Pro Death Penalty as a Means of Effective Punishment

A teenage girl, Paula Cooper, from Gary, Indiana, and her three friends wanted some money to play video games. For them, Ruth Pelke, a 78-year-old Bible teacher, was an easy target. By taking Bible lessons from her, the four teens gained entry to her house. Then, with a 12-inch butcher knife, Paula Cooper stabbed the elderly lady 33 times to death. It is not a wonder that few had little sympathy for Paula Cooper, who was sentenced to death in 1986. Throughout ages, the death penalty has been used to punish criminals for severe crimes. All countries should enforce the use of death penalty for severe crimes since it serves to deter crime rates, acknowledges the value of human life, administers justice and gives closure to the relatives and families of the victims.

Studies have proven that death penalty is the most effective deterrent of violent crime and murder. In 1986, Professor Stephen K. Layson of the University of North Carolina did a study showing that "18 murders were deterred by each execution in the U.S. (Capital Punishment in Canada)". Professor Stephen also found that death penalty increased the chance of apprehension and the conviction of the murderers (Capital Punishment in Canada). According to Richard Clark, the murder rate in the U.S. dropped from 24,562 in 1993 to 18,209 in 1997, during a period of increased use of the death penalty. This case was not only in the United States, but also in other countries. For example, in Britain, the rate of murders has more than doubled since abolition of death penalty in 1964 from 0.68 per 100,000 of the population to 1.42 per 100,000 (Clark).

People have a natural fear of death. Death is more feared than just a restriction on one's lib...

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...d from the death penalty (O' Sullivan). To the relatives and families of the victim, life imprisonment of the criminal means that a killer is still out there and there's a pretty good chance that he might be freed in a few years.

As the reasons above explain, the death penalty does not only lower the homicide rates but also gives closure to families, protects society and reduces prison expenses. It is wrong to not justly punish someone who has killed many innocent others. Just as what Democratic Senator John McClellan says, "What other punishment is 'just' for a man ? who would stab, strangle, and mutilate eight students nurses? What other punishment is 'just' for a band of social misfits who would invade the homes of people they had never even met and stab and hack to death a pregnant woman and her guests?" nothing else works except the death penalty.