Discussion of The Death Penalty

When it comes to the topic of the “Death Penalty” and communities will always see two sides on the very Controversial topic. The loss of life is it up to God or up to the judicial system? This debate may go on forever, however there are many factors to come up with the final verdict. Most people feel that an eye for an eye is the best punishment for a crime resulting in intentional death. Others may feel that the person should suffer in prison, however, this comes at the expense of the tax payer. There have also been sentencings where the wrong person was accused an was subjected to death and then with modern technology, was later discovered that the person was in fact innocent. How do you bring an innocent person back from a decision made on evidence that may have been tampered and not all factual?

The “Death Penalty” would save the tax payers thousands of dollars because instead of having a “death row” inmate live 40+ years in prison costing tax payer’s hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Much of the cost and the criticism of the death penalty, is associated to the ‘decades of appeals’ that it is the biggest complaints about the death penalty delays come from death penalty opponents who created them. Claimed “cost studies” performed by death penalty opponents, are frequently and so incomplete as to be false. ‘Many opponents present, as fact, that the cost of the death penalty is so expensive (at least two million dollars per case?), that we must choose life without parole (LWOP) at a expensively cost of one million dollars for fifty years.

Certainly, these pronouncements may be entirely false. JFA estimates that LWOP cases will cost more than million dollars to more than three million more than other similar death penalty cases previously.’ Oct. 1, 1997 – Dudley Sharp, they do not take account that the increase the cost of inmates’ sentence to life without parole cases if there was no death penalty. Criminal defendants that are facing the “Death Penalty” which in today’s society, must be pleaded by the prosecutors up front often want to make a deal by pleading “guilty” to “First degree murder” in exchange for a sentencing for life without parole. Even the existence of the “Death Penalty” as a possible sentence leads to a guilty plea that can save money that was spent on the trials and limit the opportunity for any appeals.

The eye of an eye or in this case you murder in the first degree (premeditated murder) (not in self-defense) you get the death penalty sentence. Americans who say they support the death penalty have given a variety of responses over the years, but the biblical phrase ‘an eye for an eye,’ or retaliation, consistently has been named loss on the death penalty depending on the crime. Like for an example in Florida if a person committing a predicate felony directly contributed to the death of the victim then the person will

be charged with murder in the first degree – felony murder which is a capital felony. The possible first-degree murder sentences vary widely by state. In some states, such as Florida, all first degree murder convictions bring either the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Other states, such as California, use a tiered sentencing structure: the first being a range of years (often up to life) in prison, and the second either life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty (in states that allow it). Which tier of sentence the court hands down typically depends on whether the prosecution can prove any of a host of aggravating factors. State laws spell out specific factors which render those found guilty of first-degree murder subject to the state’s harshest sentence. Factorsinclude aspects of the crime, of the defendant, or of the victim(s) which render the defendant eligible for either the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. The only two sentences available for that statute are life in prison and the death penalty. Vice versa in states like New Hampshire, Arizona etc. So pretty much in these states you get caught killing someone and they find out you planned is most likely you’re getting the death sentence.

Sometimes there has been innocent people get convicted and sentence with the death penalty proven by modern technology. True back then there has been innocent people getting wrongfully convicted and sentence to death. But with that same modern forensic technology it is much easier to find out who was the one that has committed the crime. Todays forensic helps in today’s criminal justice by handling evidence from crimes scenes for police departments. These technicians are essential in helping to catch, convict, or acquit suspects in criminal matters. Forensic science technicians collect evidence and analyze the evidence in a laboratory and summarize their findings in written reports.

Forensics specialize in evidence like fingerprinting, biochemistry, DNA analysis, blood spatter patterns, chromatography analysis, or handwriting analysis. For example, Death of Pamela Shelley, 2001: Pamela Shelley died en route to a hospital in 2001 after she was found with a gunshot wound to the head in the Texas home that she shared with her boyfriend. Not long before, she had split up with her husband, and moved with her two children from Arkansas to Texas into the home of Ronnie Joe Hendrick, an old family friend. Investigators initially ruled her death a suicide, but the case was re-opened seven years later at the insistence of investigator Carl Bowen, who had been on patrol and responded to the initial incident, according to the Victoria Advocate. Bowen never felt quite right about the suicide ruling, and enough evidence was eventually gathered to indict Hendrick in October 2012 with a trial set for September 2013.

A few days prior to the trial, a showing of “Cold Justice” featuring Shelley’s case showed it was not possible for her to shoot herself in the head from the angle done. A mistrial occurred, but Hendrick, instead, plead guilty to a charge of murder. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The outcome helps prove true what Shelley’s brother, Donald Curlee, had always suspected: “There was never a doubt in my mind that she didn’t do it,” he told the Victoria Advocate.

In conclusion, the death penalty is necessary because it saves the tax payers money by using the death penalty than locking the convicted up, giving the person shelter, food and water for 40+ years saving the tax payers tens of thousands of dollars a year. This reason is why the existence of the death penalty as a possible sentence leads to guilty pleas that save the money spent on trials and limit the opportunity for appeals. Eye for an eye the punishment fits the crime you kill someone on purpose you get the death penalty. So pretty much in these states you get caught killing someone and they find out you planned is most likely you’re getting the death sentence. It’s pretty hard for innocent people to get wrongfully convicted these days because of todays forensics helping in analyzing evidence. Evidence like fingerprinting, biochemistry, DNA analysis, blood spatter patterns, chromatography analysis, or handwriting analysis. This is why the death penalty is necessary.

Work Cited

1. Does The Death Penalty Cost Less Than Life In Prison Without Parole? – Death Penalty – Procon.Org’. Deathpenalty.Procon.Org, 2019,
2. https://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001000
3. 10 Cold Cases Solved – Forensics Colleges’. Forensics Colleges, 2019, https://www.forensicscolleges.com/blog/resources/10-cold-cases-solved.
4. https://www.forensicscolleges.com/blog/resources/10-cold-cases-solved
5. ‘First Degree Murder Sentencing And Penalties – Findlaw’. Findlaw, 2019,
6. https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/first-degree-murder-penalties-and-sentencing.html

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