The Death Penalty is Not the Answer

 

But, what was the question? There are a lot of people who think that the death penalty shouldn't be legal anywhere in the United States. They say that killing someone doesn't right the wrong that has been committed against society and/or another individual. They say that executing the offender doesn't allow him a chance to get "rehabilitated" and become "a productive member of society". All of this may be true, but it also prevents the criminal from killing or raping someone again, ever.

 

Ninety-five percent of the crime in the United States is committed by five percent of the population. This means that when criminals are "rehabilitated" and are set free or paroled, that many, if not most, of them will again break the law. If the violent offenders against society such as the first degree murderers and rapists are executed, then violent crime rates would drop straight into the basement.

 

I don't think that people should be executed for stealing a loaf of bread from the supermarket, but I believe that first degree murderers and rapists should be hanged by the neck until dead. Why waste the time and the resources electrocuting someone when a good rope could be used for hundreds of criminals before needing to be replaced at fifty cents a foot?

Speaking of costs, the anti-death penalty spokes persons argue that it costs too much to execute someone by electrocution, somewhere around $50,000 per criminal. Why not buy a good piece of nylon rope for around $3, and then use the rest of the money to pay off the national debt? Instead of letting the criminal sit around for twenty years on death row going through appeal after appeal, and spending millions of taxpayer dollars, simply give each criminal one appeal, and then the morning after the appellate court upholds the death penalty decision, take the criminal out and hang him from the nearest suitable tree.

 

As for the moral issues, true, it may not bring the victim back from the dead or restore the rape victim's good self-image, but it might make the victim or the victim's family feel better knowing that the criminal will never be able to hurt anyone ever again. Besides, I think that it would be a very large deterrent to someone contemplating killing or raping an innocent person, knowing that if they were convicted that they would be unconditionally put to death. Think of how rampant kidnapping was in the '30s before the Lindberg Law was passed making it a Federal offense to kidnap, and put maximum punishments to match, from life imprisonment to the death penalty.

 

Back when the death penalty was legal everywhere, there wasn't such a problem with violent crime. Criminals knew that they wouldn't live long after they were caught. Then the bleeding hearts and the rights activists got into the act, insisting that criminal's rights be carefully adhered to, even if it meant that justice might not be served. Laws were passed that gave criminals more rights than law-abiding citizens. As a result, crime has increased ever since, and will continue to do so until we put a stop to the "revolving door justice system" and start executing the violent offenders.

 

The death penalty is not the answer to violent crime, but it is one of the major factors in the process of eradicating it. Other factors include: less gun control, so that honest citizens can more easily protect themselves and their families, more rights for police officers, fewer appeals for criminals, and more education for the prevention of crime. These, plus some other factors, could very well greatly lower the crime rate in the United States.