preview

Argumentative Essay: Con-Death Penalty

Better Essays

Argument: Con-Death Penalty
Since its earliest inception, society has always had in place some form of public accountability, rules, and in some cases, punishment, in hopes to dissuade would-be offenders from perpetrating any number of offenses. It has been a verdict applied to a variety of crimes ranging from the abandonment of soldiers during periods of war, to that of appalling crimes perpetrated by serial killers. Capital punishment has been characterized by some as brutal, disgusting, abnormal, and unnecessary. (1) While some argue for its continued existence, the judgment of death, according to some, violates the constitutional ban and is an application of cruel and unusual punishment, since it …show more content…

This form of punishment can be argued violates the guarantees in the constitution of due process of law and the simple founding principles of equal protection under the law. All these facts will prove that abolishing the death penalty in this country would result in, among other things, the easing burden of cost on society, eliminating discrimination that occurs in its application, not to mention, creating different deterrents that are more effective. One reason the death penalty is strongly objected to is purely based on practical economic grounds. According to a Texas defense attorney, Fred Dahr, in 2014, “The average cost of a death penalty case was $3.8 million vs. $1.3 million for life in prison.”(4)The cost in death penalty cases has become expensive compared to housing prisoners for life with the possibility of parole; even life without the possibility of parole sentencing has created several complications. The majority of these capital cases require several members of counsel, the deposition of additional expert witnesses, the expensive procedure of DNA testing, …show more content…

One of these notions being that a portion of these people may take years, even decades to return to normal from the sudden loss of loved ones. Others will burden this guilt of a lost loved one for a lifetime. For the majority of people, the one thing that exacerbates this grief process considerably faster is closure. A sentence of death brings a real finality to that portion of the survivor’s life. To be permitted to live life behind bars can become haunting on the surviving family members. Except, through the process of death many martyrs can be born. Take the recent case of the Boston bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He was sentenced to death rather than life in prison. He will now be revered for his transgressions rather than having a slow, lifelong fade away into the pages of history. Other fetal arguments the opposition may try to convince you are to conclude that justice is better served. This is not what is envisioned in the most fundamental practice of justice. It simply states that the punishment must fit the crime, but does the punishment truly fit the crime? This is not the biblical times of “an eye for an eye,” but times deeply rooted in the Rule of Law. This includes a search for justice, which consist of equal application of the law for all, not the regression to tribal

Get Access