As of today, there are many who argue against capital punishment and have various of reasons to be against it. They will argue that the death penalty is unjust and unfair. I agree with this specific reason and that it should be limited to specific capital crimes. Right now many states use capital punishment for the crimes such as treason, aggravated kidnapping, drug trafficking, aircraft hijacking, placing a bomb near a bus terminal, espionage, and murder. In my opinion, these capital crimes should be limited to certain crimes such as treason, murder, rape, etc. Just to review, Thomas Jefferson tried to do the same by limiting capital punishment to just treason, but was unsuccessful. I agree with him a little bit. I would limited the different kinds of crimes to a smaller amount due to being a total amount of 2,817 waiting on death row as of January 2018 (Death Row Prisoners by State, January 22, 2018).
Many also seem to argue that capital punishment is a waste of taxpayer funds and has no public safety benefit. Maintaining each death row prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 more per year than a prisoner in general population (Cost of Death Penalty, January 22, 2018). It’s a fact that capital punishment is a huge payment, costing about 1.26 million dollars (Cost of Death Penalty, January 22, 2018). This versus life imprisonment is a
…show more content…
The murderer gets caught, tried, and convicted, and it’s understood that the punishment will be severe, but the person they have killed have no part in this play. The murderer has deprived the victims family and friends of a loved one. Their grief may sometimes never end until the murderer is put to justice through death. Sometimes it may not end with the murderer’s execution, but the execution does engender a feeling of relief at no longer having to think about the ordeal—a feeling which often fails to arise while the murderer still lives