Essay on Capital Punishment

If a person breaks the law and commits murder, then they should be given the same treatment and be put to death, by the means of the death penalty, capital punishment. If the population knew that the death penalty was the punishment for murder they would think twice before committing such an act. It is expensive to house a death row inmate and the cost to the American tax payer is millions of dollars a year. It is very expensive because a death row inmate requires one officer to each death row inmate for a twenty-four hour, around the clock period of supervision. Last if we allow murderers to escape the death penalty they can be paroled after a period of time, or escape, and may retaliate, harming, witnesses or family of the deceased.

Keeping a prisoner in jail for life will be very expensive considering that it costs $80,000 a year; and the bad news is that the money comes from the taxpayer's pocket. Thousands of people will attack the death penalty. They will give emotional speeches about the one innocent man who might be executed. However, all of these people are forgetting one crucial element. They are forgetting the thousands of victims who die every year. This may sound awkward, but the death penalty saves lives. It saves lives because it stops those who murder from ever murdering again (Bryant). These opinions represent some of the strongest and most influential views that proponents hold. However, if our prison system could rehabilitate more effectively, perhaps those who murdered once, could change.

Capital punishment, otherwise known as the death penalty, is a controversial subject which has been argued for decades due to the ethical decisions involved. People believe the death penalty is the right thing to do and that it is the perfect example of ‘justice’ while others believe that it is immoral and overly expensive. The death penalty is not a logical sentence for criminals, it doesn’t give them the right type of justice and it is immoral.

The moral and ethical debate on the sentencing and enforcement of capital punishment has long baffled the citizens and governing powers of the United States. Throughout time, the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, and the vast majority beliefs of Americans, have been in a constant state of perplexity. Before the 1960s, the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution were interpreted as permitting the death penalty. However, in the early 1960s, it was suggested that the death penalty was a "cruel and unusual" punishment and therefore unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. Many argue that capital punishment is an absolute necessity, in order to deter crime, and to ‘make things right’ following a heinous crime of murder. Despite the belief that capital punishment may seem to be the only tangible, permanent solution to ending future capital offenses, the United States should remove this cruel and unnecessary form of punishment from our current judicial systems.

The use of capital punishment in the U.S. is a growing concern for most American citizens. According to statistics, seventy percent of Americans are in support of the death penalty, while only thirty percent are against it. These statistics show that few people are against capital punishment (“Fact” 1). With the use of the death penalty growing the controversy is becoming more heated. With only twelve states left not enforcing it the resistance is becoming futile (“Fact” 4). Many debates have been made and even clauses have been invoked, such as, the “Cruel and Unusual Clause” that was invoked by the Supreme Court in 1962 (Meltsner 179). The use of death as a punishment has been viewed as “cruel

Many would suggest that capital punishment is an effective deterrence when in reality it has

There are many cases in which people spent years in prison for the crimes they did not commit. Death penalty is permanent and cannot be undone. Many people have been proven innocence after the execution is carried out. If an innocent criminal has received a life sentence then he has the opportunity to be proven innocence in future with more advance investigation. For example in U.S as of September 11, 273 people including 17 death row inmates were exonerated by doing DNA testing. The use of DNA testing helps to confirm if a person is innocent and not sentence him to death. Likewise, in near future with more advance technologies someone can be proven

Not all states believe in capital punishment. The last execution in Illinois was Andrew Kokoraleis, for the murder of Lorraine Ann Borowski. For each death penalty case there is a large price tag that comes with it. So when you hear people say why dont we just kill him/her. Well that is because a death penalty case cost on average 1 million dollars more then a similar case,when death penalty is not the punishment chosen. “They will get out of jail and just keep on killing, its not something you cant stop it ("Is the death penalty").

