Living on Death Row

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Recommended: Compare and contrast the arguments for and against capital punishment

Capital punishment has been a largely debatable topic over its long past and probably one of the most recognizable topics in history as well, due to those who think it may be too costly, to those who think it’s not enforced enough. Since the days of fighting gladiators all the way up to the age of texting and Facebook, the use of the death penalty has gone down tremendously but is in fact still used today.
Some people think it is inhumane to kill a human being and is just an act of revenge for the criminal’s actions. While others think it is only fair to execute criminals on death row to punish them for what they did, saying that since such murderers took a life that their lives should be taken in return. The fact that they get to live the rest of their lives being able to have limited daily exercise, meals, clothing, appliances, and get to be outside even though they took someone’s life is not right in my opinion. Basically the only thing taken away from them is freedom. Maybe that’s all that is needed in some cases, then again maybe not. In my opinion the death penalty should be used in every state as a maximum punishment for the criminal’s actions. That way criminals know what the result very well could be for their actions.
One major debate on capital punishment is the whether or not it deters crime rates. The Death Penalty Information Center says that criminologists did a recent study on whether or not capital punishment deters crime rates stating, “87% of the expert criminologists believe that abolition of the death penalty would not have any significant effect on murder rates” (Radelet and Lacock). But then another study reported by Death Penalty Information Center shows that the percentage of murder rates were consi...

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...wyers.com. 2013. 4 Feb. 2014. .
“Deterrence: States Without the Death Penalty Have Had Consistently
Lower Murder Rates.” Death Penalty Information Center. 2011. Web. 4 Feb. 2014.
-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates>.
Henningfeld, Diane Andrews. The Death Penalty: Opposing Viewpoints.
Farmington Hills, MI : Greenhaven Press, c2006. Print.
“Lethal Injection.” Death Penalty Focus. 4 Feb. 2014.

“Methods of Execution.” Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2011. 4 Feb. 2014.
.
“The High Cost of the Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Focus. 4 Feb. 2014.
.

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