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Abolishing Death Penalty Essay

713 Words3 Pages

Research has indicated some advantages to abolishing the death penalty. Long term imprisonment is far more expensive than the death penalty in the end. A study of the death penalty in California in 2011 showed that the cost of housing a death- row inmate is $100,000 more per year than the cost of housing someone sentenced to life without parole. The process is dragged out too long, costing way too much time and money. As Chammah stated, “The American death penalty system is so slow, inconsistent and inefficient that it costs far more than life without parole.” This statement may puzzle many Americans, some may not even know that as taxpayers they’re paying for this. This process is followed by strict appellate review that consumes hundreds …show more content…

More than 529 verified death row inmates have been exonerated since 1973. Justice may be carried out and in some cases that require a death sentence for a person who committed an atrocious crime. According to Holloway, “I have plenty of heartbreaking stories of clients who were convicted of crimes they did not commit.” If lawyers know of clients being convicted of crimes they did not commit, action should be taken, you should fight for the cases. Unlike prison sentences, execution, is irreversible and irreparable. Holloway adds, a study last year found that at a conservative estimate "More than 4 percent of inmates sentenced to death in the United States are probably innocent." There have been 330 exonerations based on DNA alone. Twenty of those defendants have served at least ten years of time on death row since the advent of DNA technology. Henry McCollum was released last year after spending 30 years on death row for the murder of an 11-year-old girl that DNA evidence suggested he did not commit. With cases such as this, it defies all reason to believe that innocent people have been executed in the United States. Further proof should be found before the decision of taking someone’s

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