ipl-logo

Argumentative Essay: The Death Penalty In The United States

857 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Death vs life in prison

The clock, slowly ticking, echoes throughout the courtroom as people wait anxiously for the jury's final verdict. In another room, people carefully voted for the final decision that determines the end of a book. The death penalty, a slow trial that takes months maybe years to determine whether a person's life should be thrown away or not. The United States is holding at least a million prisoners and a small percentage is being sentenced to death. In 2013, 2,979 inmates were sentenced to death under the Federal Bureau of Prisons, only 39 were executed.
(Snell). Seeing how few people are being executed, it shows little success in bringing justice to families and friends. The death penalty is not an option to send someone's life to death, …show more content…

The American justice system holds more than 2.3 million prisoners while 22 percent are serving life sentences. According to John W. Whitehead, an attorney of Rutherford Institute, “the death penalty, however, costs the state a great deal of money. Some studies estimate that states spend 48% to 300% more prosecuting cases in which the death penalty is an option versus cases” (Whitehead). The death penalty is more expensive than serving a life sentence. Millions of dollars are spent to achieve a single death sentence that will not most likely be carried out. This money can be used to serve police stations that are desperately in need of money to help improve law enforcements. In California, there are at thousands of capital punishment cases, out of the 2,000 capital cases, only 13 are executed. Found from an opposing viewpoint written by Julie Delcour, associate of Tulsa World, wrote, “Over those 33 years, the death system case cost the state $4.6 billion...equates to $308 million per execution” (Delcour). The reason the death penalty is so expensive because the government is using the money to conduct time consuming trials and ineffective petitions. It takes a tremendous amount of time and years for the final decision. The money being used for the death penalty can used for local police task forces to solve a homicide and rape cases or spending or go towards to education. The death penalty has been a top priority for some states that some faced severe

Show More
Related

Analysis Of Capital Punishment In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

1512 Words | 7 Pages

Being on death row often prolongs the pain for the inmate. They spend their time in prison fearing the inevitable which for them is death. Today, we live in a society that is very divided on this issue. There are many in support of the death penalty, suggesting that it acts as a positive deterrent against future crime. There are also many

Read More

Ted Bundy Research Paper

701 Words | 3 Pages

“The 1989 execution of Ted Bundy cost Florida taxpayers an estimated $5 million” (Executing Prisoners). The death penalty opens many doors for appealing and often results in delaying the execution and costing the state a lot of money. The death penalty is an expensive process but for some criminals, like Ted Bundy, it is

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Supermax Prisons

1293 Words | 6 Pages

  Just in my state of Tennessee alone the trial average for a death penalty sentence is 48 percent higher than what it is for the typical life sentence trial (Tennessee Treasury Report, 2004).When you look into going to trial to prosecute someone for the death penalty it just gets more expensive year after year.   The fact is that you have to pay more attorneys, more experts to go over the files, and more time is put into making sure that all things are in order (Chammah, 2016).   You are paying multiple attorney's, defenders, judges, clerks, and juries to insure that every detail is covered within

Read More

Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

726 Words | 3 Pages

The death penalty provides closure for the victim(s) family and people want to protect their family at any cost. The physicians and other doctors there are not there to kill them but to make sure they are comforted at their last minute of life instead of in pain. These doctors make sure the criminal is not in pain while he or she dies. Jail is actually a nice place, people who are homeless often commit crimes to go to jail. There they get fed good, they're clothed, they have a roof over their heads, and most of all they benefit from our tax money.

Read More

Capital Murder Trials: The High Cost Of Crime

179 Words | 1 Pages

The costs of capital murder trials are more expensive than other murder trials for many of reasons. Often in murder trials where the death penalty is not being sought, the case never goes to trial and the offender pleads to a lesser degree of murder such as second degree murder or manslaughter. Depending on the location in the country, a prosecutor may be swayed politically or by the victim’s family to agree to life in prison without the possibility of parole. What makes a capital murder trial so expensive is “the high cost of crime scene investigations, pretrial preparations and motions, expert witness investigations, jury selection, and heightened death row security and maintenance costs” (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015, p. 493). The overall

Read More

Essay On Texas Death Penalty

950 Words | 4 Pages

The Attorney General alone donates 15% of his budget, to death penalty cases. Maintaining each death row prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 per year. It cost more than $31,000 to keep someone in prison for a year. The most recent report is that only fifteen states have gotten rid of it all together. These states being Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Read More

Bring Back The Death Penalty In Canada

353 Words | 2 Pages

Most of the money gets used on the food from the prisoners in jail. Moving on, there Is a lot of negativity around the society of people. The Death Penalty holds most of negative people, so then there 's more positivity. These are the reasons why Canada should bring back the Death Penalty.

Read More

John Wayne Gacy's Contributions To The Justice System

1030 Words | 5 Pages

“‘Death sentences represent less than one-tenth of 1% of prison sentences in the United States…,’” (Von Drehle, 9). Furthermore, death row is just a small fraction of the criminal justice system and can not be based on that alone. For instance, what many don't take into account is the justice systems allows for many states, such as the populous state of New York, to ban the death penalty. (state laws, p1)

Read More

How To Abolish Death Penalty In California

663 Words | 3 Pages

Using the taxpayer’s money to keep a prisoner in a special system is not good for anyone. The death penalty is not good at deterring criminals, unlike having life in prison. California should change their death penalty system to cut the billions of dollars going to keep prisoners on death row. Works Cited “End the death penalty in California.”

Read More

Incarceration Argumentative

596 Words | 3 Pages

However, for the type of punishments such as the death penalty, it is unclear what is the beneficial factor and government intentions. The death penalty program is a greater burden to incarceration. The death penalty program involves longterm imprisonment, prior to and following the imposition of a death row sentence, high cost to supply prison staff, court staff, lawyers, and the prison system. However, there is lack of benefit to society considering the evidence

Read More

George Bush's Opinion On The Death Penalty

623 Words | 3 Pages

Reviewing 15 state studies of death penalty costs conducted between 2000 and 2016, the study found that, across the country, seeking the death penalty imposes an average of approximately $700,000 more in case-level costs than not seeking death. The government could be using this money to buy guns or to make the military/army better. So if somebody tries to attack us like North Korea we could defend

Read More

Should Death Penalty Be Legal In All 50 States

458 Words | 2 Pages

In fact, a 2014 study showed that the US government spent $80 billion on incarceration alone. However, this number can be drastically cut down with the death penalty. The death penalty will reduce the amount of prisoners, which in turn cuts down the amount the government spends.

Read More

Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

159 Words | 1 Pages

It is not only about the sentence it also has so much to do with money too. Just for one death penalty case it averages up to 1 million to 3 million dollars. Some people do not deserve the death penalty because of false accusations or for being framed

Read More

The Controversial Topic Of Capital Punishment

1442 Words | 6 Pages

Capital punishment is one of the most controversial topics about our legal system. The death penalty is used as the most severe form of punishment, however many people think that it is too severe. There are many reasons why the death penalty is in effect including to deter crime and give closure to the victim’s family. The death penalty is an acceptable form of punishment, as long as the person is given a fair trial and their crime is deserving of that severity. Being the drastic punishment that it is, capital punishment helps deter people from committing crimes.

Read More

Persuasive Speech: Why The Death Penalty Must End

767 Words | 4 Pages

Each death penalty case in Texas costs taxpayers about $2.3 million. That is approximately three times the cost of imprisoning somebody in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. That is crazy! The government could actually do something good rather than something flawed and hypocritical. Taxpayers complain about paying taxes.

Read More

More about Argumentative Essay: The Death Penalty In The United States

Related Topics

Open Document