Pros And Cons Of Death Penalty In The United States

The death penalty is still in use in the united states. The state with the most executions is Texas with a total of 545 from 2017 to the year 1976 (Number of Executions, 2017). The death penalty is a very big debate. There are many reasons why and why people do and don’t like the death penalty.

The death penalty is still in use in the united states. The state with the most executions is in Texas with a total of 545 from 2017 to the year 1976 (Number of Executions, 2017). The death penalty is a very big debate. There are many reasons why and why people do and don’t like the death penalty.

Despite this on going argument, outlawing capital punishment in America could create many unhappy citizens, and cause a division in the U.S. government. By enforcing the death penalty prevention in crime could occur. If death is the punishment for murder then criminals are not gaining from their crimes, but receiving the punishment they have inflicted on others. The crime rate is lower in the states that do not invoke capital punishment, but as Walter Burns stated “the number of murders tend to rise with the crime rate in general - and not only in America,” (105). Capital punishment is maintained to hopefully show criminals that when they kill they will eventually meet the same fate. By enforcing the death penalty the government could be trying to scare criminals from their crimes, and in some cases it has worked. When the death penalty was restored in Kansas, for example, the homicide rate dropped considerably (Bedau 122). According to research done by Bedau the crime rate continued to sore between 1960-1969 when capital punishment was rarely being used in most states (Bedau 127).

The death penalty has been battered backwards and forwards by the questions of abolishment and replacement, with mixed results. There seems to a jagged line in the sand on where people stand, and due to the continuous use today (albeit at a slower clip than in the past), it is still very much a prevalent topic of punishment. Those who argue for it believe that taking it away will take away a great deterrent, that families find peace, and that those who commit egregious crimes deserve only death. Anything less “would fail to do justice because the penalty – presumably a long period in prison – would be grossly disproportionate to the heinousness of the crime” (“Top 10 Pro & Con Arguments,” 2016). Those who don’t believe in this punishment as a modern-day, useful tool of deterrence and punishment for crime, continuously counter these arguments, as well as any others, daily at every turn. Though many states have made it illegal, others placing moratoriums or refusals to use it, the death penalty can still be found active today. But why can’t it be replaced with life without parole, and it if can why should it?

The death penalty helps reduce the population in prisons. The number of prisoners is always growing. Kate Randall, the author of an article on the World Socialist Web Site, states that

Knowing the exact date and time of one’s death would be tremendously terrifying. For the people on death row, it is experienced every single day. Instead of paying their time, they get the easy way out. It puts innocent lives at risk, it is selected at random, and it costs taxpayers a fortune. The death penalty is not a fair justification and the United States should not practice this mechanism.

The Government used to have a death penalty where you would have to sit in a chair that shocks you all the way to your death. When time has come passed the electric chair was eliminated and now their using the lethal injection where you are poisoned and killed instantly. Out of everybody on the death row 42% are Black, 43% are Whites, 13% are Hispanic, and 2% are other races. In the US there was 3,035 people on death row last October. 150 death row inmates were released due to their innocence being found. In Cali people who killed whites where 3 times more likely to get the death row then those who killed blacks.

Few issues have been as hotly argued and controversial as the death penalty, with its many conflicting moral, social and legal implications. Compelling arguments exist in favor of the final punishment, and equally strong arguments exist to end its practice. Furthermore, considering its conflicting history, on the grand scale of the whole world, and in just America, it is unlikely that this issue will be resolved any time soon. In the United States specifically, the issue has great significance to the bill of rights and the 8th amendment, which prevents cruel and unusual punishment. The death sentence, due to the intense debate on its morality and constitutionality, as well as the

As of August 2017,the death penalty is legal in 31 states. Twenty people were executed in the United States in 2016. Although this number may seem high the death penalty rate has actually been on a decline since the early 2000’s. Since 1973 there have only been 159 death row exonerations. There have only been 54 women on death row and only 22 juveniles have been killed but the American judicial system. Many people commit crimes every day some crimes are so horrific that they can often be sentenced to the death penalty. The death penalty is one of the cruelest acts known to man and it needs to be abolished entirely. Some reasons as to why the death penalty should be abolished are as follows: the death penalty is systematically racist, innocent people can be put to death, it stops any chance of rehabilitation, and it’s simply savage.

The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is when a person is sentenced to death row by the state for a certain crime. The existence of this policy creates huge debate in society as to whether it should be allowed or not. It creates a highly controversial conversation due to many arguments on each side. On average, only a couple people a decade are sentenced to death row, how does this help us? The death penalty does not fix any issues in our broken society, it only makes us more corrupt and hypocritical.

One of the best reasons I feel that the death penalty is a good thing is that it can deter would-be criminals to commit a crime. Yes people may argue that back then in the old days that didn’t stop them but if you actually look it up the crime rate back then it was not as high as the crime rate now. Would-be criminals would think before they act if they wanted to commit a crime, and I understand that it may not phase them at all but you can’t get rid of all crime it isn’t possible.

Also, capital punishment does not deter crime. Many innocent people have died from this system and it has to stop somewhere, why not now? It seems this is used to scare criminals and if that is the case, then we are not doing a good job of it because crime is happening as we speak. Also, the death penalty is a crime itself. Why are we killing those who have killed, because obviously no one has learned their lesson. As they say, two wrongs don’t make a right, and this is the perfect example of that.

“To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, not justice”(Desmond Tutu). The death sentence is a court ordered law to execute someone because of the crimes they have committed. The death penalty should be abolished because the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, the fear of death does not deter murders, and time in prison is much more effective and efficient than the death penalty.

Out of the 50 states in the United States only 36 of them legalize the death penalty (Mull,1998-2017), and within these 32 states there are 3,035 inmates on death row as of now (Brain, 2017). They are currently waiting on their death. Although the fate of these inmates are yet to be determine, other inmate fates have already been decided. From the year 2007 to 2015, 338 people were executed (Brain, 2017). Capital Punishment also known as Death Penalty , is a government practice where a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. There are three ways the death penalty is practiced in the United States; Lethal injection, electrocution,and firing squad. Lethal injection is the most common and is practiced by injecting one or more drugs into a person. This cause the person to become unconscious, stops their breathing, and causes a heart arrhythmia giving them immediate death. Electrocution is the preformed by an electric chair which a person is strapped down to a wooden chair. While strapped in the electric chair electrocuted is begin through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. Firing squad is a secondary method only used in Oklahoma. There are people who are for the death penalty because of the of what serial killers, terrorists, and etc do to our society. They also feel like it contributes to the problem of overpopulation in the prison system. Some people are against the death penalty because it cost too much money, the possibility that innocent men

In an interview with the Death Penalty Information Center, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1956 to 1990, Justice William J. Brennan Jr. said, “Perhaps the bleakest fact of all is that the death penalty is imposed not only in a freakish and discriminatory manner, but also in some cases upon defendants who are actually innocent (Dieter).” In every case of the death penalty, there is always a small percentage of chance that the victim might be innocent. As described by the Justice Brennan, the death penalty is terrified.