Some say this is because their murder rate is far higher than that of whites. Studies have shown, though, that murderers of any race who kill white people are more likely to receive the death sentence than those who kill African Americans.(14)
The death penalty gives criminals publicity they do not deserve, gives them psychological power over victims' families, and prevents reparation. Murderers are not the kind of people most parents want their children to see on television. Yet Gary Gilmore, Ted Bundy, Linwood and James Briley, Timothy McVeigh, and Juan Raul Garza received reams of publicity as their executions drew near. It is hard to imagine men less deserving of an audience. It is nearly impossible to imagine worse role models for teenagers.
9. There is no good way to kill someone; all of the methods are appalling. The condemned probably undergo their greatest suffering in the time between the passing of the sentence and its execution
In recent centuries, there have been efforts to find methods which are less painful and more "humane" than such horrific punishments as implement, crucifixion, and breaking on the wheel. Now death-penalty supporters have settled on lethal injection as the best way to kill people. The long search for better ways to kill other human beings suggests that some death-penalty advocates themselves are uneasy about executions. Another sign of worry is the practice of having an execution team and giving one member of it a blank bullet or dummy switch or even dummy drugs. The team members are not supposed to know who has the blank or dummy, so that each may believe that he or she did not do the actual killing. This evasion is morally meaningless, except that it suggests the deep-seated human aversion to killing other humans. If the death penalty is a right, not a wrong, why are we so troubled by it?
12. If we abolish the death penalty in the United States, we can be more effective in defending political and religious prisoners who face it abroad. Dictators often use the death penalty to repress political and religious dissent. The fate of an entire nation may depend on whether political protest is even possible without the ultimate retribution of the firing squad. The more rare executions become, the more those nations using the death penalty for political repression will stand out.