Why Capital Punishment Should Be Abolished

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Does one believe that capital punishment is appropriate punishment for an American citizen? Capital Punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the lawful formal killing of someone as punishment for a crime. Various questions are asked by Americans if killing someone for a crime is considered constitutional. Capital punishment goes against the 8th amendment prohibiting “cruel and unusual punishment,” and these are many reasons on why it should be abolished. I found countless reasons why the death penalty should be abolished, such as the high cost that taxpayers pay for an execution, the innocence of people that sit on death row, and the lack of relaying evidence in criminal cases. In all, these factors contribute to why the death penalty should be overturned.
In the early 1800s, societies sentenced death as a punishment to any person that committed a crime. In today’s society, the act of death as a punishment is still in effect. Capital punishment is the practice in which a convicted person is punished for committing a crime so heinous that he should be punished by death. The word “capital” comes from the Latin root “capitalis,” which means “of the head,” an indication to a common execution method in Roman times. Crimes that are considered punishable by death range from rape, murder, treason, mutiny, to theft. But are these crimes so terrible that the government has to take away that person’s life? Does capital punishment actually solve anything? These are questions that many Americans ask daily, and many feel as if the death penalty should be abolished. In my case, capital punishment should be stopped. Execution does not comply with the 8th amendment which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, and in some death penalty ca...

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... capital punishment is unconstitutional and inhumane, given that the 8th Amendment can interfere with the ruling of every case. The 8th amendment is one extremely important factor in most criminal cases, besides the evidence and witnesses. As has been mentioned, there are numerous reasons why the death penalty should be taken away. It is very costly, and the money that is spent can be used for problems that take place in today’s society. The judicial system has many things to work on as far as getting appropriate evidence and making sure they don’t put an innocent man on death row. By taking away capital punishment, people sentenced to life without out parole will actually understand that committing a crime does not send anyone to a blissful place. Who wants to sit in slumber for the rest of his life? Let’s take a stand and eliminate Capital Punishment as an option.

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