America is the last western industrial nation that still uses the death penalty against serious criminals. Throughout history the American legal system has shown discrepancies in convicting minorities with serious crimes and using capital punishment for their penalty. Many authors have debated the issues of discrimination and how it can be proved. The Baldus study was the first comprehensive statistical analysis on the issue. This study clearly had shown a discrepancy in the way sentences …showed first 75 words of 2310 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2310 total…nation the was founded on protecting individual rights. The constitution allows a defendant to be judge by his or her peers. With all the ethnic differences and racism this system seems to be failing many people. I do agree that the death penalty should be abolished and replaced with life in prison and that people that can not afford counsel should be provided with some that are paid better and work harder in felony cases.