Capital Punishment is Revenge, Not Justice

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Capital punishment is the government’s way of legally killing criminals. In our society, there are strict laws against killing people, so why is the government allowed to get away with it, and call it lawful? “As an American I wanted to explore... why are we the only first world country that still has capital punishment? Is it because we're too afraid to really examine the system, or is it because we really truly believe that this is the best way to deter future crime” asks Jodi Picoult, a renowned American author. Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is a sentence given to criminals of the most despicable crimes. As a person, it’s easy to quickly judge and condemn someone for their wrongdoing, but the laws that govern this country prohibit murder, and yet, the leaders of this country break those laws every time they sentence someone to death. Eighteen states have already abolished the death penalty; it’s time for the rest to follow suit, and lock the convict away in a maximum security prison for the rest of their life. Since 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, 1,231 prisoners have been executed, with each death costing at least 3.5 million dollars. That's 4.31 billion dollars that could've been spent on bettering the impoverished cities that most criminals come from. The cost of capital punishment is so high due to the lengthy process that is required for the criminal's pre-trial, actual trials, one judging the innocence of the defendant and one for their punishment, both of which usually have twice the amount of defense lawyers and the equivalent of prosecutors, and the fact that capital punishment cases generally last 3-5 times longer than a typical murder case according to Richard C. Dieter, the... ... middle of paper ... ..." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 08 Nov. 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. • Marceau, Justin, and Megan Healy. "The Costs of Colorado's Death Penalty." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 20 Nov. 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2013 • Motluk, Alison. "Execution by Injection Far from Painless." Execution by Injection Far From Painless. NewsScientist Health, 14 Apr. 2005. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. • Picoult, Jodi. "Jodi Picoult." Thoughtjoy. Thoughtjoy, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. • Reggio, Michael H. "History of the Death Penalty." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. • Rogers, Simon. "Death Penalty Statistics from the US: Which State Executes the Most People?" Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. • "States With and Without the Death Penalty." Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty Information Center, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

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