Should the US Keep the Death Penalty?

Capital punishment, or more commonly known as the death penalty, is legal in the majority of states in the U.S. The exact number of states that have legalized capital punishment, is twenty-seven states, but Iowa isn’t one of them. This brings up the question, should the United States. keep capital punishment, or abolish it? The question is not just based on ethics, it is also a question about the process. You see, there are problems with the process to reach only one end goal, ending a life.

 

First of all, a big problem with capital punishment is that it takes way too long to even kill the prisoner on death row. On average, an inmate on death row will stay on death row for about 19 years, but they can even stay on death row for well after 40 years. During this time that a murderer stays on death row, the victim’s family will probably have already mourned and moved on, and many have probably passed away too. You could even raise a family in that time, and the kids and grandparents, if any, wouldn't have even known the person who had died. It’s just too little too late. It not only takes too long, it’s way too expensive. A study at Susquehanna University showed that on average, death row inmates cost about 1.12 million dollars more than the average inmate. This cost equates to heightening taxes for the general public to kill someone.

 

Is the risk of killing an innocent by keeping the death penalty even worth it? Because of human error in judgment, it is almost certain that some may be wrongly convicted and be sentenced to death. According to the research of Bruce Levin of Columbia University, he showed how errors in death penalty cases are magnitudes higher than in any other case. The study showed that around 4.1% of death row inmates may have been wrongly convicted. Take this with a grain of salt though, because the study doesn’t show how or who is wrongly convicted. Personally, I believe that the false conviction rate is higher than others, but not as high as 4.1%, I would say it's around 1-2%. In 1989, Carlos DeLuna was executed for the fatal stabbing and robbery at a convenience store in Texas. After the execution, another investigation was launched by Professor James Liebon which uncovered powerful evidence of Carlos’s innocence and was wrongly executed.

 

Some people may even argue that the punishment of life in prison could be worse than sentencing them to death. If a criminal who had murdered someone was sentenced to life in prison, then the criminal would have to live the rest of his life in monotony and contemplating what he had done forever. He would be so close to civilization, yet the prison keeps him from luxury and can break all hope. Some may also say that the government shouldn’t be trusted with the power to end peoples’ lives. With corrupt government officials and not being able to even decide on minimal issues in comparison to the death penalty, this power could possibly be abused by the federal government. If you are a fan of limiting the government’s powers, you should not want capital punishment.

 

In my opinion, although there are situations where the death penalty would not be unethical and should be used, keeping it just is not worth the risk. All in all, the United States should just not keep the death penalty as a punishment for criminals. This is because capital punishment is an expensive and long process, there is a risk of innocents being killed, life in prison could be worse, and we shouldn’t trust the government with this power. So, what do you think?

 

Sources:

 

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence/executed-but-possibly-innocent

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row/death-row-time-on-death-row

https://www.science.org/content/article/more-4-death-row-inmates-may-be-innocent?

https://www.amnestyusa.org/issues/death-penalty/death-penalty-facts/death-penalty-cost/

 

Questions:

 

Do you think that we should keep the death penalty?

 

Do you think we should trust the government to fairly enforce capital punishment?

 

Do you believe that the risk of innocents dying is worth punishing the criminals?

 

Why or why not?

You need to be a member of History 360 to add comments!

Join History 360

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies

  • I think we should keep death penalty because some people deserve it. Some people are just plain out evil and hurt so many innocent people. I wouldn't trust the goverment with the decsion though. I feel the family of the prisoner should be able to decide. I believe that it is worth punishing these people for the sake of the innocent lives being lost.

  • I strongly agree the U.S. should keep the death penalty. I belive that the serial killers should get a taste of their own medicine. The only way they should recive the death penalty is by leathal inhection not elctric chair or anything like that. if the U.S. dosnt bring back the death peanlty then the other prisioners would bring matters into their own hands and end up killing the serial killer just like what happend to jeffery dahmer.

  • I openily think that the U.S. should keep the death penalty. For the horrible thing that people did and that are found guilty. They should pay for their crimes. But I'm not totally sure that they should keep it. Maybe they should just keep them in prison until they die, but that might be considered a violation of the 8th amendment.

    • Personally, I don't believe that keeping an inmate for the rest of their life would be considered a cruel or unusual punishment because of the horrible act they have committed. I agree that in certain situations, a criminal could be punished with the death penalty.

  • I think we should keep the death penalty. I think we should make it in all states. I think that some people deserve the death penalty. For example, if you tortured someone then you should be tortured the same way or worse. It could even be a privilege to live in jail if you came from a low-income area. 

  • I don't think that the United States should keep the death penalty. It is such a long and expensive process as you explained. Moreover, I think that this kind of punishment also could have effects on the family of the victim and on the persons who are executing it. 

    • I agree completely. I also have not thought about the effects on the family of the person on death row, so it must be very emotional and a terrible time for them.

  • I agree with the death penalty as long as there is concrete evidence and the crime is bad enough.  However I don't think that it is a great thing because there could be errors.  I think there could possibly mistakes made in the justice system and I don't that it would be good if someone died for a crime they didn't do.

    • I agree that we should only put someone on death row if there is irrefudable proof that a person who committed an actrocity actually did it, that they should be put on death row. I also agree that it would be terrible that someone was wrongly killed due to errors.

  • I think that the death penalty should only be kept for the cases that are really bad and that they are convicted right. If they have done something really bad and have been convicted life without porole then the death penalty should be used because if not then the tax payers are paying for them and their needs. 

This reply was deleted.
eXTReMe Tracker