An Argument Of Opposition Of The Death Penalty

Why is the death penalty used as a means of punishment for crime? Is this just a way to solve the nations growing problem of overcrowded prisons, or is justice really being served? Why do some view the taking of a life morally correct? These questions are discussed and debated upon in every state and national legislature throughout the country. Advantages and disadvantages for the death penalty exist, and many members of the United States, and individual State governments, have differing opinions. Yet it seems that the stronger arguments, and evidence such as cost effectiveness, should lead the common citizen to the opposition of Capital Punishment.

Many counties complain about the high costs and the financial difficulty it causes. The document, What Politicians Don’t Say About the High Costs of the Death Penalty, written by Richard C. Dieter, executive director of The Death Penalty Information Center states, “Georgia is laying off 900 correctional personnel and New Jersey has had to dismiss 500 police officers. Yet these same states, and many others like them, are pouring millions of dollars into the death penalty with no resultant reduction in crime.” These cost of these trial are not only immense amounts of money to the local governments, but also people’s jobs and lives. It is an unnecessary process that millions of dollars are being poured into each

Just by looking at the surface, one would assume that it would be less expensive to execute a prisoner versus providing them with “three hots and a cot” for the rest of their life. Surprisingly, some people support the death penalty mainly because they view it as a way of cutting costs and saving taxpayer’s money. “This argument is disturbing since it reduces the moral complexity of state imposed killing to a debate over dollars and cent.” However, it has now been firmly established by research conducted in different states and with different data that a modern death penalty sentence costs several times more than an alternative sentence of life in prison without parole.

Some Americans today tend to believe that the death penalty is less cheaper to execute someone who is on death row rather than just keeping someone for life in prison. According to a report of the Northern California ACLU (2008) California taxpayers are paying 117 million dollars a year to execute an inmate who is on death row. Whereas if the prisoner would do life without parole in prison, it would only be less expensive. According to a California Jurist Donald McCartin he explains,”It’s 10 times more expensive to kill them than to keep them alive.” (4) In other words, McCartin believes that the death penalty should be abolished and that it would save taxpayers billions of dollars. I can strongly agree with McCartin because instead of wasting, billions of dollars on executions that money can go to schools and more jobs for the community.

Yale University tries to say that the death penalty costs too much money by saying that it is “more expensive than relevant alternatives because of the appellate process” (Capital). The average

The death penalty is quickly becoming one of the more controversial topics in the United States. Currently, there are 31 states where capital punishment is legal. As of April 2016, there have been 1,431 executions in the United States, but the number of executions in recent years has been steadily decreasing (Timmons 2017). The death penalty can be put up for moral debate, and one can ask oneself whether the death penalty is ever morally permissible. There are some pros and cons to having capital punishment. For example, deterrence and prevention are good reasons to have the death penalty, but, in reality, the cons far outweigh the possible benefits that may come from capital punishment. The cost of imposing capital punishment is

Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is a form of punishment that has been used as far back as the Colonial Era in America. Although it has been around for the entirety of American history, most of the scrutiny and controversy involving capital punishment arose in the 1972 Supreme Court Case of Furman v. Georgia, in which it was abolished, but quickly returned in 1977. It is evident that many citizens have ambivalent stances on capital punishment; some believing it is necessary form of punishment while others believe that the death penalty is a violation of the Eighth Amendment. Although capital punishment has been used throughout history and is seen by many as a form of justified punishment, there are many reasons in favor of ending the death penalty completely. Capital punishment is an unnecessary evil that should be found unconstitutional because of it is not practical, it is corrupt, and it is unable to deter further homicides from being committed.

