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Persuasive Essay On The Death Penalty

opinion Essay
1335 words
1335 words
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The death penalty fails to act as a deterrent to crime. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(1) Starting off, I am going to present to you a fact: the amount of people executed in the United States in twenty-fifteen (2015) alone was twenty seven (27). Let me give you another statistic, the U.S. was found to have the 5th highest amount of people executed last year, first was found to be China. Strangely enough, the number of criminals executed in China is never officially released, but this number is predicted to be in the thousands (1000s). I see these as unnecessary and unfair deaths. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(2) …show more content…

In this essay, the author

  • Opines that the death penalty fails to act as a deterrent to crime.
  • Opines that governments must realize that capital punishment is not acting as the deterrent it was meant to be.
  • Explains that fearing death is a natural biological angst that is said to be one of the greatest driving forces in psychological change.
  • Explains that briseno fits the typical criminal criteria of troubled childhood, lacking a nurturing and loving home environment, and spent seventeen years on death row.
  • Opines that the death sentence denies and devalues this form of rehabilitation. it is people like jose briseno who give the word redemption its meaning.
  • Explains that the death penalty is irresponsible and irreversible. colin campbell ross, a 29 year old melbourne bar owner, was found guilty of sexual assault and murder.
  • Explains that ross was convicted and executed despite overwhelming evidence to suggest otherwise. public pressure pushed for the police to make an arrest on the little evidence they had resulting in the arrest of ross.
  • Explains that ross was convicted, sentenced, and hanged in melbourne. he wrote a final letter to his family, in which he stated "the day is coming when my innocence will be proved."
  • Opines that capital punishment is not a viable way of dealing with offenders. when mistakes occur in the legal process, the sentence of death may not allow subsequent correction.
  • States that the almost universal fear of death would support the death penalty as one of the biggest deterrents of criminal activity. this superstition is not backed by statistics and expert opinion.
  • States that the study showed that murder rates in the u.s. in two thousand and five (2005) decreased. this decrease was forty six (46%) greater in states without the death penalty compared to those with.
  • Explains that countries that are in favor of the death penalty argue that it is cheaper to execute a criminal than to keep him imprisoned for life.
  • Concludes that it is more beneficial for both the state and the prisoner to not be put to death.
  • Opines that the age of capital punishment should be over, humanity has evolved past this barbarism and so should the nations of the world.
  • Opines that executing does not act as a deterrent for criminal activity that governments hope to create.

This is one of the supposed positive attributes of the death penalty that a government can cling to. This superstition is not backed by statistics and expert opinion. In 2009, an American study was released titled: "DO EXECUTIONS LOWER HOMICIDE RATES?: THE VIEWS OF LEADING CRIMINOLOGISTS". The study came to the conclusion that: “the death penalty does not add deterrent effects to those already achieved by long term …show more content…

This is mainly due to: “the long and complex judicial process for capital punishment cases.” Even with such systems in place, there can never be a guarantee of not executing an innocent person. The fact that this controversial “act of justice” is still occurring is astounding. There is more than enough evidence to conclude that it is more beneficial for both the state and the prisoner to not be put to death. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(14) I believe the age of capital punishment should be over, humanity has evolved past this barbarism and so should the nations of the world. I do not, for one minute condone criminal activity, but killing a being just for the sake of vengeance is wrong. We must think of the redeemed individuals like Jose Briseno, who in the face of inevitable demise, can make a positive

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