The death penalty is a widely contested form of punishment plaguing legal theorists, juries, and society as a whole today. Current death penalty jurisprudence in the United States, which developed as a reaction to the brief abolition of the death penalty following Furman v. Georgia in 1972, has created an arbitrary and immoral system that relies upon a balance between aggravating and mitigating factors. An aggravating factor is “any fact or circumstance that increases the sev

“They’re just looking at the crime. They don’t take into account how you grew up. They don’t take into account whether you had your parents in your life. You’re sentenced to life without parole. You’re a predator, and that’s it.” [1] These are the words of Anthony Rolon, a thirty-nine-year-old man who is currently serving life without parole for fatally stabbing a man when he was just seventeen. Rolon is one of 2,100 individuals in the United States prison system today who is