The Debate Over Capital Punishment

Capital punishment has been a controversial issue that still exists in America today. Capital punishment is a law passed by the government to punish any individual that has been convicted of committed a heinous crime. The death penalty has been a method used throughout history as punishment for criminals. The punishment also known as the death penalty is a scheduled execution, which would be done with lethal injection. The reason why this punishment is chosen is because when crimes are committed that shock the conscience, the immediate emotional reaction is to retaliate with severe punishment (Schnurbush 2016). The death penalty is debated when it is brought up, opinions vary from one group of people to another, one side says the execution is murder, and the other saying that it is justice being done. Each side presents valid arguments to why people should be for it or against it; people’s opinions are formed by personal beliefs.

In many cases the person in question is sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. Do you know how much that costs you? The current annual cost for keeping an inmate in a state prison is $47,102, times the thousands of inmates also in prison for life is roughly around 59million a year. For a person to be put on to death row is around $7.2 million for three years. For a year of life in prison compared to three years of death row is a huge difference. Which means it could cut down the amount

Although keeping someone in a prison may cost a lot, sentencing someone to death is not cheap as well. It has actually been proven that the death penalty is more expensive than a prison sentence. This is because the trails for death penalties are long, and very complicated. In order to go through with the death penalty you need to have more experts, double the amount of attorneys and there will be a trial for guilt and a separate one for punishment. The criminal on death row is also held in a high security prison (Top Ten Pros and Cons). Though the death penalty may sound simple, it is much more complicated currently then it was multiple years

The state of Florida alone pays $525 for undertaker’s services and coffin, $150 for the inmate’s burial, and $20 for the inmate's last meal. It costs $70,000 for a mandatory review from the state supreme court on all death penalty sentences. It costs $20,000 a year to keep an inmate in their cell when on death row. For an inmate on a life sentence it cost $25,000 to keep the inmate in their cell. Based on a sentence of 40-45 years, an inmate would cost the taxpayer more than $1 million dollars, this cost is less than a third of what it would cost to put an inmate through capital punishment.

Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is a constitutionally acceptable form of criminal punishment, but its use has created serious controversy in the United States. The use of the death penalty has changed throughout history. At one point, capital punishment was the automatic conviction for murder and other high felonies. Standards were later created in 1972 to lessen arbitrary imposition of the death penalty by Furman v. Georgia. In 1977, Coker v. Georgia established that the death penalty is not a proportionate punishment to rape, and in 2005, Roper v. Simmons made it illegal to sentence those who were under eighteen when a crime occurred to capital punishment. Some states have abolished the death penalty, whereas others allow it, but the

The controversy with capital punishment has been debated for hundreds of years. The Supreme Court is likely to sway its opinion often about whether it should be abolished or instituted throughout the United States. There have been many court cases and lawsuits regarding this issue that has suggested that legislation would be the most effective way to ending the discussion once and for all. In order to abolish the death penalty, the majority has to agree in support of abolition for any legislature to repeal it. This support would have to defend itself through the occasional questions of reinstatement of capital punishment. In order to abolish capital punishment, abolitionist have to provide alternatives to the death penalty that would make sure the criminals that committed the crimes receive harsh enough punishment that would please those wanting to keep the death penalty. Whether or not they are able to accomplish such a task is hard to say. The death penalty needs to be removed on the grounds that is unconstitutional.

Violent crimes such a murder, rape, sexual assault, and robbery are perpetrated by criminals once every few minutes in this country. Lawmakers spend countless hours enacting laws to prevent these crimes. The introduction of the death penalty is an effort to deter criminals from committing heinous crimes. What exactly does the death penalty accomplish? The best description of the term death penalty is the legal execution of criminals as punishment for committing a violent crime. Opponents of the death penalty want to outlaw its use and consider the action a form of judicial murder. Advocates continue to support the use of capital punishment as a way to deter

There's a long history of capital punishment in the USA as it has been used since colonial times. The American constitution gives each state the right to govern over their own criminal laws. 31 states still have capital punishment and they use it on a number of crimes, including treason and crimes causing death, and use a number of different methods to kill those convicted of capital crimes. The death penalty has its supporters and opponents. Both groups have heated and emotional reasons for their point of view, plus, they each have their statistics to strengthen their argument. Additionally, each side uses the US Constitution to bolster their argument. Proponents use the Fifth Amendment which outlines the conditions for capital crimes. Opponents

How is it possible that us as Humans care so deeply about Human Rights and treating everyone equally but still have the Death Penalty applied to humans? Why is the Death Penalty acceptable when authorities perform these procedures but when individuals who are not authority figures basically do the same thing as the death penalty is seen as injustice, cruel, and some may think how sick can their minds be to do injustice things to a human, but even if the authorities can do these procedures. (rewrite the sentence) How can it be any good, how can they not see these individuals has equally as them?

Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is a form of punishment that has been used as far back as the Colonial Era in America. Although it has been around for the entirety of American history, most of the scrutiny and controversy involving capital punishment arose in the 1972 Supreme Court Case of Furman v. Georgia, in which it was abolished, but quickly returned in 1977. It is evident that many citizens have ambivalent stances on capital punishment; some believing it is necessary form of punishment while others believe that the death penalty is a violation of the Eighth Amendment. Although capital punishment has been used throughout history and is seen by many as a form of justified punishment, there are many reasons in favor of ending the death penalty completely. Capital punishment is an unnecessary evil that should be found unconstitutional because of it is not practical, it is corrupt, and it is unable to deter further homicides from being committed.

Furthermore, execution is very expensive than imprisoning a criminal for life in prison which can affect taxpayer because the government takes the money to use it for the death penalty. The expenses are on the lawyer's fees, extended trials, judicial proceedings and expert witnesses which the cost ends up being high. But the prices of having a criminal in jail for life can be more affordable for the government without touching the money from taxpayers. As

Also the cost of the death penalty vs life in prison, it is at least $2 million per person. Even today the government is still trying to work things out financially with prisons. Federalregister.gov stated that ”the fee to cover the average cost of incarceration for Federal inmates in Fiscal Year 2014 was $30,619.85 ($83.89 per day). The average annual cost to confine an inmate in a Residential Reentry Center for Fiscal Year 2014 was $28,999.25 ($79.45 per day)”. Therefor the death penalty is more expensive than life imprisonment. It is crazy to think that the establishment of the death penalty is cheaper for society. The death penalty is an expensive solution. The procedures are longer, the procedures require more studies, additional hearings, etc. This involves more judges, more lawyers, etc. Death penalty procedures can easily last 10 to 20 years. In the US there was even a lack of anaesthetic used in lethal

Firstly, the death penalty is a very expensive process with a lot of time and resources being pulled. In the state of Texas, it cost $2.3 Million per execution, which is the same cost to put that person in a maximum-security prison under solitary confinement for 40 years (Cary). This is completely absurd that the death penalty is even thought to be a better option, especially since the person is most likely not to be in solitary confinement for 40 years. Assuming the person on death row is around the age of nineteen by the time they would reach that price of $2.3 million they would be lucky to be still alive. To put the money being used into a much larger perspective in the state of California taxpayers can pay anywhere from $63 million to $114 million a year on the death penalty which is more than it would cost to put them in prison

All of the studies on the cost of capital punishment conclude it is much more expensive than a system with life sentences as the maximum penalty. Cases without the death penalty cost roughly $740,000 while cases where the death penalty is sought cost about $1.26 million. Maintaining each death row prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 more per year than a prisoner in general population. (Top 10 Pros… 2015). A study of the cost of the death penalty in Colorado showed that death penalty proceedings required six times the days in court and took much longer to solve than life-without-parole (LWOP) cases. When people try to say it cost less to tax payers to put a man to death then to care for them in prisons for life they are not aware of the facts. Why do these cases take so long from sentencing to execution? After a person is convicted of a capital crime, they tend not to accept a sentence of "death" without a fight. They appeal to a higher court, and a higher one and a higher one, trying to overturn their conviction for any reason. Resolving those numerous appeals takes years. It's built into the system, and it helps to ensure that the State is certain of a person's guilt before the actual execution. According to a study published in 2004 in the Journal of Parable legal studies, five percent of the 5,826 death sentences imposed from 1973 to 1995 were carried out in those years. The study found there was a 68%

Although it is argued that capital punishment is a strong deterrent to crimes and serves as a just punishment, nevertheless, capital punishment should be abolished because it is a violation of human rights, carries a risk of executing innocent people, is a burden on taxpayer’s money and is discriminant in application.