The Death Penalty, another murder or simply revenge? Is it worth it , an eye for an eye?There is more than one side to this argumement, background information and several pros and cons on this topic to help you decide your opinion.
The death penalty is punishment by execution , it can also be referred to as death sentence, capital punishment. It is a government-sanctioned practice whereby a person is killed by the state as a punishment for a crime they have committed , although this isn’t always the case as innocent people have been sentenced to death for a crime they never committed. There are 53 countries that still have death penalty some of them being, Afghanistan, India ,Nigeria, US ,Iran ,Japan ,Taiwan.
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An advantage of the death sentence is , that it sometimes can cost the government less money than keeping an inmate in prison for life, as their food, Heath care and other costs are paid for. Overcrowding is a big problem in prisons, there is data that shows the prisoner limit in prison exceeds in over 115 countries. Some may argue death penalty could help solve this.
Keeping an inmate on death row is also an expensive process, a big disadvantage , Cases without the death penalty cost around 700.000 while cases with the death costs around 1.000.000, there are many criminals out there which will result in the costs going up as more cases go through. As the cases for death row are lengthy and require a lot of work they may eventually become more expensive than keeping an inmate imprisoned for life.
It makes would-be criminals think twice about there actions, people who agree with the death penalty have brought up examples of how either having the death penalty or getting rid of it has affected the crime rates. When getting rid of capital punishment crimes increased by 7%, although when it was brought back fewer crimes were committed as more criminals on death row were sentenced to death.
Innocent people who have wrongly been accused of a crime could lose their life, a wrongful execution is when an innocent person has been sentenced to death ,an example of this is
Larry Griffin , this man was executed in 1995 for the drive-by murder of Quintin Moss in St. Louis. The government’s main witness, Robert Fitzgerald, later told people that he wasn’t sure if Griffin was even in the car at the time of the shooting. The carelessness in this case resulted in an innocent man being wrongly accused and executed.
Over 100 innocent people have been executed, while many may not have been discovered yet. This is a good example of why a lot of people may be against the death penalty.
It is a valid punishment for people who have no care or regard of other people’s rights to a harm free life, crimes like murders, assaults and rape are committed by people who don’t care for other people, it is only fair that the victim gets the justice they deserve, the person who has committed the crime is responsible for there own fate and whatever comes to them.
Some of the criminals may be suffering from mental illnesses and are not taking medication which can lead to them committing offences and crimes they have no control of. Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a person's thoughts, feelings, mood, their ability to relate to others and functioning on a daily basis. Serious mental illnesses include major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder.
It is quick and painless in almost most cases ,The methods of execution have become more humane over the years, so the argument that the death penalty is cruel is not valid in the recent years.
One wide-spread opinion that a lot of people share is that it is not fair and is unethical to execute a prisoner as they are also a human being and it is not a good solution. This opinion is supported by a popular statement, 'why kill a criminal because he has killed somebody, what is the difference between us and them?'. Therefore it is slowly becoming unpopular in many communities , as a lot of people don’t support it. You are doing to one as they have done to another , a repeat cycle. It is seen as a form of revenge.
An advantage in favor of this practice is that it guarantees people’s safety. There have been instances of criminals in prison who are serving life, killing prison guards or inmates within the jail. There have been lots of cases of criminals that have been committing serious crimes when they are out on parole or let out eventually, resulting in the death of more innocent people. Only the death sentence can guarantee that the criminal will never repeat their horrible crime. Thus ensuring our safety from this person.
A con or one of the disadvantages of this is in reality some of the people involved in the execution of this individual may become severely depressed . According to a former executioner, there are many people who had participated in executions and their lives were later destroyed. Some turned to drugs and alcohol to feel better and lessen their thoughts.
A con is that it could be inhumane if it doesn’t work on the person being executed there was an incident where a man didn’t die straight after this lethal inject and suffered for 30 minutes trying to gasp for air and stand up in the room, to then having a heart attack , this was traumatic for not only this person being executed but the people who had to witnesses what was happening.
To conclude in my opinion the death penalty solves a lot of issues like murders, rapists, etc, but also can end innocents people’s life’s and there’s no coming back from that, there are many valid points from both sides of this topic. The death penalty is a divided issue currently, there are those who agreed it is for the greater of good , or those who are against it and simply think it is a form of revenge.
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