Just Kill 'Em? Essay

Finally many people say that they do not want thier taxes to go to feed criminals in prison however Statistics from the Death Penalty Information Centre show that Maryland has spent “$186 million dollars on five executions” and California’s cost is roughly “$90,000 per year per inmate. With

The Death Penalty in America has been a talked about issue for some time now. Americans have their own opinions on the death penalty. Some people feel it is too harsh of a punishment, some believe if you take a life you should lose your life. I myself do not believe in the death penalty. To me it goes totally against what Americas was built on God. Even though over the last fifteen years or so we have slowly drifted away from “In God We Trust”. Looking at the death penalty in a whole it was never something that the United States came up with. It was adopted from Britain. (Bohm, 1999)The first ever recorded death penalty in United States history was that of Captain George Kendall in 1608. He was executed for being a spy. The death of Captain Kendall started a chain of other colonies jumping on board for the death penalty. In some colonies they were sentencing people to death for petty crimes, such as steeling, or trading with Indians. Over the years after the death penalty would be reformed and revamped numerous of times. Until it was only used when murder or treason occurred. Matter of fact Pennsylvania was the first state

Some may be shocked to be informed that capital punishment actually costs more than life in prison; that is without parole. Many would figure that the costs would be less for the death penalty because of the food, place of living for the prisoners, etc., but quite frankly, it costs more for a prisoner to be punished to death rather than to having life in prison (Hyden). Some state’s taxes differ but for the state of California, capital punishment costs taxpayers more than $114 million a year (Bushman). Additionally, the taxpayers of California spend $250 million per execution (Bushman). According to the nonpartisan state legislative analyst’s office, the average cost of imprisoning an inmate was around $47,000 per year in 2008-09. In comparison, the death penalty can lead to an additional $50,000 to 90,000 per year, according to the studies found (Ulloa). In more studies, they have estimated the taxpayers to spend $70 million per year on incarceration, plus $775 million on additional federal legal challenges to convictions, and $925 million on automatic appeals with the initial challenges to death penalty cases

Texas pay for Capital Punishment and kills prisoners more than California. Capital Punishment costs more for the taxpayers than keeping prisoners in prison. Texas kills more prisoners than any other state and has also done the most to minimize the time between trial and execution (Costanzo, pg.61). If Texas reduced the number of executed inmates, there would not be a large amount of money being spent because it is cheaper to keep prisoners in jail than it is to execute them. In Texas each taxpayer pays around $2.3 million, almost three times more than the cost of imprisonment in a maximum security cell for forty years (Costanzo, pg.61). Taxpayers paying so much, makes them angry and upset because the state is spending an exorbitant amount

Throughout mankind has been using the death penalty as a form of punishment. Many people argue with this type of punishment because they believe in an eye for an eye. Many people that it is okay to murder a human being due to them having killed an individual over time. There have been many cases that have proven that they death penalty violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, being very expensive, and innocent lives are convicted.

As stated before, capital punishment is very costly. $90,000 per year per inmate is the difference between an inmate on death row and one sentenced to life without parole (Tempest, 2005). On average California spends $250 million on each execution, these numbers start to add up and they are most certainly more than what it would be to sentence them to life without parole. The side that is for capital punishment would say that these cost are necessary to keep our

Since 1978 the state of California has successfully executed 13 people on death row. For decades capital punishment still remains the answer to violent and heinous crimes of the convicted. The death penalty delays closure for the families and majority are often flawed and overturned. Capital punishment causes problems within itself, those such as the cost to keep the public policy running. It is committed by an individual or insisted upon by the government, killing is still cruel in any form that it is given. Even though it is a

I completely disagree with the archaic and obsolete way of the death penalty since it's way to expensive, it doesn't make the crime go away and the person could be innocent. First off , the amount of money spent on the death penalty is tremendous. Los Angeles Times Study Finds California Spends $250 Million per Execution in a 2005 article, ACLU has reported that "California taxpayers pay at least $117 million each year post-trial seeking execution of the people currently on death row;Executing all of the people currently on death row, or waiting for them to die there of other causes, will cost California an estimated $4 billion more than if they had been sentenced to die in prison of disease, injury, or old age; California death penalty trials

