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Argumentative Essay: A Lethal Shot Too Far

1667 Words7 Pages

Ursula Turner
Mrs. Baker
English 4
21 November 2017
A Lethal Shot Too Far
A shot ends a life. One single, lethal injection ends a convicted felon's life. The death penalty has been a punishment for serious crimes for as long as cultures have been around. “Since the earliest recorded execution in the United States in 1608, our country has put to death approximately 16,000 men and women” (Sarat). Yet Mr. Hostutler, a senior government teacher at Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School, brings up a valid question “what justifies taking someone's life legally if it is so unjust being taken illegally?” (interview) How does the government find taking someone's life because they took someones elses lawful? As criminals continue to do punishable things and states continue to execute, many arguments, for and against, have developed over time. The …show more content…

This year Bobby Wayne Stone, located in South Carolina, will be executed on December first. (“Virginia”) In 2018 the number of executions scheduled nationally is seven. (“Virginia”) Seven lives being taken because of their crimes. Seven lives the government has decided are not worth living because of their wrong doings. Yet is it the most just way of going about punishing serious criminals when there are alternatives such as life in prison? If the death penalty is a punishment that contradicts the rights laid out by our founding fathers why is it continued? Also is it the most cost effective punishment?
The eighth amendment is the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. (“Death Penalty”) “These death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual”(Rakoff). The Legal Information Institution states that capital punishment, another term for the death penalty, is not in violation of the eighth amendment. The

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