Death Penalty Bias Essay

Is the Death Penalty Biased? Have you ever noticed how the majority of the U.S. population is in favor of the death penalty when it comes to murderers, abusers and child molesters, but as soon as its someone they know or love sentenced suddenly they claim “it’s too harsh!” or “They would never do that!” and then they’re against using the death penalty? There are certainly specific crimes that deserve the death penalty but sentencing those convicted of unforgivable crimes is just giving them an easy way out, but it does save tax payers the millions of dollars per year to accommodate the criminals on death row.
The first ever federal execution was on June 25, 1790, when U.S. Marshall Henry Dearborn designed the hanging of Thomas Bird in Massachusetts by buying all the materials needed from the gallows to Bird’s coffin. When the first colonists came to the United States in 1492, they brought the British penalty system with them. A person in Virginia could be executed for crimes as petty as stealing grapes, killing chickens, or trading
Sometimes, depending on the crime committed and if the offender being hanged was a notorious fiend, tens of thousands of viewers would show up to witness the spectacle; local merchants would actually sell souvenirs and alcohol. Fighting and pushing would often break out as people pushed and shoved for the best view of the hanging or the corpse! Onlookers often cursed the widow or the victim and would try to tear down the scaffold or the rope for keepsakes. Violence and drunkenness often ruled towns far into the night after ‘justice had been served.’ The 1960s brought challenges to the legalities of the death penalty. Before then, the 5th, 8th, and 14th Amendments were interpreted as allowing the death penalty. However, in the early 1960s, it was suggested that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment, and therefore unconstitutional under the 8th