Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

The death penalty (also known as capital punishment) has been practiced for over hundreds of years. Over the years there has been many different ways of being put to death, from being hung to the electric chair and even being injected with poison. The death penalty is a costly and ineffective way to prevent crimes from happening. The death penalty should not be a ruling in the court of law.

“Since the 1977 resumption of capital punishment in the United States, nearly 1,100 convicted prisoners have been put to death in the thirty-eight US states where the practice remains legal. As of the beginning of 2007, approximately 3,350 people remain on death row in American prisons” (Ballaro). 1987 was the first time DNA evidence was used in a criminal trial. That is ten years after capital punishment was reopened for use. Who is to say that in those ten years DNA evidence could have exonerated any of the prisoners that were put to death. Even if only one person could have been acquitted, that is one more person that could have had their life.

One expert said “For better or worse, the law is the codified morality of society. While society is far from perfect, it reserves the ultimate judgment on the rule of law. Punishment is the only proven method to enforce the law” (Bowman). Punishment may be the only method that effectively works while trying to enforce the law, but there are many other forms of punishment than the death penalty, for one, life in prison. Life in prison strips a person from their family and friends, the only life they ever knew. Shouldn’t that be enough? A man does deserve to be punished if they murdered, raped, or any other number of crimes but a man does not deserved to be put to death. A man deserves to sit in a ...

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... for the death penalty comes out of tax payers’ dollars. The extra money could be put to better use. It costs approximately $90,000 more a year to house an inmate on death row, than in the general prison population.

The death penalty is morally and ethically wrong. It is true that being sentenced to death is the worst possible punishment there is, but it is also true that there are other ways to punish people that did horrible things. Tell me one thing, how is putting someone to death not a cruel and unusual punishment?

Works Cited

Ballaro, Beverly and C. Ames Cushman “Point: Capital Punishment Should Be Abolished.” EBSCO Host. 2009. Web. 1 April 2011.

Bowman, Jeffrey, and Tracey M. DiLascio “Counterpoint: The Death Penalty is Necessary.” EBSCO Host. 2009. Web. 3 April 2011.

“The Innocent and the Death Penalty.” Innocence Project. 2010. Web. 31 March 2011.