Is the death penalty a good solution to crime? The death penalty is not a good solution to crime. The ultimate goal of the justice system is to control crime by punishing criminals and to protect people by incarcerating them. Compared to the death penalty, life imprisonment not only achieves the same goals but may also be, in many respects, more effective than capital punishment. In the 2004 Vincent brothers case, the brothers killed five members of his family: his wife, his children and his mother-in-law. During the trial, his only surviving daughter, Margaret Kerns-Brothers, gave heartbreaking testimony about how the moment she walked out of this courtroom, she would resign herself from the Brothers family. In her eyes, her biological father was just a man handcuffed to a chair. The brothers would have to live the rest of his life with his daughter's words forever etched in his heart. This punishment is emotionally and mentally much worse than the death penalty. There are many other reasons why the death penalty does not seem to be a good solution to crime. One of the problems is racial disparity. Jason Kotowski's article in The (CA) Bakersfield California reports that: "Some thought Brothers was getting what he deserved (death sentence), while others argued that the jury was racially biased and that Brothers had not received a fair trial." Many people believe that the death penalty is unfairly applied to minorities. Statistics state that African Americans make up only 13% of the US population, but nearly 50% of people currently on death row are African Americans. There have been many reported cases where African Americans were wrongly placed on death row, largely due to their race. Many years later, new scientific evidence exonerated them but... by mid-paper... they would get their comeuppance, without being taken away from their families forever. Saleh would have been welcomed as a hero, but because he acted in excessive “self-defense,” he became a murderer. In this case the other men were not murderers and probably never intended to kill. Even if Saleh is “justified,” his argument is irrelevant because the robbers are no longer in the equation. They are dead and it is almost impossible to judge someone who is not alive. The only one to face judgment is the killer. Whether or not they were involved in a physical confrontation, Saleh will never be truly and completely perceived as righteous. The world can never progress towards something great if there is always an excuse for everything, especially murder. The moment there is a reason to justify the murder, a justification can be found for every other possible wrong.