For the Death Penalty
Are we effectively punishing our most vile and baneful criminals? I believe some improvement to be necessary; the death penalty should be legalized in all states. The United States should utilize the capital punishment because it is economical and has deterring and incapacitating effects. While life with no parole sentencing is a valid alternative, the death penalty is in public favor, ruled as constitutional, is humane, and allows convicts many opportunities to appeal.
While many people will claim that too many inmates are executed, the national death row currently has a population of 3726 criminals, consisting of 3669 men and 57 women, and only 712 convicts have been executed since 1976. In 2000, 85 criminals were executed and 26 executed so far in 2001 (MSU online). According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report and Bureau of Justice Statistics, approximately 560,000 murders and 358 executions have taken place from 1967 to 1996.
In comparison to life sentencing, the death penalty is far more economical as well. Life without parole costs $5.53 million per prisoner while death penalty costs only $1.91 million per prisoner. While immediate costs of capital punishment make it seem a more expensive punishment, the drawn out costs of life sentences greatly exceed them; factors such as increasing prison, medical, and geriatric costs add to costs of life without parole cases (www.prodeathpenalty.com).
Innocent people have not been executed either. Criminals on death row have been convicted of brutal, heinous crimes and murders and are not “model citizens.” There has not been a case in which an inmate sentenced to death was found innocent postmortem. Inmates whose innocence is proven while imprisoned a...
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...y used in Idaho and Utah and involves five shooters armed with .30 caliber rifles, one shooter loaded with blanks (MSU online). Methods of execution are designed to be as effective and painless as possible.
Although life with no parole sentencing is an alternative to the death penalty, it is not as effective in keeping the innocent populous safe and is much more expensive. Capital punishment should be an available in all states because it deters crime, incapacitates criminals, and is a humane sentence with many chances to appeal.
Bibliography:
Bibliography
Michigan State University Criminal Justice Resources deathpenalty.msu.edu
New American Magazine Vol.6, No. 17, Aug. 30, 1990
www.ABCnews.com
www.deathpenalty.org
www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
www.ncpa.org/ea/eama87a.html
www.prodeathpenalty.com
www.pollingreport.com
www.thepubliccause.net
The death penalty is much more expensive than life without parole because the Constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases. If the death penalty was replaced with a sentence of Life Without the Possibility of Parole, which costs millions less and also ensures that the public is protected while eliminating the risk of an mistake, the money saved could be spent on programs that actually improve the communities in which we live. Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter people from committing crime anymore than long prison sentences. Moreover, states without the death penalty have much lower murder rates. The South accounts for 80% of US executions and has the highest regional murder rate (Death Penalty
...ngs Police Department. Life imprisonment with out the possibility of parole is an equally effective, cheaper, and more humane way to punish capital criminals. Not only is the cost of executing a prisoner ridiculous, but the death penalty has in no way shown that it deters criminal activity. The abolishment of the death penalty is necessary to achieve the utopian society we as a nation so desire.
The death penalty is way more expensive, time consuming with little success, and puts innocent people at stake. Life without parole gives fast, harsh, and specific punishment. It supplies lawfulness to survivors of murder victims. Sentencing dangerous offenders to life without parole is the most reasonable alternative for general security and any victim’s families. For offenders who do not pose a threat to the general public should be placed on probation or parole to help save money that can be used for more useful things within the state.
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.
Capital punishment only shows how America as a nation still clings on to practices used from long ago. Now with the implementation of new forms of justice it’s seems reasonable that nefarious traditions be omitted from the itinerary. Rehabilitation is far better for the people than the use of life-ending threats that do not help to deter the committing of crimes.
In the United States there are currently 3,490 prisoners awaiting execution. Many of these prisoners are poor and are where they are because they could not afford good legal representation. Most of these prisoners are Black, and they have been arrested and incarcerated in southern states. According to the July 2004 Quarterly Report of the NAACP Criminal Justice Project, 52% of the inmates who currently sit on Death Row are Black or Hispanic.
Court systems try to give a punishment that fits the crime and capital punishment is fits it perfectly. If someone is given life without parole for a non violent crime like robbing banks than why should a serial killer or rapist be given the same punishment. This could encourage murderers or rapists to go ahead and go through with the crime because they would not be sentenced to death anyways.
