The Future Consequences of Problems in the Justice System

As previously mentioned, our country’s method of capital punishment is administered arbitrarily in many different aspects including race, geography, age, and mental capabaility. If the United States’ court system does not implement a standardized plan for applying the death penalty, the issue will continually be subject to debate. What kind of example is the United States setting by not abolishing the death penalty and by once applying it to juveniles and the mentally retarded, when many other civilized countries, those establishments which are also sophisticated socially and technologically, have done away with the procedure? These countries have replaced capital punishment with a life sentence in prison. The very idea that our country once practiced the execution of the mentally retarded is appalling. Many situations prove that a mentally retarded person’s eagerness to satisfy can cause them to falsely admit to crimes. Jason Misskelley’s situation, where officials interrogated him for hours and displayed pictures of the mutilated boys that could have scared the young man into wrongly confessing, exemplifies the problems of our court system trying those who are mentally challenged. What does the fact that the United States trials those who are incapable of understanding their constitutional rights say about the establishment as a country? This point is exemplified in the case of Robert Wayne Sawyer, who was executed in Louisianne despite his proven mental retardation. When Sawyer's lawyer asked him to explain reasonable doubt, which is a level of comprehension that one must possess before deciding one is guilty, he revealed his misunderstanding and mental handicap by responding that the “smoke was reasonable out.” What if other countries fail to network with us due to our stance on the death penalty because they feel we are too barbaric? Such establishments as the European Union require that a country practice abolishment of death penalty in order to partake in membership. The United Nations, a group which facilitates international cooperation, has opposed the death penalty in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Rights, which opposes anything that compromises one's right to life. Amnesty International is a group that strives to promote international abolition. Is the United States, as a leading institution, promoting death and indirectly, warfare by enforcing capital punishment? Even though the United States has employed discreditable practices in the past of executing many, the country is gradually implementing better policies such as abolishing capital punishment for the mentally retarded and juveniles. To totally ensure that everyone is treated fairly under such amendments in the Constitution as the Eighth and Fourteenth, there needs to be a constant plan for carrying out the death penalty. If a standardized implementation, where all facets under consideration (race, geography,etc.) are treated equally, cannot be reached, the death penalty needs to be abolished. The United States needs to catch up with other civilized countries such as those of Western Europe and develop a more humane justice system. If the United States fails to take a stand, people will continually be tried under unreasonable circumstances, and capital punishment will remain an unrelenting debate.