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?

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Replies

    • I agree that certain people like Ted Bundy should be put on death row; however, I do not think that we should be allowed to torture death row inmates. If we allowed torturing inmates, the government would most likely be sued for inhumane treatment and violating human rights, even if they may or may not deserve it.

  • I think that the united states should keep the death penalty. Many people deserve to get the death penalty. People who have murdered lots of innocent people deserve to die. We should trust the government to enforce it. I think the risk of innocent people dying is worth punishing criminals.

  • I beleive they should keep the death penalty because if a case is so bad and they go to jail for life they could kill more people so i think if the case is bad enough they should have the dealth punishment. I think as long as the government is truthful we can trust them.

    • I completely agree with you. If a certain case is bad enough, they should not be allowed to live.

  • I believe the US should keep the death penalty. I've seen people who have been sentenced to life and they get out on parole when they only served like 40 or 50 years. The death penalty give the victims or victims families closure that the criminal will never hurt anyone again.

    • I mostly agree with you. I believe that a murderer should not be able to have the chance to re-enter society because of parole. Killing someone is an irreversible act that cannot be undone. However, I believe that most of the time, the victims' families will probably feel that putting someone to death would take too long, because most of the time, it takes 20 years at minimum to actually kill an inmate. 

  • I think we should keep the death penalty. We should only use it when it is very importnant though, like someone killing 7 people. The death penalty is a long and expensive process. To give someone the death penalty we should make sure they have for sure done the crime before killing them.

    • I agree that we should use the death penalty for very serious cases. I also agree with you that we should be certain that they have done the crime.

  •  I think that we should keep the death penalty. For instance some people go to jail for a murder or something even worse. I would think that all people would want the murder to die in the death penalty. I also think that if a crimmanal creates such havvoc they do desereve to be killed witht the death penalty...

  • I think that we should keep the dealth penalty. Some people do such dangerouse acts that they should not be aloud to be aloud to be set free again. Some people don't even deserve to be murdered for absoulty no reason. If a crimminal commits such a dangerous crime like killing multiple people the sould be sentenced to the death penalty. 

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