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Arguments for and against capital punishment
Arguments for and against capital punishment
Arguments for and against capital punishment
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Life or Death
The death penalty has been around for decades along with the argument of whether it is moral or not. After all these years people who supported it, are now against it. The death penalty has really opened up people’s eyes recently, with all of the falsely accused being put on death row. I think the death penalty should be abolished, because it is bad for an economy, not always accurate, and morally wrong.
People in the world believe that the death penalty is the only answer to handle a criminal, or they did think that. Now it is starting to look like more people are against it than they are for it. According to Glen Stassen in his article “The Death Penalty is Losing” the number of people against the death penalty is rising in Illinois due to the error percentage being over 50% there. This means that the number of people that have been charged with the death penalty were falsely accused. I am sure that Illinois is not the only place with falsely accused death penalty victims, it happens all over the world. If the percentage of people wrongly accused is that high in America alone, just imagine what it is like in other countries.
The death penalty also costs a lot of money to make it happen. Tax payers of the state which it is happening in have to pay for it. Rone Tempest of Los Angeles
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times says each execution costs close to 250 billion dollars; which is an astounding amount to kill someone. This reason by itself should be a good enough reason to make people want to abolish it. I really do not understand the death penalty; it is like irony in itself, the government kills the criminal for killing someone else.
That is almost like making murder legal, it shows people that killing somebody for murdering someone is an okay thing to do. Some countries around the world have outlawed the death penalty due to its cruelty and because of the fact that it is morally wrong. Michael Hayworth said it best when he said, “Whichever way you look at it, killing another human isn’t humane, not even close.” Nobody should be able to control whether someone lives or dies, it is their own life, and they should be the only person to control
it. More people may be against the death penalty now, but there are still people who support it. These people think that the criminals deserve to die for what they have done. The people that support the death penalty they are not terrible people at all, they just have a stronger hate for people in general it does not make them bad people. I can understand they are very angry about what happened to someone and they feel the need to let that person feel the same way. I get that but at the same time what do people gain get out of that, nothing because they do not kill the criminal. Supporters of the death penalty believe that the government has to hard on the criminals, as though life in prison is not enough they should kill them. You do not have to be that hard on them a life sentence without parole is already enough for them in my opinion. The criminal has to stay and suffer in prison for what they did; instead the government wants to put them out of their misery. The moral debate about the death penalty is still going on today. Every day there is an execution more and more people start to disagree with the death penalty. The death penalty costs a lot of money, not always accurate, and morally wrong, so hopefully the government begins to see that.
The death penalty is much more expensive than life without parole because the Constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases. If the death penalty was replaced with a sentence of Life Without the Possibility of Parole, which costs millions less and also ensures that the public is protected while eliminating the risk of an mistake, the money saved could be spent on programs that actually improve the communities in which we live. Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter people from committing crime anymore than long prison sentences. Moreover, states without the death penalty have much lower murder rates. The South accounts for 80% of US executions and has the highest regional murder rate (Death Penalty
“How the Death Penalty Saves Lives” According to DPIC (Death penalty information center), there are one thousand –four hundred thirty- eight executions in the United States since 1976. Currently, there are Two thousand –nine hundred –five inmates on death row, and the average length of time on death row is about fifteen years in the United States. The Capital punishment, which appears on the surface to the fitting conclusion to the life of a murder, in fact, a complicated issue that produces no clear resolution.; However, the article states it’s justice. In the article “How the Death Penalty Saves Lives” an author David B. Muhlhausen illustrates a story of Earl Ringo , Jr, brutal murder’s execution on September ,10,
Additionally, capital punishment is absurdly expensive. In the article, “ Capital Punishment: Deterrent Effects & Capital costs” Jeffery A. Fagan discusses how expensive death penalty cases can be. He
There is no point in wasting thousands each year on such a practice that has no effect on criminal decision-making. In fact, according to the FBI’s “Crime Rates in the US”, the states without the death penalty actually have a lower murder rate than states with the death penalty. We should not use the death penalty to teach criminals that killing people is wrong; it’s hypocrisy. You don't teach someone that murder is wrong by murdering the one who's done it just as you wouldn't teach someone that stealing is wrong by stealing something of
Unlike popular belief, the cost of sentencing someone to death is actually more expensive than a life sentence in prison. In Washington, since the death penalty was reinstated 5 people have been put to death costing taxpayers roughly $120 million, that's roughly $24 million per case (Seattle University, 2015). A reason that people advocate strongly for the death penalty is because they believe that they should not have to pay for the costs to keep criminals fed, sheltered and imprisoned. In fact, 56% of Canadians surveyed believed that the one time cost of a lethal injection is cheaper and will allow their money to go towards something more advantageous like healthcare or education (Angus Reid). This is actually quite different from the truth, in fact is estimated that it costs $740 000 on average to put someone in prison for life. It is also estimated that it costs roughly $1.26 million to sentence someone to death (Seattle University, 2015). (There seems to be a discrepancy between how much a single case costs and how much Washington spent since the death penalty has been reinstated, but I could not find evidence to why that is). Among the reasons why the death penalty is so expensive is the fact that the time in courts is quite lengthy. Jury trials averaged 40.13 days in cases where the death penalty was being sought, but only 16.79 days
Thus, many groups of people are involved in a death penalty case. However, other also equally important factors are also involved, such as money and time. Each state varies in amount expended towards death penalty and life imprisonment. However, in Texas, the state with the highest capital punishment rates in the United States alone, it is stated that each individual in a death penalty case “costs taxpayers about $2.3 million. That is about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years.” This is one detail that those opposing death penalty implement in their argument to abolish said act. Another factor is time invested in these cases. Most death penalty cases range from 6 to 10 years, factoring death row and other complications. Thus, the more time invested in determining guilt or innocence, the more money of taxpayers are being consumed. However, as depleting as it is, there is a good reason for. They take so long because they are trying to avoid as many mistakes as possible, meaning they don’t wanted to convict or even worse execute an innocent person wrongly accused or framed for a
There are major problems with our criminal justice system. In the last one hundred years, there have been more than 75 documented cases of wrongful conviction of criminal homicide. According to a 1987 Stanford University survey, at least 23 Americans have been wrongly executed in the 20th century. For this very reason, the State of Illinois imposed a moratorium on the state?s death penalty in 2000 when it was discovered that 13 inmates on its Death Row were wrongly convicted. Anthony Porter, one of the 13, spent 15 years on Death Row and was within two days of being executed, before a group of Northwestern journalism students uncovered evidence that was used to prove his innocence.
