The Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

In this paper I will be discussing everything you need to know about the death penalty such as its pros and cons. While the innocent can be killed, the death penalty has its pros because it prevents them from killing again if they are released or have escaped from prison, it helps overpopulated prisons, and it can help victims’ families get justice and closure. Not only can the innocent be killed, but in the past the death penalty was very inhumane. To some its feels right but to others they feel like 2 wrongs don’t make a right. Most people think that the defendant deserves the death penalty, but what does the defendants’ family think?

Keeping a prisoner in jail for life will be very expensive considering that it costs $80,000 a year; and the bad news is that the money comes from the taxpayer's pocket. Thousands of people will attack the death penalty. They will give emotional speeches about the one innocent man who might be executed. However, all of these people are forgetting one crucial element. They are forgetting the thousands of victims who die every year. This may sound awkward, but the death penalty saves lives. It saves lives because it stops those who murder from ever murdering again (Bryant). These opinions represent some of the strongest and most influential views that proponents hold. However, if our prison system could rehabilitate more effectively, perhaps those who murdered once, could change.

Death is something that a lot of people think about, but do people think about the Death Penalty? Having been given the death penalty means that someone is going to be put to death by a lethal injection or an electric chair; There are more ways, but the injection and the electric chair are the most used. There are many different opinions surrounding the idea of death penalties; which some people think the death penalty should be used more and some believe the complete opposite.

Have you ever wondered during any point of your life about the severity or how influential the death penalty is on criminals and the U.S citizens? If you haven’t never given it consideration before, you will after this argumentative essay. The death penalty is a government practice where a person is sentenced to death by a state for a crime they have committed and even dates back to the 1600s. Out of fifty states, thirty-two still have the death penalty in effect. Even with the death penalty still occurring in these states, not too many states sentence criminals to it anymore. However, Texas is one of the states that still rely on the punishment heavily which then corrupts their state spending for beneficial things such as emergencies, roads, or economy. Although the death penalty might seem like a good idea to end a person’s life, I for one, however, believe that the death penalty is outdated for the 21st Century and should be abolished.

The world is constantly evolving for the better and the worse, with this being said, not only will good come out of it but new evils will arise. We can’t stop the world from changing, but we can decide how we handle it. The death penalty should be legalized all around the world. The death penalty not only diminishes threats to society but it also brings closure to those who are grieving. In the United States alone, the death penalty is not legal in all 50 states, therefore overrunning the prisons with unnecessary bodies. Due to this, there has been an overall increase in the gang activity within state and federal prison. The death penalty shows that violent, brutal, and heinous crimes will not be tolerated and the offenders will be punished to the highest extent. Execution should be used as the highest form of punishment by the means of a rightful conviction.

"Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Every murder perpetrated by ... any … kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing ... from a premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously to effect the death of any human being other than him who is killed, is murder in the first degree." (Cornell) First-degree murder is very clear in its definition in US law. On the fateful night of November 14, 1959, Perry Edward Smith and Richard Eugene Hickock seemed to have completely disregarded that very law when they made the decision to murder the innocent Clutter family after a planned robbery attempt and murder for cover up. Herbert and Bonnie Clutter and two of their children, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter, were brutally slain that night only for a total gain of fifty dollars for the killers. For the brutal murders of the Clutter family, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock should undoubtedly be punished by receiving the death penalty.

The death penalty is an issue more complicated than any debate that the country has ever seen. Despite the long debates and the rehashed concepts that are presented to the media almost every day, there is but one truth that defines the issue: there is no way to look at the death penalty in black and white. Where on one hand, it ventures into immoral territory due to the obvious murder involved. On the other hand, though, the act is justified by calling it justice or retribution. Words like revenge, good, cruel and inhumane pop-up, but they do little to cast any importance on the debate: we cannot look at the death penalty with the expectations to reach a final

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.

Why is the death penalty so ineffective and expensive? There are multiple reasons to both questions, ranging from the trial cost and appeals or to the 153 people that have been exonerated. Theres also the declining popularity of capital punishment with only 60% of americans saying that they support it, as of 2013. Also a 2014 poll by the Washington Post and ABC News found that a majority of Americans (52%) prefer life without parole as punishment for murder, with just 42% preferring the death penalty.(“Public Opinion About the Death Penalty.” Public Opinion About the Death Penalty | Death Penalty Information Center, Deathpenaltyinfo.org, deathpenaltyinfo.org/public-opinion-about-death-penalty.)

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.

What is the death penalty? The death penalty is a punishment of execution. There are many methods of executions, such as lethal injection, beheading, hanging, electrocution, or shooting in the back of the head, either by one person or a firing squad. Many people have different opinions on the death penalty, whether it should be legal or not. The death penalty argument in the US has left the country divided for a long time. There are thirty-three states where the death penalty is legal and seventeen states have abolished it. In my opinion, the death penalty shouldn’t be legal throughout the entire country. It breaches basic human rights: the right to life and the right to live free from torture. There are multiple reasons why the death penalty shouldn’t be legalized, including, arbitrary, fallibility, high cost, and deterrence.

The death penalty has been a debatable subject for many years. Violence is only getting worse

Criminals are sadly apart of our society and have been since the beginning of time, and it

“A clear majority of voters (61%) would choose a punishment other than the death penalty for murder, including life with no possibility of parole…” (DPIC, 2017). More than half of the population in the United States is classified as being religious. Religion is a delicate topic because of how people feel towards it, presenting a very loyal and intense belief, no matter what religion. Whether the death penalty be abolished or supported, if religion taken into consideration; there is a strong belief that though it may be the capital crime, death penalty should not be an option. There are five forms of death penalty in the in United States, in most countries lethal injection is the primary method, as for the second options include electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad, and only in Washington; hanging. Death penalty is a commonly asked question of whether it is good or bad, considering three significant points being that millions are spent; discrimination and a gamble; misconduct, perjury and false accusations are all matters to believe that the death penalty is ludicrous.

The death penalty is the ultimate punishment for some of the most heinous and brutal crimes. The majority of death penalty cases in the United States is almost exclusively for the crime of murder, including but not limited to murder related to smuggling of aliens, genocide, murder committed in the federal government facility, and murder committed during an offense against a local law-enforcement official or other person aiding in a federal investigation, just to name a few. (federal) New York City alone has an annual cost of $167,732 which is what it takes to feed, house, and guard each inmate. According to a study that the Vera Institute of Justice released in 2012 found that the aggregate cost of prisons in 2010 and 40 states that participated was $39 billion. (NewYorkTimes.com)