Many people are led to believe that the death penalty doesn’t occur very often and that very few people are actually killed, but in reality, it’s quite the opposite. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1,359 people have been executed as a result of being on death row since 1977 to 2013. Even though this form of punishment is extremely controversial, due to the fact that someone’s life is at stake, it somehow still stands to this very day as our ultimate form of punishment. Although capital punishment puts murderers to death, it should be abolished because killing someone who murdered another, does not and will not make the situation any better in addition to costing tax payers millions of dollars.
... execute should not be made lightly, and tests should be done to ensure the right person is being punished for the crime that was committed. Taking away the person’s life who is responsible for the death of another person cannot bring the victim back and does not solve anything. Various people all over the world believe that the death penalty should not be supported and that it should be abolished. Many reasons exist for the abolition of the death penalty to take place including cost issues, religious issues, whether or not it acts as a deterrent, executing innocents and the harshness of the execution. Some may say the people who committed the most heinous crimes deserve to have justice served to them. However, even murderers are humans and should be treated fairly and justly. All people, even the guilty have a right to live; regardless of the crimes they committed.
It has been a topic of discussion for forever. Do we give convicted murderers the death penalty or let them live in a prison cell for a life without parole? If we get rid of the death penalty sentence there could be millions of dollars saved that could be put toward violence-prevention efforts to keep offenders on the right path. But on the other hand prisoners that are sentenced to life without parole are forced to live in a maximum-security prison with very few rights. The death penalty and life without parole both have positives and negatives therefore it would be very hard to pick a side.
Almost all nations in the world either have the death sentence or have had it at one time. It was used in most cases to punish those who broke the laws or standards that were expected of them. Since the death penalty wastes tax money, is inhumane, and is largely unnecessary it should be abolished in every state across the United States. The use of the death penalty puts the United States in the same category as countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia which are two of the world’s worst human rights violators (Friedman 34). Lauri Friedman quotes, “Executions simply inject more violence into an already hostile American society.”
For example, if a person was given a life sentence, they would be able to be released, if found innocent. If they were given the death penalty, although it takes years, odds are they will be dead before they could be found innocent. The Innocence Project was established in order to vindicate individuals who were wrongfully convicted due to DNA calamity or misidentification with witnesses. Since the Innocent project has been established, an uncountable number of individuals have received freedom for crimes they were wrongfully accused of committing. For most individuals who received a life sentence, and not the death penalty, they were granted a release. According to the Innocence Project out of 300 people exonerated, 25% were convicted of murder, and 18 had death sentences. The innocence project also states, “We have also worked on cases of people who were executed before DNA testing could be conducted to corroborate guilt or prove innocence, and we are aware of several non-DNA cases where evidence of innocence surfaced after people were executed”(Innocenceproject.org/aboutpage). Disparate from the individuals facing a life sentence, those that received a death sentence are less likely to survive to prove their
The death penalty is legal in thirty-two states. I shall argue that capital punishment should be abolished in our country because it is never moral to kill a human being no matter what they have done, because it often costs more money to keep someone on death row than to keep someone in prison for life, because of the men and women who are wrongly accused of a crime they did not commit, and because death is the easy way out.
The first reason why death penalty should be allowed and get more active is life sentence is costly. According to “What is the Average Cost to House Inmates in Prison”, the average cost of housing an inmate in the U.S. was $31,286 in 2012 for per year. According to the “Who, what, where and why”, the United States has roughly 2.4 million people in prisons. Therefore, the money which America pays to keep prisoners who are in prisons is about $75120000000 for per year.
...at innocent people could wrongfully be executed. Since 1976 when the death penalty was reintroduced there have been no credible evidence of this happening. activists overestimate this when it actually it happens very rarely. That being said no justice system is 100% accurate, and in a system that relies on human testimony for proof mistakes are made. Striving for higher standards in death penalty cases should always be a priority no matter how efficient it becomes. However, the chance of mistakes are small, and there is no credible evidence that suggests any innocent people have been sentenced to death since the reintroduction of capital punishment. This does not mean that capital punishment should be abolished since there is still a chance of executing the wrong person, if society outlaws anything that has a potential of being harmful it would be a great handicap.