Putting an End to the Death Penalty

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When the country is in debt, and states are facing budget shortages, $620,932 is a lot of tax money to spend on one criminal to pursue the death penalty (“Death Penalty Information Center”). The death penalty should not be legal in the United States because putting the criminal in prison would keep people safe and cost much less money than following through with the death penalty, capital punishment has also been proven not to be a deterrent, and defendants are not treated equally. The cost alone should be enough to abolish capital punishment because of the funds it dries up when more money could go towards crime prevention. If the expenses aren’t enough for a person to realize the death penalty is a waste of resources, the fact that it is proven to not be a murder deterrent should clear up the doubt. Furthermore, the inequality in the court room is icing on cake on how unjust the justice system is in capital punishment cases. It is for these reasons that the death penalty needs to be abolished in the United States.

Background

The laws and regulations of capital punishment have significantly changed over the last couple hundred years. Britain greatly influenced the original laws of the colonies because of the European settlers. The laws then were very callous and a person could be given the death penalty for a crime as trivial as stealing fruit or hitting your mother or father. The abolitionist movement didn’t start until the mid-eighteenth century when Italian philosopher, Cesare Beccaria wrote his essay, On Crimes and Punishment). Beccaria wrote in the essay that there is no rationalization for the state taking a life. The influence of Beccaria was obvious and American intellectuals began putting a bill...

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...on Center. Death Penalty Information

Center, 01 Apr 2011. Web. < http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-representation>.

“Facts About the Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty Information

Center, 01 Apr 2011. Web. .

“Facts About Deterrence and Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty

Information Center, 01 Apr 2011. Web. .

“History of the Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty Information

Center, 01 Apr 2011. Web. .

“Race and Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty Information

Center, 01 Apr 2011. Web. .

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