OPINION - Should Inmates on Death Row Have More Rights? By Kaitlyn Tran

Please enjoy this opinion article from DMHS's "Introduction to Journalism" Class!

        Humans who kill other humans are ultimately evil. How could someone take another life and not feel any remorse? However, on Death Row, where the world’s most deadly people are sent, is it okay for the government to take those lives without any remorse at all? There are a lot of mixed opinions whether it's right or wrong to kill other people, no matter the crimes they’ve committed. 

Death Row is a sentence where inmates who have committed federal crimes against the state or have committed violent murders are sent to await execution. While these people are probably horrible and have done terrible things, is it right to kill them off? 

Pew Research Center says that, “78% of Americans think there is some risk of innocent people being put to death.” Some people who haven’t even been linked to the crime or were in the wrong place at the wrong time are sentenced to death. 78% is a pretty high number regardless, which means that Americans believe the government may be arresting the wrong people and sending them to await death. 

The crimes that have put people on Death Row are normally along the means of murder, rape, and armed robberies. However, the Supreme Court later ruled that rape without the victim being killed was not a reason to put the assaulter on execution. This might’ve been due to some people being accused of rape and sent to prison, with DNA evidence later proving them innocent. This makes most of the people on Death Row responsible for murder, which is one of the more serious crimes. 

One former inmate, Kirk Bloodsworth, was convicted for rape and murder that he didn’t commit. He spent eight years in Maryland prison and two years on Death Row before his DNA was tested and compared to the ones at the crime scene, marking him innocent. 

Another inmate had a similar story. Frank Lee Smith died of cancer on Death Row after serving around forteen years for rape and murder he didn’t commit. Eleven months later, he was cleared by DNA testing. Unfortunately, he’d already passed. 

The Innocence Project states that there were a total of eighteen innocent people who’ve been on Death Row and were exonerated. Together, they all come together to a total of 229 years in prison, 202 of which were on Death Row. 

Some people believe that the death penalty decreases the amount of crime that happens in the world. In reality it doesn’t. States that have the legal execution law in order don’t have any less crime than states with normal jails and prisons do. Put someone in jail instead of on death row and it ends up with the same result. The crime doesn’t just go away. 

Overall, the surprising rate of innocent people getting put on the spot to be killed is rather high. However, in some cases the person arrested isn’t the one that had done it. They were there at the wrong time or had some connection to the scene, or whatever else the government looks for when they look for a murderer. 

Then again, that leads to the question: is it okay to murder a murderer? 

Are the real murderers still out there? 

Kaitlyn Tran is an 8th grader at DMHS. She loves to write horror and fantasy stories and hopes to get one published someday.