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Capital Punishment Essay: The Death Penalty In The United States

1974 Words8 Pages

The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is the execution of an offender sentenced to death for violating the law. Ever since the first colonists arrived in America, the death penalty has been used. The first recorded execution was in 1608 and by the revolutionary war, all 13 colonies had a law allowing the death penalty and every state except Rhode Island had over ten crimes punishable by it. When writing the constitution, the founding fathers allowed the death penalty. The constitution clearly states in the Fifth Amendment that the death penalty is allowed. In 1790, the punishable crimes act listed the crimes which could be punishable by death. These crimes included murder, treason, counterfeiting of federal records, and …show more content…

There is no data, statistics, or studies that show states with the death penalty having lower crime or murder rates. Also, states that have abolished the death sentence have not shown increases in crime. There isn’t any reason to have the death penalty for the sake of scaring people away from crime. Richard C. Dieter says that in the past 25 years he has reviewed death penalty cases and all the finances related with them. He can truthfully say that the cost of executing a criminal is clearly more costly than the system of handling a criminal with a lesser punishment. Everything involved in a case with the death penalty is at a greater magnitude. There are more lawyers, more experts, longer trials, two trials instead of one(one for the crime and one for the punishment) and many appeals following the case. These costs come from tax dollars and needless to say could be used for more important issues. Maybe the most one sided aspect of the death penalty is how the poor get the death penalty more often. The way to arguing a case in court and perhaps getting out of a death sentence is through a good attorney and those who can’t afford one have one appointed to them. It’s unfair for a person to be defended by a low level lawyer while the other side of the case may have much better representation. It does not make for a fair trial and does not show

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The death penalty sends a message to citizens; a message that says murder is not outrageous, unless the state is doing it as a sanction. This message helps to justify civilian killings of people believed to be deserving of death and may possibly even cause an uprise in vigilante style murders. This message also leaves an almost open air on what is wrong and provides no consistent moral ground for society to base their beliefs on. This does not mean that people will suddenly think murder is a favorable deed, but it may cause some to not realize how terrible it is. Joseph Summer wrote this in an article titled “Some Adverse Effects of the Death Penalty in History”: “…people learned 3 lessons from the government’s violent example: to use

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  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

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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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Radeler and Traci L. Locock conducted their own research. They titled it “Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates?” In 2008 they sent questions to some of the top criminologist and one of the questions found that “eighty-nine percent of the criminologist don’t think that the death penalty is effective.” (Radeler , Locock 2009 pg. 501). The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is one of the key fighters trying to get rid of the death penalty.

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The death penalty is very expensive. Defense costs were about three times as high in death penalty cases and prosecution costs were as much as four times higher than for non-death penalty cases. according to a report released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, "The Budgetary Repercussions of Capital Convictions," by Katherine Baicker. Counties manage these high costs by decreasing funding for highways and police and by increasing taxes. I believe that the death penalty should be banished.

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First, it is not a deterrent to murder crimes committed. The death penalty has no deterrent effect on crimes committed because many murders occur when people are under the influence of either drugs or alcohol, or because of their mental instability, so they do not think of the consequences of their actions (“Should the Death Penalty Be Allowed?”). Another reason the death penalty should be abolished is because it is inhumane and barbaric. Most opponents believe life in prison is a better choice for criminals just for this reason as life in prison is not an inhumane and cruel punishment (“Capital Punishment: Should Capital Punishment Be Allowed in the United States?”). Furthermore, the death penalty should be prohibited because it is not right for the government to have the power to take away life because they believe it is a right everyone should have (Parks and Ward 6).

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Another pressing issue associated with the death penalty is the morals behind it. It teaches society that if someone has done something wrong you could just murder

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Some of the crimes that are punished by death are murder, drug trafficking, adultery, and witchcraft. In most countries, the top ways of execution and most common are electrocutions. hanging, shooting ,and the most common is Lethal Injection (Death Penalty: Pros and Cons).   Some also claim that the death penalty does not always follow the rules that the death penalty is suppose to be clean, quiet and humane.

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