Anti-death penalty advocates today have become increasingly aware that moral issues may not be the best approach to abolishing the Death Penalty. “The immorality of the death penalty may not be its fatal flaw, according to Herbert Haines in his book, “Against Capital Punishment: The Anti- Death Penalty Movement in America 1972-1994,” rather its enormous lack of cost effectiveness.” (Haines) Cost effectiveness is a language that both conservative and liberal politicians can understand and has become a focus for the anti-death penalty movement. “The lack of centrality of crime as an issue and excessive attention to fiscal austerity have made conditions unusually ripe for arguments framed around cost and efficiency.” (Eren) Imposing the death penalty for many states has become a huge fiscal

Does death justify the loss of a loved one? The death penalty has been around for decades, raising questions and resulting in the issue of whether it is socially acceptable or morally incorrect. Instinctively we perceive death with horror, particularly the thought of killing someone else. But as human beings we also have a barbarian instinct that wants revenge when someone has hurt us deeply. Generally people who have suffered a tragedy, in which a loved one has been taken from them, would tend to support the death penalty. While those who have never experienced such an ordeal may see things with a different perspective and debate that a criminal’s life is a human life nevertheless. Arguments of why the death penalty should exist include

Johansen, Jay. "The Death Penalty Deters Crime." The Death Penalty. Ed. Mary E. Williams. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2002. N. pag. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 15 Nov. 2016. In this article, the author examines the crime rates when it comes having the death penalty. The information I want to include is the dates of when crime decreased when the death penalty came in, in order to refute it. This article is different from the article I will be using to refute this, for it does have data compared to this article.

In regards to the argument in support of capital punishment, the means do not come from thinking about the death penalty in theoretical ways, but is justified as a form of retribution for individual cases. Certainty, instances of individual stories are important, however, dangers do exist as a result of such stories dictating the overall thinking about an issue that has profound social consequences. Abolitionists argue that capital punishment has never been proved to be effective in deterring others from committing murder, thus, the evil that follows capital punishment far overshadows any possible beneficial factors the opposing argument may state. Quite the reverse, murder demonstrates a lack of respect for the human life. Any life is valuable

Unofficially, capital punishment has a long history in the United States. However, it was not officially ruled as constitutional until 1976. Since then, “more than 900 executions have been carried out,” (ProQuest Staff). Early arguments against the death penalty were made by opponents who stated it violates the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution on the basis of the process being a form of cruel and unusual punishment. On the contrary, supporters of the measure maintain that it is not unconstitutional and is an appropriate consequence reserved for the most heinous cases. Also, at first glance, the research may seem to favor death penalty supporters and their arguments for capital punishment. In a 2007 article in the New York Times, author

The primary reason why people argue against the reinstation of the death penalty is because of the execution of innocent people which in turn, leads to serious miscarriages of justice. This is the primary argument as to why Capital Punishment should not be reinstated because, there have been unlawful executions of innocent civilians who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. This argument aims mainly towards the Derek Bentley case as Derek Bentley was wrongly executed for the murder of a police officer when it was his accomplice, Christopher Craig who pulled the trigger and killed the police officer. It was the phrase “let him have it” that was interpreted to state that it was Bentley who told Craig to kill the officer instead of surrendering the weapon. This case was one of the main pieces of evidence required for protestors to protest about having Capital Punishment abolished in the United Kingdom as Bentley was only 19 when he was executed. The conviction for Derek Bentley was eventually abolished in 1998. Mahmood Hussain Matan was another example of a wrongful execution as he was executed in 1952 after being wrongfully convicted for the murder of Lily Volpert. His case was eventually quashed in 1998 by the Court of Appeal making it the first case referred to the Court of Appeal under the new Criminal Cases Review Commission. This proves why people want the Death Penalty to stay abolished because, over time, there have been serious miscarriages of justice towards the

Upon examination, one finds capital punishment to be economically weak and deficient. A common misconception of the death penalty is that the cost to execute a convicted criminal is cheaper than to place a convict in prison for life without parole. Due to the United States judicial system, the process of appeals,

People may attempt to argue that the death penalty should remain because it is more cost effective than the alternative of life in prison without parole, however, this is not the case. Many studies have been done in states that still employ the death penalty as a method of punishment. They have all found capital punishment to be significantly more expensive than alternatives, such as life in prison without chance of parole. “In Maryland, a comparison of capital trial costs with and without the death penalty for the years concluded that a death penalty case costs "approximately 42 percent more than a case resulting in a non-death sentence"”(“The Case Against the Death Penalty.”). Another study found that, “On average, Oklahoma capital cases cost 3.2 times more