Capital Punishment Persuasive Essay

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“Our position… is that there is no place for capital punishment… We believe that justice for all is better served by a sentence of life imprisonment.”(Szumski 170) The administration of Capital punishment in the United States has been a failed experiment. Capital punishment or “The death penalty” is the legally authorized killing of a human being as punishment for a crime. The entire process of Capital punishment is fraught with error, since 1973, over 87 inmates have been released from death row due to their innocence being proven. (Blecker, 12) Capital punishment attacks the poor, as well as the black community. For the worst crimes, life without parole is better. Not only is the death penalty discriminatory and unethical, it violates the …show more content…

The first and foremost of these rights is life. Every citizen of the United States is given the right to live. This basic right is also protected by the 6th and 8th amendments. The fact that the right to live is mentioned twice in laws of our government as well as in the Declaration of Independence, shows its importance in the American way of life. Capital punishment so blatantly violates this right when the life of the convicted felon is taken away. When we create laws as a people we must follow them. If we don’t then there is no law at all. The 8th amendment states "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." Is death not a cruel punishment? Is taking the life of a human being not cruel? By allowing the death penalty to stand in our judicial system we are claiming that death is not cruel. Is this what we are trying to tell our citizens? Death is cruel. Taking the life of another person is cruel. And cruel punishments are against the law. It is not all right for the government to break the very law that it created. Nor to put itself on a higher pedestal than everyone else. By allowing the death penalty to stand our government is doing just that. It is allowing a practice that is clearly stated as illegal, and putting itself above the law. The very principle …show more content…

Prosecuting a death penalty case is extremely expensive for a state and drains money that could be used for education and social programs. Capital punishment costs more than sentencing a prisoner to life without parole. The most comprehensive death penalty study in the country found that the death penalty cost North Carolina $2.16 million more per execution, over the costs of sentencing murderers to life imprisonment. The United states economy is far from adequate and I believe these wasted dollars should be refocused towards unemployment and

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