The Death Penalty

Caroline McKinley

Critical Thinking Blog

Is the purpose of the death penalty to remove someone from society who could cause more harm? Or is the purpose of the death penalty to have vengeance for the sake of the victim? Is the death penalty justified? According to ReligiousTolerance.org, about 13,000 people in the U.S. have been legally executed since colonial times. The death penalty should not and never should be justified. A human life is too sacred, and a lot of times, a jury could make the wrong decision and claim an innocent man guilty. Also, executing capital punishment can often be more expensive than keeping a person in prison for the rest of his or her life (Hinton).

Capital punishment, also called the death penalty, is the pre-meditated and planned taking of a human life by a government in response to a crime committed by that legally convicted person. Amnesty International believes that "the death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state in the name of justice” (White). It violates the right to life. The death penalty is a cruel punishment, and there can never be any justification for this extreme cruel punishment. To me, taking away ones life is one of the only punishments that I think is too cruel for a person. Indiana Prosecuting Attorney writes that, "There are some defendants who have earned the ultimate punishment our society has to offer by committing murder with aggravating circumstances present. I believe life is sacred. It cheapens the life of an innocent murder victim to say that society has no right to keep the murderer from ever killing again. In my view, society has not only the right, but the duty to act in self defense to protect the innocent."

Putting someone to death violates the “cruel and unusual” part of the Bill of Rights. Plus, I think living a long life in prison is more suitable for a harmful person than being put to death because one would have to stay in jail with little freedom and a poor quality of life. It is very possible for someone to be put to death without even committing a crime because the jury does not always know what is right and wrong. If the jury assigns a person to prison for life without parole and the jury is in actuality wrong and makes a mistake, at least the person is not being killed. Many U.S. states have chosen to use life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. One main idea of imprisonment is to rehabilitate the person, and with the death penalty, rehabilitation of ones character and judgment is impossible.

It has been proven by some criminologists that when an execution is publicized, more murders occur in the few days or weeks following (Ornellas). Publicity of the death penalty may encourage crime instead of preventing it for an inexplicable reason, and statistically speaking, fear of the death penalty does not reduce crime. Even motives like revenge can come from the death penalty. For example, if someone was wrongfully put to death, a friend or family member could want revenge on the jury. The death penalty is tricky because it is hard to prove someone is guilty.

With the additional price of extra hearings and trials, as well as paying for the actual execution, most times it is more expensive to put someone to death than to keep them in prison for their whole life (Hinton). The punishment of having to be in prison for 40 plus years is a bad, but stripping ones life is the ultimate cruelest thing. The death penalty would just be taking the pain right away from that person without a chance to rehabilitate. The two main types of capital punishment are lethal injection and electrocution, but lethal injection is by far the most popular current form of capital punishment. From 1977 to 2007, there were a total of 929 lethal injection executions and 154 electrocutions (White).

Having someone be put to death may make the family members of the victim feel a little better, but most times, family members of the victim would rather want to know that criminal is hidden away in the dark cave called prison. Also, the most controversial aspect of the death penalty is whether the convicted criminal is in fact guilty. If someone is put to death, but the convicted is actually innocent, that would cause so much unneeded grief, pain, and money.

The reasons that capital punishment should not ever be justified in America are based on morality, the lack of deterrence of more crimes, the cost of death vs. life in prison, and constitutionality. The death penalty should never be used in America again.

Works Cited:

Hinton, Patrick. "The Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty." American Affairs (2009): n. pag. Web. 2 May 2010.

Ornellas, Lori. "Death Penalty Arguments: Deterrent or Revenge." (2001): n. pag. Web. 2 May 2010.

"Top 10 Pros and Cons. Should the Death Penalty be Allowed?" procon.org (2009): n. pag. Web. 1 May 2010.

White, Deborah. "Pros & Cons of the Death Penalty." US Liberal Politics (2009): 1-2. Web. 1 May 2010.