Vincent Brother's Argumentative Essay For The Defense
Appellate Attorney Phillip Cherney for the defence.
From the days of creation, when Caine killed Abel and punishment passed by God was to roam the Earth for the rest of his life, there has always been some form of judgement for crime.
Your honour and members of the jury (facing judge), we are not here to debate whether this man, Vincent Brothers, is innocent or guilty despite being convicted on circumstantial evidence. Rather the unconstitutional fate of capital punishment inflicted by the State of California for murder.
From the beginning of time, society has not always accepted that the punishment fits the crime. There is always uncertainty and bitterness with the belief that the punishment has been too harsh or too lenient.
Today Vincent …show more content…
Brothers stands before you wondering how and why he is in this position. An African American, who made the best of the scraps provided by this state, serving in the Marine Corps Reserve and rising to the respected position of School Vice-Principal. We know why! Capital Punishment is not only immoral and brutal but its concreted foundations are fraught with discrimination and prejudice.
The first form of fair justice came with the Magna Carta in 1215. It granting the people justice in that they were trialled by their equals. The the right of trial by jury by a jury of equals.
However, this trial is far from equal. Look around you. This is an all-white jury convicting an African American man. “The court has failed to protect and ensure Brother’s equal rights” (Kern Golden Empire, 2015) by choosing a jury which is not representative of the community. This is discrimination! Amnesty International, advocator for abolition of the death penalty, found that capital punishment has been exercised “disproportionately against the poor, powerless and marginalised” (Amnesty International, 2007). A study conducted across eight southern states found that 4 out of every 5 African Americans in Alabama who had qualified for jury service in capital cases were dismissed by prosecutors (NEUFVILLE, 2010). So why not appeal? We tried. However in California, only 1 in 114 appeals delivered a judgment of racial discrimination (Totenberg, 2015). This systematic discrimination needs to stop.
In Greek mythology there is a goddess of justice, like the one that sits outside court today, with arms outstretched, holding a scale in one hand and a sword in the other. This embodiment of justice symbolizes the impartial balance of the punishment fitting the crime. The sword of justice has no scabbard and represents the punishment is always ready to threaten or strike. But you have already struck.
Members of the jury, who here has thought about delivering a verdict of capital punishment? During the Voir Dire you were questioned as to your position on capital punishment and your answer was in favour. In fact all of you, are death qualified. That’s’ right, the jury selection process for a capital case requires that every one of you is open to sentencing my client to death. Professors of Law, Fitzgerald and Ellsworth’s 1989 study found that this pre-trial process biases the jury in two ways. Firstly, jury members selected are “conviction prone” and secondly the process implies the defendant’s guilt and likely implication of the death penalty. This was substantiated by the Capital Jury ProjectCJP in 2008 who which found 41% believed the law required them to impose the death penalty for a heinous crime and indecisions expressed by the jury “tend to be resolved in favour of death” (Blume, 2008). Prejudice is rampant in this process and deliberation rejects reasonable doubt. The scales have tilted.
The Greeks in their wisdom realised that the punishment didn’t always fit the crime. So they blindfolded the goddess so that she should not be influenced by her surroundings.
But we have already read the papers, checked facebook for updates, read the latest tweets, how could we not be influenced? It is on our streets, in our homes and in our heads, it is inescapable. It’s a media circus- . This man has already been publically sentence. There is no deliberation here, it is purely a public lynching anticipating a calendar date. . Here today we have cameras watching and critiquing everything we do. This is not a closed room, this is a public execution like the days of the Klu Klux Klan. The bears are at the gate, the vultures are swooping, awaiting a scrap of this verdict.
Members of the jury, justice is far from blind.
As times change punishments must change, society abhors hangings and after much controversy capital punishment has been abolished in 78 countries. So why do we persist with this appalling punishment in the USA?
• Evil exists and acts constantly on the earth and by necessity it must be continually repressed by punishment.
Nevertheless, life imprisonment fulfils the states obligation to punish crime and protect the community.
• Capital punishment is assumed to deter crime. Yet, Sstudies in 2012 decisively showed that murder is 30% more likely to occur in states implementing the death penalty. (Amnesty USA, 2012)
• Capital punishment is believed to be less expensive than life in prison. However the average time on death row is 15.8 years and the annual cost in California for the death penalty system is $232million compared to $11.5 million for lifetime incarceration (DPIC, 2014).
Conclusion
The blindfold has been lifted, look around, this is not a fair trial, you are not impartial, and capital punishment is inhumane. It is not restitution but vengeance created by the state who pretend to represent societal views. A civilised society? I think not, for no civilised society would not enforce this brutal form of revenge. God, himself cast Caine to a life of isolation rather than death. Members of the jury there is no doubt that Vincent Brothers has not been granted a fair trial and as such he cannot be sentence to
death.
