Pro Death Penalty Persuasive Essay

The death penalty disproportionately targets minorities especially African Americans. In the United States of America there is an unequal and unfair burden against African Americans in the criminal justice system. In 2011, African Americans were only 13.6% of the American population (Rastogi, Johnson, Hoeffel, & Drewery, 2011). However, African Americans in 2011 made up 42% of the total death row population (Snell, 2011). Although a minority of the total population in the United States, African Americans make the majority of inmates on death row facing execution. Furthermore, the death penalty in many states is used as tool that following the racial legacy of Jim Crow laws. Sentences resulting in death are higher in states with a history of lynching (Schweizer 92). States with a history of lynching are predominately found in the Southern United states. The Southern United states has the highest population of death row inmates. In 2009 alone there were 1,630 inmates currently on death row in the South compared to 226 in the North and only 988 in the West (Schweizer 92). In addition, the race of the victim often will determine the sentence. Results from the Baldus Study suggested evidence of racial disparity in the state of Georgia based on the victims race (Schweizer 92). The Baldus study argued African American defendants who committed murdered white individuals had much higher probability of receiving the death penalty. Prosecutors in Georgia pursued a verdict of death in 80% of their cases if the defendant was African American and the victim was white (Schweizer 92). This is purely racial discrimination and prejudice. Finally, “Since 1977, the overwhelming majority (77%) off death row defendants have been executed for killing white victims, even though African Americans make up about half of all homicide victims (Amnesty International).”The race of the both the victim and perpetrator in criminal is irrelevant.

The death penalty, by definition, is the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime. Each state has their own determinates of why someone would be given the death penalty, for example, in Missouri, it is first degree murder, but for Alabama it is intentional murder with 18 aggravating factors.

Andre Crawford killed 11 women on Chicago's South Side over the course of six years. He lured his victims to abandoned buildings, then strangled, beat or stabbed them. As they lay dying, he raped them. Later he returned to have sex with the corpses (Andre Crawford). None of this was enough for him to get the toughest punishment allowed under Illinois law: the death penalty. In some places, people receive the death penalty for killing one person. So why shouldn’t he for 11 murders?

In the United States of America, the death penalty has been carried out in more humane ways than other countries. Our country inherited our death penalty laws from the British when they settled here in the sixteenth century (DIPC). America in the past used, lethal injection, electrocution, hanging and gas chambers. Oklahoma was the first state to implement lethal injection; but Texas was the first to use the tedious process. It requires strapping the inmate down to a gurney, then having a member of the execution team put heart monitors on their body, then putting a needle in usable veins in each arm. Long tubes connect to several intravenous drips. The first thing to go through the tubes is saline, then when given the signal the inmate is injected

When Robert Gleason Jr. was put to death in Virginia on January 16 (he chose the electric chair) he became the 140th so-called “volunteer” for execution since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976. In fact, over 10% of US executions have been “voluntary,” usually meaning that the prisoner has given up his appeals.

Do you ever wonder what should happen to dangerous criminals? Watching the news just thinking “huh?” Well what do you think should happen to the dangerous criminals? There are many opinions. Some people think the only option is the death penalty. I honestly agree and disagree with that because there are some death penalties are justified and some are not .Listen to these two cases.

Putting people to death, judged to have committed certain extremely heinous crimes, is a practice that’s been around for along time. In the later half of the twentieth century, it has become a controversial issue. As a supporter of the death penalty, I consider this to be a good thing for my country and its citizens. Capital punishment deters crime. Statistics prove consisted application of the death penalty deter crime. No executed murdered has ever killed again. For many years, Criminologists have thought to believe the death penalty has no affect as deterrence to homicides. From 1972-1976, a suspension was place on capital punishment. The United States had 9,140 murders in 1960 where 56 people were executed. Nine years

The Death Penalty has been a long standing part of the American justice system. For many years, the death penalty went without opposition, but as of recently it has gained it’s long overdue mass opposition. The Death Penalty is barbaric, and is costing our nation obscene amounts of money. While one would think that modern-day American citizens would have done away with this method, a good portion of Americans reason that it lowers the crime rate and it provides closure (or rather vengeance) to families of victims.

