The Death Penalty In The United States

Death penalty is the punishment of execution that is carried out legally on a criminal convicted of a capital crime (Banner & Stuart 7). While some argue that death penalty helps reduce the number of murders in the society others, argue that it is inhumane, and these offenders should be given the chance to correct their bad behavior. It’s high time more states in the U.S enforced the death penalty punishment to deter crimes in their societies. Crime and criminals are everywhere in the society. They have become part of our lives, and something must be done to make our societies safer.

The death penalty is like deterrence, and it functions in reducing crime. Deterrence is used to punish people who have committed capital crimes. It simply means

punishing people for capital crimes is socially acceptable so they can serve as an example to others for punishment. No sane person would like to experience the death penalty, thus, they would not commit crimes, such as murders, worthy of being penalized. Even though there are no clear statistics on numbers of death penalties, people still fear-committing crimes since they fear the repercussions that would surely follow. Lets say a person who commits murder is given a sentence of life imprisonment, what would prevent them from committing more murders while in prison? Hence, the death penalty is a good way of reducing the rates of crime within the prison society. The punishment of life imprisonment is already their maximum punishment, so if they commit other crimes, they will still face the same punishment. The only thing that can stop them is death. In fact, "Crimes can be deterred only by making would-be criminals frightened of being arrested, convicted, and punished for crimes”, says Hugo Adam Bedau (301). Furthermore, death penalty deters murder for that particular criminal who has been executed.
Also, the death penalty assures safety of society by eliminating crimes in the streets and also bringing justice to innocent people and the criminals. The people who are relatives of victims need to get justice for the people they lose, hence, if the criminals killed one of their own then the criminals should also receive the capital punishment. The law enforcement agencies and the justice system should ensure they give justice to the people of society. Imagine a serial killer walking the streets freely, they surely would continue to commit more crimes, and most likely kill more people. There must be continued safety in the society for the public (Banner & Stuart 9). Death penalty should therefore not be abolished and instead effectively implemented. Typically, when life is taken in society, the balance of justice is disturbed. Only when the life of a criminal is taken then, justice will have been restored in society. It shows that society does not tolerate capital crimes, and those crimes will be punished in kind. “If the criminal, as one who has forfeited a right to live, deserves to be executed, especially if it will likely deter would-be murderers, the state has a duty to execute those convicted of first-degree murder, “says Pojman Louis P.
A death penalty is irreversible and thus a cause of irreversible mistakes.

If a person has been sentenced to death and the death penalty has been practiced, then there is nothing that will be done if in future when they find out that the accused is innocent. Mistakes may happen when executing death penalties. The judicial system may make some mistakes when arriving at the decision. One may never be sure. Most importantly the trial may be flawed with many problems. For example, there have been cases where a criminal has been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole then after some years they find out that the individual was innocent. If this took place in a death penalty case then it is irreversible, and a cause of irreversible mistake. "Even in the tragedy of human death there are degrees, and that it is much more tragic for the innocent to lose his life than for the State to take the life of a criminal convicted of a capital offense", said by Adam

Bedau.
Death penalty is inhumane (Amnesty International).

The punishment of death penalty is inhumane as it deprives the offender the chance to correct their wrong behavior by starting again with a clean slate. Each and every individual’s human rights have to be observed, including their right to life. No one has the right to take the life of another person. It is written in the Bible that ‘one should not correct a wrong with a wrong and vengeance is to the Lord.’ ‘Respect for all human life and opposition to the violence in our society are at the root of our long-standing opposition (as bishops) to the death penalty," the Reform Conservative movements of other

religions.
To sum up, the death penalty has been used in some states in the U.S. it has been used to execute the individuals that have committed capital crimes. For those who support death penalty, they argue that it is just and prevents further murders from taking place in the society. By killing the criminals, the balance of justice is restored. Those who are against death penalty argue that it is inhumane and irreversible. Hence, it should not be reinforced (Amnesty International). Death penalty will not bring peace to that person nor will it solve anything in their lives. In fact, the department of justice reports that the death penalty does not influence the criminals to avoid committing those crimes. It may be so because they do not have enough statistics to establish if death penalty is effective.