Vengeance Is Not Justice“With God as my witness, I have been falsely accused of these crimes. I didn't do them. I am an innocent man and I only pray in the name of Jesus Christ that all of this will be brought to light. The truth will come out sooner or later." This is a direct quote from Calvin C. Johnson Jr. that he said in 1983, during his sentencing hearing (Hamikian). The death penalty is slowly being phased out and more than two-thirds of countries have stopped using it as a form of punishment (Dying Out). Thirty-five percent of Americans oppose the death penalty, the highest percentage in forty years. This percentage must be higher and the death penalty should be eliminated. (Strauss). It shouldn't even be an option as a form of punishment. More citizens should realize that the death penalty has more negative than positive consequences (Douthat). The death penalty should be abolished; many innocent people are on death row, states with the death penalty have a higher murder rate and it is a more expensive alternative. Numerous innocent people are on death row and must await their fate of being executed while desperately trying to prove their innocence. Calvin Johnson Jr. was an innocent man sentenced to death following a rape accusation. After many painful years his sentence was eventually reduced and he was not executed (Hampikian). Justice systems in the United States are buried in unsolved cases, meaning many of the wrong people could be behind bars or on the streets. In research conducted by the Innocence Project it was shown that approximately 22% of people charged with guilt were influenced by false confessions. Furthermore, up to 73% of the jury members... middle of the paper... Death penalty in the United States). Work cited "Cost of the death penalty". Amnesty International, United States. 2011. Network. October 5, 2011. Doutthat, Ross. Justice after Troy Davis. New York Times. September 25, 2011: 16. TOPICresearch. EBSCO. Network. October 19, 2011.Dwyer, Jim. Neufeld, Peter. Check it out, Barry. Real innocence. New York; Seal, 2000-2001. Print.“Endangered”. The economist. September 24, 2011. 73-74. Print.Hampikian, Greg. Exit to freedom. Athens, Georgia; University of Georgia Press, 2003. Print.Prejean, Helen. The death of the innocent. New York: Random House, 2005. Print.Strauss, Gary. United States today. “Survey: 35% oppose the death penalty.” USA Today n.d.: Central Research Plus. EBSCO. Network. 19 October 2011. “The pros and cons of the death penalty in the United States”. Capital Punishment.org. 20 August 2011. Web 5 October 2011.