For many years in our country's recent history, capital punishment is an area that becomes a heated topic. There are many different beliefs about this “system of justice”, and most people hold strong beliefs on their respective opinions about it. Some believe that capital punishment makes people afraid to commit a crime in fear of being put to death. Those who believe it as a “scare tactic” usually believe that it is an appropriate form of justice for the murderer. Then, there are people, like me, who know that the death penalty is a completely outdated system which no longer benefits society, but rather, creates more problems in it. Many signs are present around the world, and even in our own country, that show us capital punishment is not the answer to lowering murder rate and making a safer society.
To say that capital punishment is the only way to serve justice to the murderers is quite ignorant considering there are many more options that would bring justice to the situation in a much more ethical way. Improvements on lethal injections in order to lessen the pain one endures while being put to death have been made in recent years, but how are we to know what pain the person is truly going through? And, to those that say the suffering is part of the justice being served to them, that is not who we are as a country. To stoop down to the level of the criminal would be comparable to a school disciplinary system that beats up one of their students every time they get into a fight. Obviously, a murderer lacks simple humane qualities such as compassion and sympathy, but that does not constitute us as a nation to do the same in return. Also, there have been many cases in which people on death-row were wrongfully convicted. People have been found to be innocent after they were executed which should trigger an alarm to all. Even if it is just one person that had been found innocent after they were executed, the government still had put an innocent human being to death which goes against every American value.
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With the death penalty in-effect for most states in the U.S., there are still a lot of people that commit the gruesome act of murder. The people committing the crime are aware that their actions could end in getting themselves legally killed by the government. When one is planning on or is committing a murder, they are full of anger and hatred to a point where they clearly do not care about the consequences of their actions. People who murder are obviously in a horrible state of mind and are not thinking clearly because they are blinded by their evil thoughts and do not care about repercussions, so why would a law stop them? Looking further into this, the murder rate in death penalty states continues to fluctuate while staying on an upwards trend as opposed to the murder rate in non-death penalty states which fluctuates with a downward trend. Statistics like these are examples of sheer evidence that proves the death penalty to be an ineffective system.
And if you really want the murderer to “suffer”, which sounds worse: being put to death or spending the rest of your life in a prison cell? I confidently believe that life in prison without parole is a much more sufferable sentence than the death penalty because, instead of the murderer being killed and all of their problems disappearing, they would have to sit in a prison cell all alone and live with what they did everyday for the rest of their lives. In addition the cost of capital punishment is much greater than if the criminal were to be put in jail for life. According to Kimberly Amadeo from “The Balance” website, a death row inmate costs “$1.2 million more than a general population inmate. In July 2018, there were 2,738 inmates on death row. That’s almost $3 billion additional expense than if they had all been sentenced to life in prison instead.” So, why do we still have a system that is supposed to “benefit” society when, in reality, it is more a burden to it?
Supporters and adversaries of capital punishment both hold firm beliefs to their respective sides. Those who support it find that it is the only way justice can be served to murderers, while those who are against it find the true flaws in the system by showing how it actually is worse for society. High price and wrongful executions are only a fraction of the issues that capital punishment brings to our society, and it is time to we bring death to the death penalty.
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