Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment and the Death Penalty Capital punishment exist in today’s society as citizens of the United States should we have the right to take an individual life. As illustrated throughout numerous of studies the death penalty is an unfair process seven out of ten deaths handed down by the state courts from 1973 to 1995 were overturned when appeal and the seven percent were later found to be innocent. Such as the Dobie Williams case which took place July 8, 1984. Dobie Williams an African American male with an IQ of 65(mentally retarded) who was convicted of killing a white lady by the name of Sonja Knippers. Sonja Knippers was stabbed several times while using the restroom in her Louisiana home. Her husband reported “she screamed a black man killed me”. So the police gathered up three Black male and Dobie Williams was one of the men. He was arrested at his grandfather’s house while he was asleep at 2:30 Am. The police have no legal proof that he took part in this crime. Nevertheless, according to the crime scene investigators, their was a bloodstain on the curtain and a dark pigmented piece of skin on the brick ledge of the bathroom window, through which the killer supposedly entered and escaped. Within a week the all White jury selected a guilty verdict was rendered and a death sentenced imposed based on the investigator evidence and the police testimony. The police testified that Dobie Williams admitted to killing Sonja Knipper. Likewise, the state crime lab said the blood match with Dobie Williams and two in one hundred thousand Black people. The courts didn’t take into consideration Dobie IQ was below the normal, has rheumatoid arthritis, and fingers gnarled and the left knee is bad. Most importantly the blood stains that occurred on the curtain their was a chance it wasn’t his blood. Yet it was took into consideration he is a Black male, has a record of theft so chances are he is a killer as well. So he spent 14 years in Louisana