The Pros And Cons Of Capital Punishment

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There are over sixty offenses in the United States of America that can be punishable by receiving the death penalty (What is..., 1). However, many individuals believe that the death penalty is an inadequate source of punishment for any crime no matter how severe it is. The fact remains, however, that the death penalty is one of the most ideal forms of punishment. There are other individuals who agree with the idea that capital punishment is the best form of punishment. In fact, some of these individuals believe that this should be the only form of punishment. One of the reasons that the individuals who oppose the idea are against it is because they do not fully understand what capital punishment is. Capital punishment is the “execution of …show more content…

However, Jeff Jacoby from The Boston Globe argues in his article that “there is also protection for the living (When Murderers…, 1). For instance, when the judicial system condemns someone to life in prison there is always the possibility that the criminal may escape. If that criminal escapes he could potentially use his anger to murder the remaining people that had him sent to prison to begin with. Also he could injure or even murder other people that are not even connected with the crime. For the individual that committed the crime there is no sense of self consciousness. However, if the individual responsible for putting the criminal in jail was to find out that he escaped and continued his spree of crimes it could cause that individual to feel guilty about not doing something more to the person who does not care about what they have done or how it has affected anyone …show more content…

Since 1973 there have been a total number of one-hundred and fifty-one death row executions. (10 Reasons…, 1). Out of all of these executions only eighteen of them have ever had any further evidence to show that the guilty party was innocent. Many people argue that this is enough to make it to where the death penalty should not be used. However, that leaves one-hundred and thirty-three death row executions that have not been proven to have been the wrong person. If each individual that is sentenced to be executed has killed only one person than that is one-hundred and thirty-three people that have been killed. The fact remains that if there were no death penalty executions then there would be one-hundred and fifty-one people that have not been justified by their death. Although having eighteen innocent people put to death because they were wrongfully accused is a terrible thing, it does not even begin to oppose the one-hundred and fifty-one people that were killed because of the hate and fear that causes a person to bring this harm upon other people. Also many of these people have affected more than just one person. They may have killed or harmed multiple people. The people who oppose this are simply stating that the murderers’ lives are worth more than the people that they killed.

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