Capital Punishment Essay: The Ethics Of The Death Penalty

“Our criminal justice system is fallible. We know it, even though we don't like to admit it. It is fallible despite the best efforts of most within it to do justice. And this fallibility is, at the end of the day, the most compelling, persuasive, and winning argument against a death penalty” (Spitzer, 2012). These are the words of Eliot Spitzer who was a political commentator and Democratic Party politician who served as the 54th Governor of New York from January 2007 until his resignation on March 17, 2008. Spitzer held strong arguments regarding the justice system in the United States, with the death penalty being one of his common topics of discussion. Many argue about the ethics of the death penalty, and whether or not it is right to take

Politicians are using the death penalty as a superficial solution to crime so that they can distinguish themselves by their toughness rather than the actual effectiveness of the death penalty. The most common alternative to capital punishment is life imprisonment with no parole. The capital punishment trials are much longer and more expensive in each segment than other murder trials. Capital trials are longer and more expensive at every step than other murder trials. Hugo Adam Bedau is a leading anti-death penalty scholar and had this to say regarding capital punishment

Defendants are also much more inclined to insist on a trial when they are faced with losing their life. The cost continues to add up even after the conviction, as there are constitutionally mandated appeals, which involve both prosecution and defense costs on top of the other costs. At the end of the day this means that the true cost of the death penalty includes all the added expenses of the “unsuccessful” trials where the death penalty is not achieved. Additionally if a defendant is convicted, but avoids the death sentence, the state will still have to pay for life imprisonment, as well as the increased expense for the