The death penalty is a punishment given to criminals who the jury find worthy of the death penalty. There are many different ways to earn the penalty and it can be taken to trial multiple times before actually occurring to the person. While some people are brought to great stress at this charge, There are many people who have been given peace from this punishment.

“There are murder victims' family members who go through this process thinking they'll feel peace once the revenge of the death penalty is carried out. What I've learned from meeting with these people is that you don't feel better in revenge. You feel better in forgiveness” (Steinberg, 2015). Today, there are 31 states that are for the death penalty, leaving 19 that are against it. There are many reasons to be for and against the death penalty, but in my opinion, I think that there is a better way to take care of criminals rather than killing them.

Hammurabi once said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Society has changed over time. At some point people have forgotten the difference between right and wrong and have forgotten that some things aren’t okay to do. People think that it is okay to kill, rape, or torture. They think they can do all of this stuff and not get punished for their actions. How can we as a society think that we can make a change in this world if people continue to do hateful things and think that those things are okay to do? We need to continue to punish people so they understand that there are consequences for their actions? None of the violence or hateful crimes that happen in this world will stop completely, but with the death penalty for serious crimes; such as the the murders that I will give examples of later. We are one step closer to ending it. I believe that the death penalty is a good thing and this is why.

Some of those who support the death penalty base their argument on the fact that it is a cost-effective alternative to life imprisonment. However, it may be more costly to execute an inmate than to have that person serve a life sentence (Amnesty International, 1987). A 1982 study in New York concluded that the average capital murder trial and the first stage of appeals costs U.S. tax-payers 1.8 million dollars (Bohm, 1987). It is estimated that this is less than it would cost to incarcerate someone for one hundred years. Other sources estimate that it can cost up to 2.2 million dollars to obtain and carry out a death sentence (Johnson, 1990). The principal factor in this cost is the appeals process, which lasts an average of ten years and is deemed necessary to reduce the likelihood of the execution of an innocent person.

If someone you loved had been murdered, and the person who did it gets to live his life out, albeit in prison, how would you feel? Would you feel that is a satisfying enough of a punishment or do you believe it should be an eye for an eye? This is an issue around the country from state to state on whether or not the death penalty should be allowed. It should be allowed nationwide because it has the possibility of deterring such serious crime such as murder and the terrifying fact that it is much cheaper than keeping a person locked up for the rest of their life.

The death penalty is a prosecute that is used to kill criminals that have committed crimes that are so bad they should not be left alive. The idea of putting another human to death is hard to completely fathom. The physical mechanics involved in the act of execution are easy to grasp, but the emotions involved in carrying out a death sentence on another person, regardless of how much they deserve it, is beyond my understanding. Knowing that it must be painful, dehumanizing, and sickening. The Eight Amendment says” Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” (Constitutions). And for the article Changing Views on\\e rate has gone down at a steady from the 1990 to now and that they death penalty is sometimes necessary, and it is our responsibility as a society to see that it is done.

Some people think that self-defense is justified by trying to save your own life but if the murder is committed on purpose, the murderer obviously does not value life; therefore, why should he/she be allowed to live when they deprived another human being of this privilege, life? Other people disagree and think that since the murderer does not value life and commits a crime, the law should not be taking the same path and contradict itself by sentencing the murderer to death. Why kill people who kill people to show killing is wrong. Putting people to death to prove that we are against killing does not make any sense. That statement contradicts the country’s belief method. Thus, death penalty is wrong. The death penalty has been a controversial issue for a long time, and has its pros as well as its cons. The way it is applied varies from state to state and depends on different variables. Some may argue that death penalty punishment is inhumane, against most common religious beliefs, does not reduce the crime, costs a lot more than life in prison, and worst of all, executions of innocent people, while others are convinced that it is the most effective and inexpensive way of eliminating dangerous people from the society. However, at the end of the day, as a society we need to move away from the “eye for an eye” revenge simply because it will not solve any problem and will not prove anything, the obvious is that by striking back at the enemy, the only outcome is an endless cycle of violence. Death penalty sends the wrong message.