Pros and Cons of Death Penalty

There are many different views on the death penalty. Some believe it’s right some believe it’s right some believe it’s wrong. Some believe that it should be extinguish all together and some believe that only certain really bad people should have to deal with it. Over the last few months I’ve done a lot of research on the death penalty and seen many different views on the matter. Here is some of the info I’ve discovered on the death penalty and the pros and cons of it.

For the most part the states that don’t have the death penalty have a significant amount less crime than those who do have it.This came as a surprise to me because I would have thought it would be the other way around and that the death penalty would be a huge deterrent to stop people from doing things and committing violent crimes. But if you also look closer at the numbers Louisiana counts for most of the death penalty rates and the other ones are actually quite lower than the states that don’t have the death penalty.

There is a chance that people can get false the accused. A murder can quickly be pointed at another person if it means the real person can get out of it. Or if you just simply hate your neighbor you can blame it on him or her. Since 1973 over 130 people haven’t released from Death Rows throughout the country due to evidence that they were wrongfully convicted and in 2009 alone nine wrongfully convicted defendants were released from Death Row. (amnesty international) In the grand scheme of things that doesn’t sound like much but if it were you or a loved one that was wrongfully convicted you would wants the death penalty to be abolished.

It is true that many people can change with time, sometimes prison can change a man or woman into something that I previously weren’t. A murderer can go to a law-abiding citizen through the prison system sometimes. Sometimes I can go the other way around. but let’s just say that the murderer change to a law abiding citizen. that person was changed the system so he shouldn’t be killed right? But just the thought of that person being alive scares people. For the most part the prison system doesn’t work. People who are in the prison system often go back in it multiple times, or commit another illegal act. I understand that it’s hard to get a job after you’ve been in jail but you really don’t want those people out on the streets again if they’ve done something so bad that they had the chance of being killed you really don’t want them back on the streets to do something like that again.So a good option so they’re not allowed to be back on the streets is the death penalty.

It’s a very low chance but sometime prisoners escape and when they do they want to go back to their normal life or take it out on someone and get revenge. But if they are already killed by the death penalty then there’s no chance they can come back and hurt anyone else ever. So that gives people more peace of mind knowing that they can be out there and heard them again later on. Say someone killed your family and just went to jail. Say someone killed your family and just went to jail. Wouldn’t you not want them to live out their life in peace while your family is gone? You would want the punishment to fit the crime.

Believe it or not the death penalty actually cost a significant amount more than to keep them alive for the rest of their life through the prison system. The death penalty trials can be very expensive. Taking cost upward of 1 million dollars per trial. But should we really put a cost on someone’s life, they could kill again if they got out. The death penalty is pretty fair because it takes out the mentally ill. If you are mentally ill you cannot be killed under the death penalty. It also takes out miners so they can’t be killed if they’re underage. But in some cases the death penalty can be unfair, sometimes people are racist and people from other races can be put to death just because of the color of their skin.

Some people also believe that the death penalty is below us. We are to the stage now that we have modern medicine and things to keep us from killing each other. Why kill someone you killed someone to show people killing is wrong.(balancedpolitics.org) When someone is already killed isn’t that enough? people will believe all life is precious we believe that this person could be saved and you don’t just have to go and kill someone even if they did the wrong thing. It takes a long time to complete the trail a lot of hours are put into it and it clogs are court systems time and money when you could just throw them in jail, pay less then the trial and forget about them. And maybe they come out a changed man/woman. Some people also believe that the eye for an eye system is wrong and we have to move away from that system if our society is to advance further. Life imprisonment is also sometimes more effective in a worse punishment then ending their suffering at that very moment. Then they have to live their whole life knowing that they killed someone and suffering for that by setting and rotting away in prison.The prisoners family might also be affected by this because they have to go through the financial burden and go through their family member being put to death even if they were rate for your accused.

And if someone set them up or they were wrongly accused then they could be put to death for no reason. They could simply execute an innocenSome people also do you worthless because it doesn’t bring anyone back to life and is only causing more violence and more distraction to our society. And some people view it as putting a murderer out of the system and making us never have to pay for him again.

Some pros on the death penalty though are that the family’s are given closure and the families don’t have to worry anymore about that person because they are taken off the streets and won’t be a problem anymore. They’ve already gone through so much so why put them through any more. And having them worry if that man or woman will get out and hurt them again. It’s a huge crime deterrent. If people know they will be killed if they kill someone. The rational person wouldn’t kill someone to save themselves. “Some people also believe that the justice system shows more sympathy to the criminals then it does the victims and the family’s”(valences politics) Also because of modern technology people are able to find out beyond reasonable doubt that the person is guilty and the person who actually committed the crime and wasn’t just setup. Overpopulation in the prison system is better controlled because they are being put to death and not just thrown in the prison system. Although the U.S is a minority in the world of those who still use the death penalty. I believe it is crucial that we still use it to deter crime and to set examples of those who commit those crimes so it won’t happen again.

Work cited

1. Messerli, Joe. “BalancedPolitics.org.” Death Penalty (Pros & Cons, Arguments For and Against, Advantages & Disadvantages), www.balancedpolitics.org/death_penalty.htm.

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