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Capital Punishment Essay: Death Penalty In The United States

830 Words4 Pages

"Since the initiative became law, California taxpayers have unknowingly spent more than $5 billion to maintain a death row that now houses 747 convicted criminals. During this time, only 13 people have been put to death, at an eye-popping price tag of $384 million per execution." July 7, 2016 - Ron Briggs. Capital punishment is only legal in 31 states in the United States, of these 31 states a small portion still allow electrocution, gassing, hanging and firing squads. The only other industrialized democracy in the world that allows capital punishment is Japan according to CNN. Capital punishment should be illegal in the United States, it costs taxpayers millions, makes our country look bad and it doesn't work.

Capital punishment is costing everyone in the United States unnecessary money. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org, every prisoner on death row costs a whopping $90,000 more per year than a normal prisoner. This money is coming directly from your tax dollars. On top of that a case involving the death penalty can cost over $500,000 more than a case without. The death penalty is …show more content…

"My family and I believed the death penalty would serve as the ultimate warning to criminals but nearly 40 years of evidence proves it does not work", Ron Briggs. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org the highest murder rates are in the south, where the highest Capital Punishment count is. A poll in 2009 carried out by the DPIC found that police chiefs rank the death penalty last in ways to reduce crime. Think about it, I life in prison is just as bad as capital punishment. It would make sense that Capital Punishment is not working, if someone is crazy enough to commit a crime that would get them a lifetime in prison, then they are still going to do it even if their life is on the line. These criminals don't think they are going to get caught, it doesn't matter to them what the punishment is because they don't think it will affect

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Richard Ramirez’s trials alone cost California 1.8 million dollars before coming to an end by his death. Ramirez was costing taxpayers millions for 23 years before he died ending the financial burden. Financial costs to taxpayers from the death penalty are several times that of keeping someone in prison for life (Messerli). The death penalty combines the costliest parts of both punishments, lengthy and complicated death penalty trials, followed by incarceration for life. Everything that is needed for an ordinary trial is needed for a death penalty case, only extra.

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“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

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According to Julie Delcour, “The Cost of the Death Penalty Outweighs its Benefits to Society,” she states that death penalty cases are much more expensive than other criminal cases and cost more than throwing them in jail for life

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Additionally, many people believe that the death penalty will stop future criminals from doing terrible crimes. However, the South has the highest execution rate in the US and they also have the highest homicide rate while the Northeast has the lowest execution rate and the lowest homicide rate (DPIC). The death penalty will not stop criminals from doing terrible

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974 Words | 4 Pages

A case study was shown that people who get life in prison without parole can cost just as much through the ways of appealing due to the infinite amounts they can appeal to the court and jury and people on Death Row are less likely to appeal as much as people that have a life sentence in jail without parole do. (Edwin H. Sutherland) There is the counter argument that life without parole is cheaper and yes it is at the very beginning but with time and a good lawyer that is involved in every case where there is this punishment involved the price drastically jumps. It goes from at least $100,000 to an

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254 Words | 2 Pages

the California death penalty system costs taxpayers more than $4.6 billion

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1100 Words | 5 Pages

Why does everyone seem to feel the need to cover themselves up? We all have unique qualities, but since it’s different from the stereotype, we lock it in box and throw the key away. Not everyone is supposed to be the same and that’s something that needs to be publicised more. In William Shakespeare's, Hamlet, the characters in the book also feel the need to change themselves to retrieve the acceptance of others.

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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.

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Very few criminals really get deterred by the death penalty. A Bristol prison chaplain says that, “...out of 167 condemned criminals whom he had interviewed, only three had not witnessed an execution” (Weil 2013). The criminals sentenced to death row were not deterred by the death penalty, even though almost all of them have witnessed a hanging. Capital punishment is not an effective way to deter criminals, since the prospect of spending one’s entire life behind bars sounds even worse. The criminals who think they can get away with their crimes, also think that they will not be executed if convicted.

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1924 Words | 8 Pages

The Death of Capital Punishment Should we put capital punishment to death? Capital punishment has been used as far back as the eighteenth-century B.C. The death penalty has spread from Great Britain to the States during the American Revolution, where it has brought a whole slew of problems and despair across the country. Capital punishment may seem to be the solution to heinous criminals, but it should be abolished due to the extensive costs, the fact that it is a form of cruel and unusual punishment, and the tremendous emotional stress on everyone involved.

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430 Words | 2 Pages

Since the reinstatement of the federal death penalty in 1988, 75 defendants have been sentenced to death of whom 3 have been executed and 10 have been finally removed from death row, according to The Death Penalty Information Center. Given the popularity of the death penalty in present day America, it is fair to assume that there are perhaps justifications for it, though there are plenty of people who firmly oppose it. Without going into the details of any given judicial system, there are several reasons to support both sides of the argument. Capital punishment is such a powerful notion, although not all crimes are punishable by death, there are many advantages to being pro-death penalty when it applies. Death penalty costs the government less

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All over the U.S. and around the world, it is biased and is used disproportionately against different minorities within our communities. Since people make mistakes, there will always be that risk that a person would be executed by mistake. Furthermore, the cost associated with putting a person on death row is making each state think twice about using this flawed and unjust system. More than twenty years ago this country got on board with experimenting with new death penalty statutes aimed toward correcting the injustices and uncertainty of the past concerning the death penalty. There now is an abundance of evidence, in the form of statistics, expert opinion, and personal accounts, which clearly signifies that the death penalty remains contaminated with injustices such as race, economics, local politics, and many other factors that have nothing to do with the specified purposes of capital punishment.

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994 Words | 4 Pages

According to Nick Gillespie who is an American journalist said, “Consider that between 1980 and 2012, California spent $4 billion administering death penalty cases while actually executing just 13 individuals.” However, the fact is that it actually costs more to keep the criminals in prison for the rest of their lives. It was reported by Marc Santora (2013) who is an American journalist that the New York City paid about $168,000 to feed, house and guard each inmate in 2012. According to New York State (2016), the New York City had over 12,000 inmates resulting in $2,016,000,000 of cost in 2012. If the criminals are sentenced to death then the cost amount could go higher and higher which depends on how long they live and if there is not something such as the death penalty is in place.

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898 Words | 4 Pages

It makes America look cruel & disgraceful. The death penalty is uncalled for. First, the death penatly is more espensive than

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520 Words | 3 Pages

According to “Death penalty Center, 80% of experts rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. (M. Radelet & T. Lacock.) And according to the deathpenalty.org, without the death penalty we have lower crime rates. The South accounts for 80% of US executions and has the most regional murder rate. (D.Cooper).

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