From the days of creation, when Caine killed Abel and punishment passed by God was to roam the Earth for the rest of his life, there has always been some form of judgement for crime.
Your honour and members of the jury (facing judge), we are not here to debate whether this man, Vincent Brothers, is innocent or guilty despite being convicted on circumstantial evidence. Rather the unconstitutional fate of capital punishment inflicted by the State of California for murder.
From the beginning of time, society has not always accepted that the punishment fits the crime. There is always uncertainty and bitterness with the belief that the punishment has been too harsh or too lenient.
Today Vincent …show more content…
Brothers stands before you wondering how and why he is in this position. An African American, who made the best of the scraps provided by this state, serving in the Marine Corps Reserve and rising to the respected position of School Vice-Principal. We know why! Capital Punishment is not only immoral and brutal but its concreted foundations are fraught with discrimination and prejudice.
The first form of fair justice came with the Magna Carta in 1215. It granting the people justice in that they were trialled by their equals. The the right of trial by jury by a jury of equals.
However, this trial is far from equal. Look around you. This is an all-white jury convicting an African American man. “The court has failed to protect and ensure Brother’s equal rights” (Kern Golden Empire, 2015) by choosing a jury which is not representative of the community. This is discrimination! Amnesty International, advocator for abolition of the death penalty, found that capital punishment has been exercised “disproportionately against the poor, powerless and marginalised” (Amnesty International, 2007). A study conducted across eight southern states found that 4 out of every 5 African Americans in Alabama who had qualified for jury service in capital cases were dismissed by prosecutors (NEUFVILLE, 2010). So why not appeal? We tried. However in California, only 1 in 114 appeals delivered a judgment of racial discrimination (Totenberg, 2015). This systematic discrimination needs to stop.
In Greek mythology there is a goddess of justice, like the one that sits outside court today, with arms outstretched, holding a scale in one hand and a sword in the other. This embodiment of justice symbolizes the impartial balance of the punishment fitting the crime. The sword of justice has no scabbard and represents the punishment is always ready to threaten or strike. But you have already struck.
Members of the jury, who here has thought about delivering a verdict of capital punishment? During the Voir Dire you were questioned as to your position on capital punishment and your answer was in favour. In fact all of you, are death qualified. That’s’ right, the jury selection process for a capital case requires that every one of you is open to sentencing my client to death. Professors of Law, Fitzgerald and Ellsworth’s 1989 study found that this pre-trial process biases the jury in two ways. Firstly, jury members selected are “conviction prone” and secondly the process implies the defendant’s guilt and likely implication of the death penalty. This was substantiated by the Capital Jury ProjectCJP in 2008 who which found 41% believed the law required them to impose the death penalty for a heinous crime and indecisions expressed by the jury “tend to be resolved in favour of death” (Blume, 2008). Prejudice is rampant in this process and deliberation rejects reasonable doubt. The scales have tilted.
The Greeks in their wisdom realised that the punishment didn’t always fit the crime. So they blindfolded the goddess so that she should not be influenced by her surroundings.
But we have already read the papers, checked facebook for updates, read the latest tweets, how could we not be influenced? It is on our streets, in our homes and in our heads, it is inescapable. It’s a media circus- . This man has already been publically sentence. There is no deliberation here, it is purely a public lynching anticipating a calendar date. . Here today we have cameras watching and critiquing everything we do. This is not a closed room, this is a public execution like the days of the Klu Klux Klan. The bears are at the gate, the vultures are swooping, awaiting a scrap of this verdict.
Members of the jury, justice is far from blind.
As times change punishments must change, society abhors hangings and after much controversy capital punishment has been abolished in 78 countries. So why do we persist with this appalling punishment in the USA?
• Evil exists and acts constantly on the earth and by necessity it must be continually repressed by punishment.
Nevertheless, life imprisonment fulfils the states obligation to punish crime and protect the community.
• Capital punishment is assumed to deter crime. Yet, Sstudies in 2012 decisively showed that murder is 30% more likely to occur in states implementing the death penalty. (Amnesty USA, 2012)
• Capital punishment is believed to be less expensive than life in prison. However the average time on death row is 15.8 years and the annual cost in California for the death penalty system is $232million compared to $11.5 million for lifetime incarceration (DPIC, 2014).
Conclusion
The blindfold has been lifted, look around, this is not a fair trial, you are not impartial, and capital punishment is inhumane. It is not restitution but vengeance created by the state who pretend to represent societal views. A civilised society? I think not, for no civilised society would not enforce this brutal form of revenge. God, himself cast Caine to a life of isolation rather than death. Members of the jury there is no doubt that Vincent Brothers has not been granted a fair trial and as such he cannot be sentence to
death.