Journey to Death

There are so many trials just to sentence someone to death. In my opinion they are very unnecessary because of the attorneys given to the accused. The state most often gives the worst attorneys to represent the defendants so that in the first trial they are declared guilty for acts that they did not commit. Then there is the trial to declare the sentence. Here the court agrees that the defendant is guilty and arguees over how severe his punishment will be. Next comes the court of appeals. This is designed to protect the rights of the defendants to give them another chance to prove innocence. However, this might sound great in theory, but in reality the people that are accused of crimes are the typical low lifes who do not have enough money to afford a good lawyer. Therefore, the state provides one and the state does not want to give the best one to them so that a possible killer is back on the street. This process even though it is very detailed and fair in theory has many loop holes in practice. There is the ability to go to the supreme court to bring up the possibility of unlawful representation or a bad jury, but this is very rare to occur and the amount of money needed to do this is beyond the typical defendants. Their last chance to get out of death row is to be granted clemency. This process is very hard to grant and the governor along with a panel are the only ones that can grant a clemency hearing. Overall, the theory that the multiple trials would weed out the innocent seems perfect. However, in practice the people who are tried do not get the same representation that the victims have.