Why The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished

In America, half of the states still have the death penalty as a punishment of crime. The death penalty should be abolished because the death penalty convicts the innocent, whether it is through police brutality or false confessions. Also the death penalty can rack up a lot of money that is often paid by the state or federal taxpayers. These cases could reach up to the millions whereas cases with life in prison can only reach up to the thousands. Even with the death penalty’s cost and false convictions, criminals would rather choose to die than face the punishment of life in prison. Also, criminals who start the appealing process to receive the life in prison punishment often give up and choose to die because it is easier for them. Many people

Unfortunately, Patterson has still not been granted his appeal even though there is no DNA linking him to the crime and the biggest piece of evidence being the fingerprints at the scene did not match Patterson’s fingerprints (“Meet the Death Row 10”) When the false confession of these crimes were given and these men were wrongfully convicted, it left the real suspect free and able to commit more of these crimes and claim more innocent people, while these men were innocent on death row just waiting to be heard by the courts to gain their

For most people facing death they would rather die than live the rest of their life captivated behind bars. In addition to the prisoners, some victims would rather have the person face their life in prison than die. For Darlene Farah, the mother of Shelby Farah, who was shot and killed in a robbery, would rather have the killer face their life in prison than sit on death row (“Mother Opposes”). Farah, prior to the incident was not a supporter of the death penalty, but when the incident occurred, she just wanted the prosecution to take care of the situation they found best (“Mother Opposes”). The reasons why she recanted her decision was that she realized that she would spend years until the execution actually occurred. She new that the criminal went to sit on death row in the appealing process for years, about twenty to thirty years, and by then she has predicted that she would probably pass by then. This woman does not want to live the rest of her life going through the court systems and getting notifications about the killer of her daughter (“Mother Opposes”). Farah knows for sure that she would rather have the criminal pay by living his life in prison so that she can finally move on from this horrible