Should capital punishment stay illegal in Canada?

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The criminal justice system of the United States is innately flawed; since 1900 there have been twenty three documented cases of innocent people being executed (Baskey-East, 2014, January). For this reason it should remain illegal in Canada. The sentence does not deter crime, and in some situations it only exacerbates the offense it was supposed to deter (Spring, T. n.d). Furthermore in order to keep an inmate imprisoned on death row, it costs on average ninety thousand dollars more than keeping an inmate imprisoned for a life sentence in the United States (Baskey-East, 2014, January).
Capital punishment much is more expensive than life imprisonment. For example, California State has approximately the same population of Canada, and it utilizes the death penalty (Populations of thirty seven and thirty five million respectively) so California will be used for cost comparison. Per death row inmate, ninety thousand more dollars is spent, since extra security is needed as are longer and more expensive trials. Subsequently death row costs considerably more than a regular life imprisoned inmate. Convicts spend on average of twenty years on death row, waiting for their respective trials to be completed, waiting to find out if they have been exonerated or not. This is a large part of why the process is so costly (Baskey-East, 2014, January). Currently many of these inmates are on suicide watch or solitary confinement for their own protection, as other convicts have been known to enact “prison justice” for crimes such as child molestation, and enforced suicide watch is for obvious reasons. But the price the inmates pay for their safety is obligatory confinement in small cells, with almost no stimuli. The practice is necessary though, for i...

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...th the United States and Canada. Finally, the system as it stands is not ready for absolute punishment. An inmate who has spent years in jail can be released and compensated, but nothing can bring back a deceased inmate. For these reasons Canada’s policy on the illegality of capital punishment is just.

Works Cited

Baskey-East, S. (2014, January). Capital Punishment is a Form of Revenge Killing, and Should Remain Illegal. Retrieved from http%3A%2F%2Fweb.b.ebscohost.com%2Fpov%2Fdetail%3Fvid%3D3%26sid%3D47765e31-bf67-437f-b35e-99d5410833f3%2540sessionmgr115%26hid%3D108%26bdata%3DJmxhbmc9ZW4tY2Emc2l0ZT1wb3YtY2Fu
News, C. (2010, June 07). Capital punishment in Canada. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/capital-punishment-in-canada-1.795391
Spring, T. (n.d.). Innocent people convicted each year. Retrieved from http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/ronhuff.htm

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