Capital Punishment Essay: The Death Penalty In The United States

The Death Penalty The death penalty has been used for centuries. Whether it was to kill a witch, or it was because someone was rude to the king, the death penalty has been around. Though mankind has had many advancements, killing is still the answer to many people. Knowledge has spread, and now the majority of people do not believe in witches, but the government has taken the power of the king to say who stays and who goes. The state decides who dies. “1,436 people were executed in the United States from 1977 through May 2016” (“Should the Death Penalty be Allowed?”).The death penalty should not be legal in the U.S. because it allows the government to play as God, it violates the fifth commandment and the eighth amendment, and innocent

The fifth commandment is “You shall not kill”(“The Fifth Commandment”). The government and the murderer are both breaking this commandment. The eighth amendment is “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted”(“Eighth Amendment”). But, the way they are put to death is the worst part. “The guards grabbing the inmate, shoving him in handcuffs. Pushing him through the halls and forcing him into a chair that can shoot two thousand volts into the person who is strapped into it. After he is drenched in water with a sponge, the inmate waits for pain and death to consume him”(Chuan). Murder by electrocution or lethal injection is both cruel and unusual. “It took two hours to complete Joseph Wood’s execution in Arizona, two hours of him jerking in pain while strapped to a gurney. Botched lethal injections have become so common, capital punishment is most certainly cruel and unusual”(Chuan). One particular confusing part is that the government forbids AND encourages murder, depending on if the murder is on their terms. “You as a citizen are not allowed to commit murder unless you are the government and you see fit”(Costello). This total disregard for human life shows almost the same ruthlessness as the initial murderer. If, however, the murderer was placed in the military before he started murdering, he would be praised for it! People argue

“There are several documented cases where DNA testing showed that innocent people were put to death by the government”(Messerli). It is unfair for even one person to be wrongly put to death. “Since 1973, 144 people on death row have been exonerated…. that's just 1.6 percent. But if the innocence rate is 4.1 percent, more than twice the rate of exoneration...”(Levy). This is to say that two percent of people put to death were wrongly accused. That is two percent too many. When it is being decided if someone is suitable to kill through capital punishment, there are twelve jury members, a judge, and two attorneys. The attorney's job in the case is to win. Therefore, in many cases, the prosecuting attorney withholds evidence. Some attorneys know that if they win that case, an innocent person is put to death, but they follow through. Mistakes happen, however, who is to say that the government is not making the same mistake as the real murderer? One thing is the same in these instances; the perpetrators are free with more power than ever. An accused person who is facing death for something they did not do had to die knowing that the real murderer may never be found, and the victim’s family has to live not knowing or even living with the fact that their loved one’s murderer may never be brought to