Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Death Penalty

In the United States, from 1977 through 2016, more than 1,400 people have been executed by lethal injection (ProCon.org, “Death Penalty”). About 150 of the 1,400 people executed in the United States has been exonerated, or were acquitted of charges. For instance, in 1995 a man named Larry Griffin was executed by lethal injection for a murder which he pleaded not guilty to. They only had circumstantial evidence and had a couple of witnesses stating Larry Griffin wasn’t near the murder scene when it took place. Later in 2005, the case was reopened by a professor at the University of Michigan Law School to which his investigation confirmed he was innocent in the case. There are many other cases where an innocent person was wrongfully executed

It began as only being used for those who committed murder to later being used for numerous types of crimes in the 1700’s. In the early 1800’s many states began to reduce the amount of death penalty by putting criminals in imprisonment facilities and reducing the crimes punishable by death. In the 1900’s the Supreme Court had decided that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment and which led the U.S, to feel as if the death penalty shouldn’t be tolerated. To make the death penalty sufficient limits were made to who would get capital punishment. Today the United Nations Humans Right Commission has made it to where most states establish a moratorium for executions if they do not abolish

If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call (Pro- Death Penalty.com, “Who speaks for the victims of those we execute”).

They argue, a point often overlooked, the numerous victims who lost their lives because people feel it is a tragedy for the death of a convicted murderer (Pro-Death Penalty.com, “Who speaks for the victims of those we execute”).

Furthermore, upon stating both sides on rather the death penalty should be allowed or not, relativism would stand pertinent on who is right in this moral issue. Relativism is a moral theory that what an individual perceives as right or wrong is their choice. To relativist everyone is equally right in what they believe is morally correct. In other words, no one’s standpoint is superior to all other standpoints.

However, the problem with this thought process is that some people will do things like murder or torture children for fun because they believe it to be morally correct to oneself. Relativism cannot resolve moral issues if one cannot come to an agreement or common