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Should Death Penalty Be Legal Essay

836 Words4 Pages

Should the Death Penalty Be Legal in the United States? In the United States, the death penalty is legal in federal cases and in 31 states. This punishment is a sentencing option for those who commit the most heinous crimes, and is carried out in various methods such as: electric shock, firing squad, and lethal injection. However, there is no way to know if a person is the true perpetrator, just guilty beyond reasonable doubt. As a result, the legalization of the death penalty has lead to and may continue to lead to wrongful convictions. Unlike prison sentences, the death penalty cannot be overturned once the action has been performed. Therefore, the death penalty should not be legal in the United States. Due to a lack of certainty surrounding …show more content…

In 1985, the TIMES announced that the United States had wrongfully executed 25 people in the past one hundred years, this number can only rise as executions continue, executions before this time period were unaccounted for, and the innocence of many remains unknown. Though many officials claim that this is “An acceptable number,” no amount of innocent lives lost as punishment for crimes they did not commit is acceptable. When people who have been executed are found innocent, there is nothing that can be done to improve that person’s tarnished reputation or bring them back to their families and loved ones. The United States has only ever issued 7 pardons after these innocents have been killed, leaving many families with angry and very little closure. Although acknowledging these crimes the government has committed against innocents, the death penalty continues to be given. Recent studies estimate that between 1973 and 2004 about 4.1% of people on death row were innocent but only 1.6% of death row inmates were exonerated. This staggering statistic displays the number of wrongful convictions that go unnoticed and result in death overtime or through execution. The death penalty should be illegal as a result of the number of wrongful executions and the inability to reverse

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