Death Penalty Ethical Issues

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According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there has been a total of 1,434 executions since year of 1978. The death penalty is the penalization of execution, administered to a person who legally convicted of a capital crime. According to DPIC, there are five ways to do the execution process (Part). Lethal injection (1977), electric chair (1888), gas chamber (1924), hanging (1890), and the firing squad (2010) all have a history of their own (Part I). These different methods are used to kill the convicted criminal all in a different way. The death penalty is an ethical practice because public safety is essential, it preserves taxpayers money, and it is fair punishment for the crime that the criminal committed.
Capital punishment was …show more content…

According to DPIC, Texas death penalty cases cost more than non capital cases due to the amount of executions. Each death penalty case in Texas cost taxpayers approximately three million dollars; which is about three times the cost of imprisoning someone (Part I). In Louisiana, the annual cost per inmate is around 15,000 dollars which does not include the cost of prison construction which is an average of 50,000 dollars per prison bed (Prejean).
According to Gallup, an eye for an eye and retaliation is the number one reason all people believe the death penalty should be applied (“Americans”). Most people believe that it is fair punishment to be executed because there is no appeal from death and it is appropriate punishment that should equal the crime. Families of the victims feel like the component of execution is closure for them knowing they took their families life away. This system will teach people to treat others how they would want to be treated and will also help people learn from their lessons from the punishment …show more content…

However, this family hardship also plays a role in the victim due to their loss (Phil). Families of the victim undergo through many trauma and depression and believe that the execution is closure instead of the criminal running on the streets convicting the same crime to innocent people. The counterargument with this is people believe more people will be benefitted by taking the criminal into counseling which additionally ties into people who believe in fair penalization (Fact). People who are for and against this system believe religion play a role when the death penalty comes in a case. Many religions have different credences on capital punishment. For example, the bible states capital punishment and murder is not allowed and salvation must be offered; which is why problem comes up with every person not being in the same religion and each religion is interpreted differently