Many criminals take the lives of or hurt many people around them. They are later released after doing time in prisons to go on the streets again where they will do the same things over again. "[W]e reserve the death penalty in the United States for the most heinous murders and the most brutal and conscienceless murderers. To sentence killers like those described above to less than death would fail to do justice because the penalty – presumably a long period in prison – would be grossly disproportionate to the heinousness of the crime. Prosecutors, jurors, and the loved ones of murder victims understand this essential point…” Death penalty does the justice right for seriously violent criminals instead of having them do time in prisons to be released.

Not everyone on death row is always innocent, but returning the same behavior they inflicted on the community doesn’t even fix the problem. The Constitution of the United States of America states, “Cruel and unusual punishment shall not be inflicted,” with no exceptions. This doesn’t say with the exception of or name anyone in particular so really the government is not following there own laws. The government can’t even withhold there own part of the bargain so why have the system at all? The Constitution of the United State of America

The state murdering people because of their crimes simply does not equate to justice. It is real easy to hear about how the government is doing this wrong or that,but the death penalty is abounded with so many injustices and faults that it's an embarrassment to our entire due process of law. Supporters of capital punishment subscribe to religious and ethical points of view rather than facts, and when they do offer facts it's always the same argument: "It's a deterrent." The death penalty is extremely flawed, most notably it comes with a very high price tag to an already under-funded correctional institution in America; no stable argument has been installed to warrant it as a deterrent; and the moral decay it establishes creates among other things a feeling of revenge and spite within society. The flaws of capital punishment become too many shortly after they total one. This is because of the focus of the death penalty that being human life. Innocent people being sent to death or being released within weeks of execution are becoming frequent stories on the nightly news. The legal system is disturbingly unable to correctly administer the death penalty. Every day individuals who can't afford a lawyer have to have one appointed to them under the constitution. These

That is an estimated 40,000 to 100,000 inmates incarcerated in the United States and once convicted, it can take an average of 14 years before an inmate that is innocent to be exonerated. So many innocent people end up serving their sentences, never to have their name cleared. Then as Americans, we become angry because it takes so long to execute the truly guilty. This increases the prison population because prosecutors offer plea deals for so many of the crimes and most times a defendant in an effort to avoid the long trial process and lengthy sentence will accept what the prosecutor is offering. We send people to prison that have committed heinous crimes and they are out in no time and then we have the people that can be rehabilitated through programs but instead they're spending maximum time for lesser crimes. The United States has the largest prison population in the world per capita; the "3-strike laws", zero tolerance and mandatory sentencing guidelines has created a massive prison population that is expensive to maintain. America spends about $75 billion a year to maintain the prisons and jails and approximately $32,000 per year on just one inmate. That is just for corrections alone and does not include court, attorney, and investigation costs or the cost of the death penalty. Sure, America has the fairest investigation, pre-trial and trial

Prisons are meant for rehabilitation when a prisoner is released, they may be ready to adjust and become law abiding citizens in society. Why send a murderer to prison when it has been determined that they will not be able to gain freedom.The prison system should be for people who want to unite with society and have a positive impact on their community when freedom is gained. It is possible for

Obviously, the execution of a murderer deems him/her incapable of murdering again. However, those who support the concept of rehabilitation say that imprisonment is effective in preventing murderers from killing again. Murderers have the lowest rate of re-committing a homicide than people who have served time for other offenses (Johnson, 1990).

The punishment for murder is getting to be shorter and shorter. A judge could sentence a man to life in prison. That same man could be out of jail with 15 years. How has life in jail become known as ten to fifteen years? If the judge says life with no parole, then the criminal could stay in jail a bit longer, but that would mean the state and it's voters would have to take care of the prisoner for twenty to twenty five years. How can we trust the murderers and thieves of our country to a judicial system that will either let them out in ten years or have us take care of them for twenty years, and then let them go? The criminals do not fear the punishment anymore, because they know they will not die. Punishment is meant to give justice to the wrongdoer and to keep him from doing it again. I am not saying we execute all of the criminals in the world, but it has to remain an option for the courts to use and to scare the criminals of the country. Many criminals don't fear the judicial system. They know that they will get out in ten years if they murder someone. They