Death Penalty
Fact, it cost more to execute a prisoner than keep him/her in prison for life. About “$2 million per person vs. $500,000 (4x as much)” comes out from your pocket and the people in U.S. to execute a prisoner (Anti Death Penalty). “Total cost of death penalty is 38%, which is greater than cost of life without parole.” (US FAQs) The death penalty should be abolish because it not only is a cruel tactic, but it makes everyone else pay for it!
According to a report in the New Jersey Policy Perspective “The state's death penalty has cost taxpayers $253 million since 1983, a figure that is over and above the cost that would have been incurred had the state utilized a sentence of life without parole instead of death” (Anti Death Penalty). United State, Iraq, and China are the few remaining out of 137 countries that still use and support the capital punishment. What would the other countries think of us? The death penalty existence seems to continue and become a trend throughout the world. Smaller countries usually follow the more developed countries and because of our belief in the death penalty is it likely they will too use it. Will the death penalty get us anywhere? A national poll taken recently shows that the American people favored the death penalty. “Nationally, 48% of Americans favor the death penalty compared with 44% who prefer life without parole” (US FAQs).
There are many methods that are used to execute prisoners throughout the world. To name a few: beheading, electric chair, firing squad, hanging, lethal injection, poison gas, stoning, etc. The United State has preferred lethal injection as the method to execute their prisoners since World War II. It seemed that the lethal injection is more ethical but is it really? It should not matter if you die from any of the methods because it is still a cruel death. The death penalty is not really fair because it is applied depending on the case and the people. Sometimes murders who murder fifty people don’t get the death penalty, while someone who murders less gets it. “Serial killers such as infamous Gary Ridgway in Seattle who admitted killing 48 prostitutes and runaways got life in prison. An “angel of death” nurse in New Jersey who admitted killing 17 people got life” ( Anti Death Penalty). Sometimes race plays a big role. If you were a certain race, it can either help you or not. “In 82 % of the studies reviewed, race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty, I.e. those who murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks” (Death Penalty Information Center).
Even though victims or family of the victims will think they feel much better after the murderer is put to death. But their sorrow and wounds will still continue. To have the murderer execute is just the same doing what the murderer did. Journey of Hope, Bill Pelke, explains: "The death penalty has absolutely nothing to do with healing. [It] just continues the cycle of violence and creates more murder victim family members. We become what we hate. We become killers” (US FAQs). There is absolutely another option to the death penalty, life without parole. The sentence life without parole, enable the murders to learn from their mistakes and become a better person, or even when the convicted murder was actually innocent then the court of law will be able to correct their mistake.
The death penalty isn’t the only option! Life without parole can be a much better choice for one’s family, the murderer, and everyone else. The death penalty is only a cruel way to show no mercy, and that’s not what we want to show the world. The death penalty should be abolished because it doesn’t do any good. Giving the death penalty is only going to kill more people and isn’t that what we don’t want?
