The Justice of the Death Penalty

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The Justice of the Death Penalty

Whenever the word "death penalty" comes up, extremists from both sides start yelling out their arguments. One side says deterrence, the other side says there's a potential of executing an innocent man; one says justice, retribution, and punishment; the other side says execution is murder. Personally I think it is time for Americans to take a stand use the justice system as it was intended, for the punishment of criminals.

A big point of argument for the people against the death penalty is the accidental execution of an innocent person.(Royco, 370) Before deciding, one must remember the lives that the death penalty saves. Repeat murderers are eliminated, and potential murderers are deterred. One must consider the victims as well as the defendant. Is it worth it to lose forty-five innocent lives so that no innocent person is executed. Wesley Lowe states the matter best when he says, "As for the penal system accidentally executing an innocent person, I must point out that in this imperfect world, citizens are required to take certain risks in exchange for relative safety." We risk dying on the highway in a car accident for the convenience of using a car. This practice is considered acceptable. Risking the possibility that someone might be wrongly executed is worth it to save the lives of thousands of innocent people who might be the next victims of murder. One US Senate report stated this position this way: All that can be expected of...[human authorities] is that they take every reasonable precaution against the danger of error... If errors are...made, this is the necessary price that must be paid within a society which is made up of human beings.

Many persons against the death pena...

... middle of paper ...

...hen those same neighbors shrink back from justly punishing the murderer, the victim dies twice."(Koch, 653) I agree totally. We as a nation need to stand up and take a stand and use the justice system as it was intended, to punish those who do wrong.

Works Cited

Kock, Edward I. "Death and Justice: How capital Punishment Affirms Life." THe Little, Brown Reader. Eds. Sylvan Barnet and Marica Stubbs. New York: Harper Collins, 1996 649-653

Royco, Mike. "Death to the killers." Patterns Plus. Ed. Mary lou Conlin. Boston: Houghton, 1990. 369-371

Schwatzschild, henry. "In Opposition to Death Penalty Legislation." Little, Brown Reader. Eds. Sylvan Barnet and Marcia Stubbs. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

654-660

"Weasly Lowe's Pro Death Penalty Webpage." Weasly Lowe. 5 Nov. 1998. http://www.rit.edu/~wwl2461/cp.html

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