In order to carry out the death penalty, a state must have a substantial amount of money on hand. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the state of California has spent a total of four billion dollars on capital proceedings. (Marceau, 2013) The pre-Trial costs alone totaled $1.94 billion. Another nine hundred and twenty-five million dollars has been spent on appeals and state Habeas Corpus Petitions. Federal Habeas Corpus Appeals can account for another seven hundred and seventy-five million dollars of the four billion that the state has spent on this form of justice. Finally the overall costs of incarceration nears another one billion dollars. If the state of California were to simply get rid of the death penalty, the state would be able to pocket more than 4.5 billion dollars over the next 15-20 years depending on the exact amount of cases the state is presented with. (Marceau, 2013)

According to BBC California alone has spent over $4 billion annually to keep the death penalty in place and continues to keep paying that much. With passing proposition 62 Californian taxpayers would save more than $150 million a year. (BBC Website) The amount of money that is spent just keeping the death penalty up and running is just needless. If the death penalty is passed then that means that California will spend even more money trying

In an article entitled Condemned to Die in Prison stated that the penalty is three times more expensive than sentencing them to die in prison. Sentencing one to death, costs California taxpayers an extra $90,000 per a prisoner. If you were to add that up to a year, it would cost the state about $59 million a year. This would lead up to $336 for California’s new death roll. We can use that wasted money on valuable resources rather than the penalty. Modifying what is being said, California had carried out sentences of 11 prisoners between 1977 and 2002 that used up $250 million. We can use that wasted money on valuable resources rather than the penalty. That money can be used to create public safety programs by educating the public about health and law. Another way it could be put to good use is community service. Prisoners can pay part of their debt by cleaning the streets and helping the community. As a matter of fact, many innocent people are being wrongfully sentenced. In California, more than 200 people were set free after being wrongfully convicted. Most juries don not have enough information to hold a trial or convict a person of crime so they settle for the easiest decision. It could be any innocent person out there. All in all, the government just wants some one to pay for the crime and this is wrong. The fact that the capital has the ability to execute an innocent man or woman questions whether or not the subject is even necessary. There are better ways of punishing people and to do that we have to know if the person is innocent

Since the foundation of our nation the Death Penalty has been a way to punish prisoners that have committed heinous crimes, however since the turn of the 20th century the practice of Capital Punishment has been questioned on its usage in America and the world as a whole. The Death Penalty is used in America to punish criminals who have committed murders, or taken the life of an innocent person, and while the death penalty seems like it is doing justice to those who have killed others it is actually being used improperly in most situations, while also hindering our economy and is a means of ending more lives than necessary. The Death Penalty can be a valid source of punishment for criminals in the US however due to the misuse of this power by the government it is a huge detriment to our nation and the people that inhabit it. Because of the fact that Capital Punishment is used unfairly, and ineffectively in our nation it is an obsolete form of punishment and should have no place in the United States justice department.

That number is 20 out of 2095. This year alone, three months into the year, there have already been six. We are quickly approaching our previous 20. The problem is, it’s costing us. According to a study made by Loyola Marymount Law Professor Paula Mitchell, between 1980 and 2012, California spent an estimated four billion on administering death penalty cases while actually only executing thirteen people. In this study she says “the legal costs, per case, skyrocket an extra one hundred thirty-four million dollars per year, which is well above the cost to implement life without possibility of parole.” Thedeathpenalty.org states that capital punishment cases burden county budgets with large unexpected costs. These counties manage these high costs by decreasing funding for highways and police and by increasing taxes. The report estimates that between 1982 and 1997 the extra cost of capital trials was $1.6 billion. That money could’ve easily either been not collected from tax payers or used for something much more efficient than being wasted on trials and cases that over 99% would not have even gone through and resulted in a death.

The death penalty is faulty in its age and obsolete in its usage, and frankly should be put out of its misery. Capital punishment began its time in the Middle Ages, as people were executed for simply thinking differently from the rest of society. Even now, as we look back on history we find their ways of execution purely barbaric and malicious in all its forms. However, we continue to practice these forms of butchery; the traditional method of execution, hanging, is still an option available in certain states. In addition, couple of states also still allow firing squads, and the electrocution chairs has been readily used throughout the last century. The United States stands as one of the few developed nations with a death penalty still in place. There’s a reason most of the European countries have banned the usage of death as punishment, it’s cruel, unusual and barbaric! Is that the image the U.S. wants to portray the alling regions, one of intolerance and unforgiveness? The United States surpasses those barbaric ways, with its exceedingly advanced ways and state-of-the-art technology, yet it’s one of the only countries left of the Western world that still has

Low risk? Well, yes. The odds of being apprehended at all are very low, and