No more deaths for any reason.

America 1608; Jamestown colony, the fist British colony in America; a man was hanger by first time in American history, four centuries after, death penalty still being part of America; at least, in 35 states of our nation; sadly Texas tops the list as the state with the most executions. Paraphrasing the words of the great French poet and human rights activist, Victor Hugo cited in the Anti-Death penalty web What says the law? You will not kill. How does it say it? By killing! Our law punishes people that kill, killing them; we should be pro-life, not against it, there is no enough reason to continue with the old Talion law: an eye for an eye, we can go further than that. Otherwise, race and ethnicity continue playing a major role in determining who shall live and who shall die; even in the most sophisticate death penalty statutes. It is time to change our laws and be more human than our ancestors. Killing is wrong a common phrase that everyone has listened, if it is true, killing shouldnt be the best way to teach someone who failed. This land is full of great people whom even victims of this crimes, they have enough heart to forgive those who caused them huge grief; this is the case of Ron Carlson of Houston, he became close to Karla Faye Tucker when she was on death row for killing his sister, he is now a vocal opponent of the death penalty, after Karlas execution, Ron said: The world is not a better place because the State of Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker. Even though Karla murdered my only sibling, I stood with her as one of her witnesses when she was executed. I was there to stand up for the Lord, for the strength of his love. Karla and I had both done a lot of wrong in our lives (Atwood 25) Religion have been trying to convert the parishioners mind in a pro-life mind, but it seems that for Texans it is part of what they are, TCADP (Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty) have had an extraordinary effort in collaboration with other international organizations against Death Penalty,

they have been working so hard to get into the Texans heart, one of their activities is the called Cities for Life this movement consists in light up a public monument or building in the city on November 30 to show that are against death penalty; is started in Italy, right now more than 700 cities around the World are part of it, 8 of these are in Texas; in Texas because they knew that city officials would not agree to illuminate public buildings, they decided to illuminate cathedrals. Politics have much to do in this theme; political men think that they should agree with Death Penalty in order to gain more votes, at least, in Texas. Capital punishment doesnt finish with crime rates; ironically, the states with Death Penalty are the ones who have higher homicide rates in US. The purpose is this punish is do justice to those victims, but the death penalty does not bring closure or healing to the families of victims, it only creates another set of victims, the families and friends of the executed. Usually we think that prisoners are terrible people who committed only murderers, but this criminals can also be sons, brothers even fathers and husbands. Technology has Develop DNA identification adding another set of compelling stories to debate: those of people who have been wrongly convicted of capital murder have spent years on death row waiting to be killed for crimes they did not commit (Csarez 229), an extensive research did by Susan F. Sharp talks the stories of the families of death row prisoners to those of victims, murders and wrongly convicted. This punishment promotes violence, statistics dont lie, murder rates in U.S. is 6 times that of Britain and 5 times that of Australia, a non-death-penalty countries, clearly death penalty is not avoiding crimes and homicides, more than that is promoting it. In other hand, executions cost much more than life in prison, talking about numbers, is around $2 millions per execution instead of $500,000.00 per an expensive life in prison.

 In preparation for the penalty phase of a Black defendant's murder trial, a white judge in Florida said in open court, "Since the n- mom and dad are here anyway, why don't we go ahead and do the penalty phase today instead of having to subpoena them back at cost to the state."(Hope) Anthony Peck's death sentence was upheld when the Florida Supreme Court rejected his plea of racial bias. This case is one of the millions of cases of discrimination that we can hear in courts, It also remind me Martin Luther King Jr. when he said Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them (speech, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967), almost 50 years after discrimination stills here, and causing deaths, Black people has been always treated as criminals and courts have been witnesses of discrimination against them since their early begging. Through all these years, the law remains tainted with discrimination; it hasnt been able to beat this obstacle. Recently, ethic origin has been victim too, through the negligence of some; sorrowfully some are the ones with the power to decide who lives and who dies. More than once has been violations of the Vienna Convention, in which requires authorities to advise foreign nationals that they can contact their consulate for legal help if they are arrested (Atwood 18) requires commonly not follow by Texas officials. Its not possible that appropriate authorities can be blind and do not be able to see all of these defects in the administration of justice, it seems it is possible because discrimination cases continue there, nor can be coincidence that also must of the people in death row are poor, the popular phrase those without capital, get the punishment comes to me, in other words, those poor and sometimes innocent people are usually sentenced to death, just because they can afford a good lawyer, and the ones in court are generally busy with thousand of cases that if they do not win one case it does not make a big difference. The last

group of people victim of this punishment is the ones with mental disabilities; even if they are unconscious of what they have done they are judged and sentenced to death. Its true that probably most of them are guilty, but no lie that this law is unfair and should be removed, just as the World rejected torture and slavery. To conclude, its unforgiven that Death Penalty remains active, obviously this law is medieval, and it does not have enough reasons to be part of this sophisticated society, as above, it does not avoid crime rates, besides its discriminatory and violates human rights. It seems that we are giving back to the World, because everyday many other important nations have been rejecting this old law, and adopting a new position pro-life, America can do this better, Texas can do it much better, reform the old law and still making criminals pay for what they have been done, this requires to leave the old Talion law and become in a modern system of laws. Since the begging of my research one phrase, said by Margaret Mead, has been in my mind: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, its the only thing that ever has (Atwood viii) Surely we all can be part of that special group.

Works Cited Atwood, David. DETOUR TO DEATH ROW. San Antonio: peaceCENTER Books, 2008. Web. <http://www.salsa.net/peace/ebooks/ddr15aug09lores.pdf>.

Csarez, Nicolas. "Capital Punishment in Texas During the Modern Era." Great Plains Research. Fall 2007, 228-229. Print. Hope, Barbara J. "Racism and the death penalty." People's Weekly World. , 29 Nov 2011. Print. "Quotes." Anti-Death Penalty. N.p., 20 sep 2011. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. <http://www.antideathpenalty.org/quotes.html>.