Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

The death penalty has been argued about for years. Only 19 states (including district of Columbia) do not have the death penalty. Because of the cost of death vs. life in prison, irrevocable mistakes, and morality, the death penalty should definitely be discontinued.

The Annually 20, 000 murders in the USA and from that 300 people are sentenced to death and only 55 people are executed .Far as the states in USA concern only 19 sates carried out in 1976. In 1972 the Supreme Court declared that death penalty was unconstitutional, and in the

There are currently 31 states with the death penalty. The states are Alabama, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota, California, Montana, Tennessee, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Florida, Utah, Nevada, Georgia, New hampshire, Virginia, Idaho, North Carolina, Washington, Indiana, Ohio, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, And Oregon. All of these states have lethal injection. Three have hangings. Eigth have electrocution. Three have lethal gas. Two have firing squad. There are eighteen states without the death penalty. The states are Alaska, Michigan, Vermont, Connecticut, Minnesota, West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Hawaii, New Mexico, Illinois, New York, Iowa, North Dakota, Maine, Rhode Island, Maryland Massachusetts.Maryland was the most recent to abolish the death penalty in the year 2013.

In the United States, there are around 40 to 50 executions per year, Texas with 10 or more prisoners put to death each year. Texas has the highest rate of deaths out of all the other states with the death penalty. Texas currently has three prisoners put to death already. The United States has currently 31 states with the death penalty; the remaining states abolished it. The death penalty should be abolished because of the cost, it shortens punishment for the person who did the crime,and it puts innocent lives at risk.

The Texas death penalty is ranked number one nationally, which should not come as a surprise to any native Texans. (Holle, Fellow) Texas even has a prison museum, complete with a capital punishment exhibit, which spotlights an electric chair used to execute 361 prisoners from 1924-1964. Capital Punishment is still legal in 35 states. Japan is the only other Industrial democracy that still has the death penalty. (CNN)

Some people believe that the death penalty should be abolished and some believe that it should be used more frequently. The use of the death penalty as punishment varies from state to state. Capital punishment is established in thirty-one states; however, nineteen of the fifty states do not

Even after these devastating facts, the death penalty still isn’t being put down in the United States. Thirty two of the fifty states in America allow for capital punishment. Lethal injections are the number one way to execute a criminal in America, and there are many other methods offered in select states. Texas, a state that strongly supports capital punishment, was the first state to carry out lethal injections on December 7, 1982 for the execution of Charles Brooks. Texas is also the first in the number of executions in the United States. If Texas made the death penalty illegal, the number of executions in the United States would decrease dramatically. Electrocution, lethal gas, a firing squad and even hangings still occur in the United States and are secondary options for many criminals in the country.

To begin, Capital punishment executions cost American taxpayers billions of dollars since 1976. Further, the majority of those wrongfully sentenced, innocent ones, to death is likely to languish in prison and never get released. With the executions per year gradually decreasing. (Cuomo), former New York governor stated “The death penalty is legal in 31 states and illegal in 19 states, including District of Columbia. The five different methods of execution that are still in consideration of 36 states include; lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad, and hanging.” Therefore, the use of capital punishment needs to be abolished due to its cruel nature, cost to Americans, and the misuse of human power.

​Issuance of the death penalty is not a new practice in the United States, especially not in Florida. The death penalty has been a highly respectable; though criticized and controversial, form of punishment in the United States for almost 400 years. This punishment was first introduced in Virginia in 1622. Throughout most of the 20th century, the majority of states in the country permitted execution of convicted criminals. The practice dates back to early English common law, where virtually any person convicted of a felony offence faced a mandatory death sentence, but the practice has always been much more widespread in the US than in the United Kingdom, which abandoned capital punishment in 1973. For much of US history, capital punishment was extended beyond the crime of murder to include multiple offences. Among some of these were robbery, murder, rape, possession of unauthorized firearms and kidnapping in

There are currently over 16,000 people legally sentenced to death worldwide. The State of Texas has 271 people on death row, the third most in America, but has executed the most people in the country. Twenty-five people have been executed this year in the U.S.; twelve of those have been executed in Texas (Facts). The death penalty must be abrogated because it is an ineffective, antiquated, and expensive form of punishment.

The death penalty has been a debated topic for decades. Many people believe that it serves justice to the person being executed, while others think that it does no good for either party. However, I believe the three most outstanding topics surround the death penalty are the cost of death vs. life in prison, attorney quality, and irrevocable mistakes.

The issue of the death penalty has been of great concern and debate for a number of years now. Prior to 1976, the death penalty was banned in the United States. In 1976, though, the ban was lifted, and many states adopted the death penalty in their constitutions. Currently, there are 38 states that use the death penalty, and only 12 states that do not. The states that have the death penalty use a number of ways to go about executing the defendant. Thirty-two states use lethal injection, 10 use electrocution, 6 use the gas chamber, 2 use hanging, and 2 states use a firing squad (Death Penalty Information Center, 1997). The 12 states that do not have the death penalty are Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,

The most recent state to enact a death penalty law was New York in 1995. As of January 1998, 38 states and the federal government have capital punishment laws in effect. Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin do not have a death penalty. (http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/just/death/)

The death penalty and what people have done to be sentenced to the harsh punishment is considered a major deal. While Some people would think that the death penalty is the best option for serious crimes. While others may not think so. Do to their own personal opinions. The pros and cons when talking about the death penalty punishment are the reason why many chose for or against the penalty. The pros to the death penalty are: The prisons would have more room for the people that commit minor crimes, the taxes would be much lower due to playing less expense for the prisoners, the criminals will get the punishment and the families who were affected will get justice for the victim's death. The cons of the death penalty are The person who committed the horrible crime dies, which puts the value in every human beings life, in vain. While death is easy for both sides because being punished for something is hard as well as being the punisher. “The one prisoner who evidently preferred death to life in prison.” This quote came from chicagotribune. Showing that death is the easy way out, for a way to escape prison or jail. The quote “eye for an eye, the world goes blind.” This quote explains nothing will come with revenge or the death of someone who murdered another. This will only cause emptiness, which in this case is the blindness, or how the loved ones won't ever come back because they are dead and won't ever come back.

Resolved: The death penalty as a punishment is not appropriate and should be banned. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary the meaning of the death penalty is death as a punishment given by a court of law for very serious crimes. The death penalty does not assuage the grief felt by families of victims, it is not a deterrent to violent crime, and it is not a wise use of taxpayers dollars.