The United States has a long history with the death penalty. The “first recorded execution was in Jamestown in 1608” (“Death Penalty in America” 259). Since then, thirty five states have continued to use the death penalty. Now it can be considered a normal punishment and many people feel strongly about it, but maybe we should forget what we have done in the past and take a second look. The death penalty should not be used in the United States because it is too expensive, affects the poor and minorities more than others, and (even though many people think it is true) the death penalty does not deter crime.
The death penalty is racist, it punishes the poor, it causes the innocent to die, it is not a deterrent against violent crime, and it is cruel and unusual punishment. More than half of the countries in the world have already abolished the death penalty and the U.S should abolish it too. It is wrong and cruel. Some states in the U.S still hold the death penalty because they think it will keep U.S citizens safe, but we can just keep the murders in a separate patrolled jail. Abolish it and we may save the lives of the people that may have been executed innocent.
The death penalty, ever since it was established, has created a huge controversy all throughout the world. Ever since the death penalty was created, there have been people who supported the death penalty and those who wanted to destroy it. When the death penalty was first created the methods that were used were gruesome and painful, it goes against the Eighth Amendment that was put in place many years later. The methods they used were focused on torturing the people and putting them through as much pain as possible. In today’s society the death penalty is quick and painless, it follows the Eighth Amendment. Still there are many people who are against capital punishment. The line of whether to kill a man or women for murder or to let him or her spend the rest one’s life in prison forever will never be drawn in a staight.
Throughout the years the death penalty has been a very controversial aspect when it comes to punishment. Some groups of people believe that is should be abolished and other think that America should keep it. I’m here to say that I am not for the death penalty at all. To me the death penalty has a couple of flaws that I have an issue looking past. The death penalty is very unconstitutional for anyone who is put through it and it is very bias on who it chooses for the punishment.
The cost of the Death Penalty is highly expensive. A case to put someone in jail costs on average two million three hundred thousand dollars on average while to put an inmate in jail for forty years cost on average seven hundred and sixty thousand dollars (Friedman 11). In Texas the death penalty cost three times more money than putting an inmate in the highest security level in a jail for forty years (4). It also takes time for a death penalty case to be processed and a convict to be sentenced to the death penalty. Then it takes more time for the state to act and to administer the death penalty to people on death row. On average it takes ten to twenty years to execute a convicted criminal on death row (Friedman 11). Costs could be lowered by shortening the appeal process but this would only increase the risk of executing an innocent person.
The death penalty has been around for centuries. It dates back to when Hammurabi had his laws codified; it was “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Capital punishment in America started when spies were caught, put on trial and hung. In the past and still today people argue that, the death penalty is cruel, unusual punishment and should be illegal. Yet many people argue that it is in fact justifiable and it is not cruel and unusual. Capital punishment is not cruel and unusual; the death penalty is fair and there is evidence that the death penalty deters crime.
The death penalty has been an issue of debate for several years. Whether or not we should murder murderer’s and basically commit the same crime that they are being killed for committing. People against the death penalty say that we should not use it for that very reason. They also make claims that innocent people who were wrongly convicted could be killed. Other claims include it not working as a deterrent, it being morally wrong, and that it discriminates.
The first reason why death penalty should be allowed and get more active is life sentence is costly. According to “What is the Average Cost to House Inmates in Prison”, the average cost of housing an inmate in the U.S. was $31,286 in 2012 for per year. According to the “Who, what, where and why”, the United States has roughly 2.4 million people in prisons. Therefore, the money which America pays to keep prisoners who are in prisons is about $75120000000 for per year.