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire." In 2010, he innocence project filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas, seeking a judgment of "Official oppression." Statistics likely understate the actual problem of wrongful convictions because once an execution has occurred there is often insufficient motivation and finance to keep a case open, and it becomes unlikely at that point that the miscarriage of justice will ever be exposed. In the case of Joseph Roger O 'Dell III, in 1997 for a rape and murder, a prosecuting attorney bluntly argued in court in 1998 that if posthumous DNA results
Ms. Atwal
ENG3U
2 August, 2013
Capital Punishment and Canada
As violence becomes an increasing concern among Canadians, people are calling for the reinstatement of capital punishment. This controversial issue has been ailing politicians and public morality since its abolition in 1976. As one examines the arguments for and against the reinstatement of capital punishment; examples of modern day cases dealing with capital punishment including wrongful convictions, the uncertainty of death penalty 's role as a deterrent for crime and the cost, one can better appreciate the reasons why this barbaric form of punishment should remain in the past. There are many examples of wrongful convictions that have led to deaths of innocents. When a person is sent to prison for a wrongful conviction, there is a chance of getting that person their life back, but for a person who is wrongfully convicted and sent for the death penalty, there is no way of giving the person their deserved life back. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed February, 2004, for murdering his three young children by arson at the family home Corsicana, Texas. Gerald Hurst reviewed the case documents, including the trial transcriptions and an hour-long videotape of the aftermath of the fire scene and said in December 2004 that "There 's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire." In 2010, he innocence project filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas, seeking a judgment of "Official oppression." Statistics likely understate the actual problem of wrongful convictions because once an execution has occurred there is often insufficient motivation and finance to keep a case open, and it becomes unlikely at that point that the miscarriage of justice will ever be exposed. In the case of Joseph Roger O 'Dell III, in 1997 for a rape and murder, a prosecuting attorney bluntly argued in court in 1998 that if posthumous DNA results
Cited: Page 1. " The High Cost of the Death Penalty." The Feminism and Nonviolence Studies Association Journal Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Aug. 2013. <http://www.fnsa.org/v1n1/dieter.html>. 2. "Deterrence (In Opposition to the Death Penalty)." Welcome | High School Curriculum on the Death Penalty. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Aug. 2013. <http://deathpenaltycurriculum.org/student/c/about/arguments/argument1b.htm>.