Response to a Nonfiction Essay

So after thinking long and hard I think I know what topic I will discuss for the 'response to a nonfiction essay' paper.

I decided that I will respond to the essay we read titled "The Death Penalty Is a Step Back" by Coretta Scott King. I want to write a paper discussing one of her main points she addresses that deals with "mistakenly convicted people being put to death in the name of American criminal justice" aka the wrongfully accused.

Because I'm using King's essay does not neccessarily mean that I agree with her about being against the death penalty all together. I do however believe that someone should not be put under a death sentence unless scientifically proven guilty of the serious crime. In other words, I don't think someone should be accused and sentenced based only on an eyewitness identification process.

For example, in 1991 Tony Ford was wrongfully identified and sentenced to death for the murder of Armando Murillo. Here's the story: "On December 18, 1991, two people broke in to the home of Myra Concepcion Murillo in El Paso, Texas. Saying they needed to see “the man of the house,” and demanding to know where “the money” was, the two men became angry when their demands were met with confusion. Within moments, one of the men shot and killed Ms. Murillo’s eighteen-year-old son, Armando, then shot Ms. Murillo and her two daughters. Ms. Murillo and her daughters survived."

Apparently one of the surviving daughters was asked to look at an array of photos and identify the man who shot Armando. She chose the photo of Tony Ford. Tony and his lawyers tried to get the court to let them hire a professional to prove how unreliable the eyewitness identification was in this case but they were denied. Tony was sentenced to death. After an eyewitness identification post-trial examination done by the professional Ford's lawyers tried to get approved to help the case it turns out that Tony Ford looked very similar to the later known actual shooter named Victor Belton.

It is simply not enough to just "take someones word for it" when it comes to the death penalty. The justice system today should know that with such a punishment as death it shouldnt be given to a person based only on an eyewitness looking at an array of photos or a group of people standing in a row and picking which one looks like the familiar suspect. There should be scientific evidence that proves who is guilty as well. In most cases if the court would have taken time to dig deep and provide a thorough investigation there would be less innocent people being put to death.