Capital Punishment: The Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

J.R. Tolkien cautions, in the Lord of the Rings, “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment” (77). Thousands of people are sentenced to death every year where the death penalty is practiced. Capital punishment elicits strong, and mixed, feelings for most people. On one side, proponents argue an “eye for an eye”, while the other side cries “murder”. One side seeks retribution while the other calls it revenge. Crime is a part of society and both sides would agree that something needs to be done about it, and more specifically, what methods or actions would be used to deal with punishment of criminals. Capital punishment has historically been

Many proponents of the death penalty will argue that our justice system, while not perfect, demands a higher standard for death penalty cases. During the pretrial, trial, and appeals procedures, great efforts are made to minimize the chances of executing the innocent. In fact, “7% of all death row cases were overturned for due process reasons and it is more likely that an inmate will be released during the appeals process than they will actually be executed” (Sharp, par. 7). Proponents of the death penalty will claim that mistakes are inevitable and that the inevitability of such mistakes should not serve as grounds to eliminate the death penalty altogether. However, even if the death penalty is justified in one case, it cannot be guaranteed to work without error in all circumstances. According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP), “since 1973, 156 people have been exonerated from death row”. It is impossible to determine innocence once a prisoner is executed because the state will not reopen the case of an executed prisoner. It is therefore impossible to determine how many innocent people have been executed by a flawed system. Human error is inevitable, but when it comes at the cost of a life, possibly an innocent one, the justice system cannot stand to be wrong. One man exonerated from death row claimed, “You can release an innocent man from prison, but you can’t release him from the grave”