America Needs Capital Punishment

Without capital punishment we would have an overflow in state and federal prisons. The overflow causes lots of problems such as the cost of feeding and health care for inmates. The death penalty is a major deterrence, which helps prevent criminals from committing certain crimes. And finally retribution, which can be, summed up in an a couple words “an eye for an eye.” I agree with capital punishment because of the cost, deterrence, and retribution.

Cost is one of the major issues with the death penalty. Money is not an unlimited resource, we will eventually run out. A state analysis “The costs of the death penalty in Indiana found the average cost to a county for a trial and direct appeal in a capital case was over ten times more than a life-without-parole case. The average capital case resulting in a death sentence cost $449,887, while the average cost of case in which a life-without-parole sentence was sought and achieved was only $42,658.” The average time spent on death row is over 12 years, and they have endless appeals and delays, which average 3 to 8 weeks per appeal, that why the process is so long. We spend more money on our inmates then we do with any other groups such as the old, the young that needed help, and the sick. Last year we spend 167,731 dollars per inmate.

Deterrence is the use of punishment as a threat to deter people from committing crimes. It is hard to prove if the death penalty actually deters people because there are only a few executions every year. Ernest van den Haag, a Professor of Jurisprudence at Fordham University who has studied the question of deterrence closely, wrote: "Even though statistical demonstrations are not conclusive, and perhaps cannot be, capital punishment is likely to deter mo...

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...round 3.2 million per execution! This includes all the trials and everything else. This objection ties into the first one because you have to think about the family. They are getting put through this torture and mourning over and over again with every trial that takes place so your not just costing tax payers more but your also making the mourning process of the criminals family longer which can cause psychological problems. With capital punishment your hurting everyone not just the criminal and the family because they are the only ones paying for all the trials and everything the taxpayers are.

Works Cited

"Deterrence (In Support of the Death Penalty)." Deterrence (In Support of the Death Penalty). N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

"Retribution (In Support of the Death Penalty)." Retribution (In Support of the Death Penalty). N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.