Friday, October 26, 2007

Socio-Ecomonic Issues and the Death Penalty

The death penalty and its use in the United States today are greatly contested. Many people believe that it acts as an injustice system and is biased—the death penalty unfairly affects those of low socio-economic status. A study in Virginia found that there was a clear connection between those who received the death penalty and the low quality state-appointed lawyers who defended them. Those who do not have enough money to pay for a private lawyer are therefore given one by the state. These lawyers are disproportionately found to be inadequate and many lose their license in the future. They are almost always undefended and understaffed, therefore those who are able to afford their own lawyers are more likely to avoid being sentenced to death. Those in favor of capital punishment argue that every defendant receives a lawyer regardless of economic status. They believe that the court-appointed lawyers are equal to those privately hired by defendants with money. However, this proves untrue when looking at the quality of the lawyers—many of the court-appointed lawyers have never handled a capital case before. There are only two ways to fix this problem: appoint lawyers who are experienced and can handle capital cases, or abolish the death penalty completely.

5 comments:

annadele said...

This is probably the most disturbing fact for me that we've discovered about capital cases. I'm curious - Did you find similar statistics about appointed defense lawyers for non capital cases and were they as extreme? Also - how does the salary and qualifications of a prosecutor working for the state compare to the defense council's?

Kelly said...

I am very interested by your findings, and I completely agree with you. In an issue as profound as death, I don't think there is any room for injustice. As I have researched myself, state-appointed lawyers can be clearly less effective at reaching the goals of the defendants, and it all comes back to the defendants' socioeconomic status. I am also doing research as to how the system should be reformed, but this is definitely an issue which needs to be exposed in society and fought against.

annadele said...

Check out the drunken vegas lawyer clip on our blog from YouTube. The awkward pauses are excruciating. I think that a mistrial resulted from this one though.

Akansha said...

I definetly agree with the fact that socio-economic status plays a role into who receives the death penalty. I find this fact to be one of the most disturbing aspects of the death penalty. In researching for our debate, I had found similar statistics about underpaid lawyers. I'm curious to know how much these court appointed lawyers actually make in comparison to those hired by the defendants. I feel like this is a large flaw in our judicial system and it is something that should be fixe in order to insure the fundamental right of due process.

Yeo!!! said...

Hey.. I decided to check out your previous posts after listening to your topic in class. Nice and interesting topic you have found. However, I do think that you may have made certain assumptions by broadly saying that "However, this proves untrue when looking at the quality of the lawyers—many of the court-appointed lawyers have never handled a capital case before". Here you seem to assume that lawyers who have not handled such cases before are worst off then those who have. And the other thing is that suggesting to abolish the death penalty based on this one reason seems somewhat hasty. Perhaps you might want to rephrase the concluding sentence just show that you have a wider understanding of the debates surrounding the death penalty. Cheers!