Abolishing The Death Penalty In The United States

The death penalty is a controversial topic in the United States today and has been for a number of years. The death penalty was overturned and then reinstated in the United States during the 1970's due to questions concerning its fairness. The death penalty began to be reinstated slowly, but the rate of executions has increased during the 1990's. There are a number of arguments for and against the death penalty. Many death penalty supporters feel that the death penalty reduces crime because it deters people from committing murder if they know that they will receive the death penalty if they are caught. Others in favor of the death penalty feel that even if it doesn't deter others from committing crimes, it will eliminate

Over the course of history, the death penalty is a very heated and debatable topic. The death penalty is often viewed as inhumane and cruel. As a country that prides itself on American values and justice, we need to call attention to the criminals sitting in our jails. This is a monumental decision that no one wants to make, but someone has to. My personal stand point of the death penalty is that the death penalty is in place to help rid our society of criminal's that are incapable of being rehabilitated and released back into society. I support the death penalty because these criminals have caused emotional upheaval and are costing our society more funds required to sit in our jails with the life sentence with no parole rather than exercising

The data on the Executions and Murder Rate graph shows that even though the murder rate rose to an all time high when there was little to no executions between the years of 1965 to 1980, it did not start to gradually decline until around 1995, about fifteen years after the number of executions started to decrease. A lot of time and money is being used in capital punishment without fast-enough results. According to the data on the Executions and Murder Rate per State, 2010 section, the majority of states in this country either have outlawed capital punishment or not had any executions that year. States, such as North Dakota, has no capital punishment and less than 2 (per 100,000) murder rate, while Arizona has the death penalty and a murder rate of more than 6 (per

1,392 this is the number of executions since 1976. Seems like nothing compared to the 3,035 men and women who are still waiting for their last day. Men and women wasting our tax dollars sitting on death row waiting to be murdered since the cost of capital punishment is several times of that keeping someone in prison for life. Each death penalty case in Texas costs taxpayers about $2.3 million. That is about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years (CITE) and that’s JUST in Texas, imagine what that number would be world wide. As of July 2015, 101 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes but 31 states right here in American are still carrying

According to Billy Scott “The death penalty is discriminatory and does not do anything about crime.”in 1976, capital punishment was reinstated in the US following a four-year moratorium after the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1972. The death penalty is a flawed system currently an injustice to society.

The crime rate is lower in the states that do not invoke capital punishment, but as Walter Burns stated “the number of murders tend to rise with the crime rate in general-and not only in America (4). Capital punishment is maintained to hopefully show criminals that when they kill they will eventually meet the same fate. By enforcing the death penalty, the government could be trying to scare criminals from their crimes, and in some cases it has worked. When the death penalty was restored in Kansas, for example, the homicide rate dropped considerably (7). According to research done by Bedau, the crime rate continued to soar between 1960-1969, when capital punishment was rarely being used in most states (7).

Should the death penalty be banned internationally as a type of punishment? This form of punishment has been quite a controversial issue worldwide for quite a few years. The death penalty for hundreds of thousands of years has been a punishment for criminals throughout the world; in the past ranging from what we would now consider small crimes to huge ones, to the present where most if not all those punished with death penalty are for fairly large crimes.

Research has shown states who have abolished capital punishment find their murder rates lower than those of states with capital punishment. For example, last year 558 citizens were murdered in the state of Georgia (pro death penalty) and only 210 were murdered in the state of Massachusetts (anti death penalty) (“Crime in United States”). Politics say they

Capital punishment, is a risky process and involves multiple aspects that need to be banned. This practice has been used in different regions of the world since the eighteenth century. The English brought capital punishment over to the United States when they colonized the land and people. Capital punishment has been controversial ever since the beginning, there have always been different views on the matter. Thomas Jefferson proposed that capital punishment be used only for the crimes of treason and murder. Eventually, capital punishment grew into what it is today, a severe punishment used on first-degree murderers. Capital punishment is being implemented in some of the United States, but the States do not regard all of the negative

The capital punishment is expensive. It costs more to sentence a prisoner to death than giving him/her life imprisonment. The capital punishment cases have long and complex process. Therefore, they are much more expensive than life imprisonment. Every step is time-consuming and expensive. “The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice (CCFAJ) roughly estimated the capital punishment costs in California. The Commission estimated that California currently spends $137.7 million on death-penalty-related costs each year” (Petersen & Lynch, 2012, para. 19). In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, which is about three times the cost of imprisonment for life (Death penalty facts, 2013, para. 1). The death penalty is a waste of taxpayer’s money. This is money that could be used for the better of the

The question to justify capital punishment in our society has been strongly debated over time. Currently, only 19 states do not have a death penalty, including: Alaska, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. It is hard to believe that it is legal to murder murderers in 31 states. There does not seem to be any logical explanation for taking the life of someone who has committed a heinous crime when our legal system believes it is in their right under the law.

There are currently a number of Non Governmental Organizations dedicated to the task of abolishing the death penalty. National watchdogs like the Death Penalty Information Center collect and publish national statistics on the death penalty yearly and document all individuals executed in the United States. Though no large movement has been created by DPIC the work done by the organization had made it easier for abolitionists to collect information that would otherwise be inaccessible to the general public. This aids in the expansion of true information about the death penalty and humanizes those on death row by allowing individuals access to case and trial information. Large international organizations like Human Rights

The death penalty is a deter crime it’s no better than killing someone out here in the streets instead of trying to make peace the death penalty is making it worse it’s a harsh , inhuman and shameful punishment . Do you know that over 32 out of the 50 states still have the death penalty , there have been over 1,000 executions since 1976 and currently 3,035 inmates on death row .

The death penalty is a form of punishment for criminals and has been undeniable until more recently when whether or not it is an ethical practice has been called into question. Offenders, their families, and the victim’s families experience emotional turmoil during and after execution. Convicts that get sentenced to death may remain on death row for several years and, during that process, some rebuild their lives within prison. Inmates have the opportunity to help other prisoners through leadership, uplifting justice programs and becoming a good listener. In 2014, Jeff Ferguson was “executed for the rape and murder” of Kelli Hall. Although her family believed that the execution would heal all their emotional wounds this was not the case.

Nearly every civilization has historically used execution to punish criminals, although the customs and procedures are different today. Since World War II, people have been trying to abolish the death penalty. Today, ninety countries have abolished it for all offenses; eleven countries have abolished it except for special circumstances; and thirty-two others have not used it for at least ten years. Executions around the world are nearing record levels and the United States is one of the four countries who contribute to the record amount of 97% of the execution total. A report released by Amnesty International in 2005 shows that at least 3,797 people were executed in 24 countries in 2004. In 2004, the number of worldwide