Capital Punishment Essay: The Death Penalty

The Death Penalty
Offenders given mandatory life in prison on charges of murder, on average only serve 16 years before being released back into society. One in three of these killers carries out a second murder even under the supervision of the probation officer.1 If we allow murderers to spend life in prison we run the chance of them getting out and killing again. Capital punishment can also deter future perpetrators from committing such a heinous crime, and it will end the prisoner’s suffering by giving them a humane death and give closure to the victim’s family. Without a concrete meaning of “life in prison” we need the death penalty to put an end to the most evil of people.
“Life should mean life.” This is what the family of the victim

killed by Andrew Dawson said after he killed their loved ones. Dawson had been out of prison for a couple of weeks before he claimed two more victims. He only served 28 years of his life sentence from the years of 1982 to 2010.2 If the death penalty was used in this case those two victims wouldn’t be such. There are two innocent lives that could’ve been saved by putting to rest one guilty life. The two men could’ve gone on to perform incredible actions, or at least could’ve contributed more to society than a man lock behind bars for his entire life. With the death penalty put into action, we will be able to stop these horrible human beings from being released to commit the same crime, and will be able to deter potential future killers.
Death is a fear that many individuals share.

If an action would run a high risk of getting yourself killed, you might think twice before committing such an act. If taking one guilty life can save even one innocent life, it’s doing its job. In 1973, Isaac Ehrlich employed a new kind of analysis that produced results showing that for every inmate who was executed, seven lives were spared due to deterrence.3 Deterring a future killer from taking a life does not only save that victim's life, but it might also save the would be killer’s life. They might see how committing this one act would literally end their own life, and because the fear of death looms over everyone, they may refrain from doing

so.
When a killer is wasting away behind bars for their entire life, there is some suffering involved.

Using capital punishment would put an end to the killer’s suffering, and let him leave the world peacefully. With the death penalty in place, the victim’s family can finally get closure. Families that have been through the intense experience of losing a loved one might call for lex talionis, or eye for an eye. They could believe that the killer took their loved one from them and the only acceptable recourse would be to take the murderer’s life. This retaliation for the family might be the most important reason to instill the death penalty in today’s

society.
If life in prison doesn’t actually mean until they pass, we need a better solution to these criminals. The deterrence of future criminals is more important than taking the lives of the ones we have already caught, but if we can accomplish both with one action, there is no argument against it. Finally the suffering of the victim’s families too great to ignore. Capital punishment will create the best overall net balance of welfare in our society.