Why The Death Penalty Is Wrong

Every year tax paying Americans spend a good amount of the money they make on taxes, what some of us do not know, however, is where that money is going. A good amount of our money is going towards the death penalty or capital punishment. However, the death penalty is not doing us any good considering the amount of money is spent on it per year. The death penalty should be illegal in the United States because it is proving to be ineffective and is very expensive. The death penalty is not reducing the crime rate in the United States. “Almost all police chiefs surveyed ranked the death penalty last among their priorities for crime fighting, saying they did not believe-based on murder rates-that it deterred homicides,” (“Life Imprisonment is

“The average cost, from arrest to execution, for a single death penalty case ranges from $1 million to $3 million dollars,” (Death Penalty Fast Facts”). This is money they are using to kill people, which is morally wrong. The government is in major debt and this what they are spending money on? They could use this money to help us get out of debt. “I no longer believe you can fix the death penalty. It throws millions of dollars down the drain,” (Costs of Death Penalty vs. Life Imprisonment”). The death penalty is throwing millions of dollars down the drain considering that it is not doing anything to help the crime rate. If we continue to waste money on the death penalty imagine how much more money will be “thrown down the drain.” The average cost of death penalty incarceration per year in the United States is about $1 billion. $1 billion dollars is a lot of money to begin with. $1 billion dollars could be used to do so much for various different things in this country other than just the death

“States that use life imprisonment as an alternative to the death penalty are spending less money on their prison systems per year,” (“Life Imprisonment is Preferable to the Death Penalty”). This is a good thing because these states now have more money to spend on things that mean so much more and could have a much greater impact. If more and more states do this, the more states that will continue to abolish the death penalty. Prisoners who are sentenced to life imprisonment often get jobs at the prisons to help cope with issues in their daily lives (“Life Imprisonment is Preferable to the Death Penalty”). This is a great thing because even though these men and woman committed major crimes they are still able to live a somewhat normal kind of lives. If we continue to do this maybe when these people get out of prison, if they even get out they are somewhat normal people and not