Death penalty has been a controversial issue in the United States for years. Many arguments have brought up the question of whether or not we can properly condemn a murderer by committing the same crime against him. It is generally beneficial to examine why select prisoners end up on death row in certain states in America because they have a variety of negative effects. Death penalty leads to a lot of havoc. It psychologically damages prisoners, emotionally hurts families and economically divides society.
There are many factors that cause a prisoner to end up on death row; the crime itself, the motive behind the crime, and the environment. The immediate cause of death penalty is the crime being done in the first place. The crime committed that makes a prisoner eligible for death penalty is typically murder, but in certain states sexual abuse of a minor and
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Drawing from the Karla Faye Tucker case mentioned above, Ronald Carlson was the brother on one of the victims that was murdered. Prior to the execution, he had stated that he no formed opinion on death penalty. After he witnessed the lethal injection of Tucker he said, “Watching the execution left me with horror and emptiness, confirming what I had already come to realize: Capital punishment only continues the violence that has a powerful, corrosive effect on society.” (Telagram, 2008) Due to his new change of heart to the issue, he joined this Christian-affiliated organization called Journey of Hope which relies on the rehabilitation of convicts, rather than death penalty. The organization has over fifty people who are family members of murdered victims speaking out against death penalty. Some claim that they are left with a feeling of guilt after knowing that somebody was murdered for what the public likes to refer to as