Why Is The Death Penalty Too Harsh

Did you know that at least 1 in 25 people sentenced to the death penalty are innocent? How about that death penalty trials are 10 times more expensive than a trial for life in prison without parole? Does capital punishment actually lower murder rates? Is the death penalty really a fair punishment for criminals or is this penalty too harsh? This has been an ongoing argument between people who support capital punishment and those who don’t for many years. In my opinion the death penalty is a cruel punishment for any criminal, no matter how violent the crime, especially if the perpetrator is falsely accused.

Many people have been falsely accused or framed for a crime they did not commit and suffered the death penalty. For example, in 1989 an innocent man from Texas was sent to death because the jury confused him with a murderer who had the same name, height and looked very similar to him (http://www.factslides.com/s-Death-Penalty). Innocent people being falsely accused is one of the many reasons why capital punishment is deeply flawed. Another example of when someone was wrongly accused was in 2000 when Gary Graham suffered the

A trial for a person that would have to be sentenced to death costs $1.26 million while cases without capital punishment cost $740,000. Where is the jury getting money to fund the death penalty? Taxpayers. On average, taxpayers in states where capital punishment is legal have to pay at least $90,000 more a year to fund death row than taxpayers in states where the death penalty is illegal (http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/05/01/considering-the-death-penalty-your-tax-dollars-at-work/). A study done in 2011 found that California spends $184 million tax dollars a year to fund capital punishment. (www.death.rdsecure.org) Do individuals that pay taxes really want to fund putting criminals, sometimes innocent people, to