FREE ESSAY ON DEATH PENALTY

DEATH PENALTY

Dustin Mills
CRJ 103M
Death Penalty 
Eye for an Eye
It is a time of mourning for the United States. They ate now being compared with the
countries they, themselves, condemn. The death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment
because it breaks sacred amendments and commandments. The death penalty should no longer
be an option. According to many people, we have progressed since the barbaric
stone-age,(Alexander 1) yet our judicial system does not seem to show it. Murdering
someone is a barbaric act, whether it is by an individual, society, or our government.
Everyone has heard the saying, two wrongs don't make a right, what one would call the
death penalty? The death penalty must be eliminated because it kills innocents and
destroys our fundamental human rights: the right to life (Reddal 1), it is racially
biased, it is based on revenge not as a deterrent and it does not deter crime, it is more
expensive.
Whether someone wants to believe it or not, innocent people have been sent to death row.
From 1900 to 1985, 350 people imposed with the death penalty were innocent, and 23 of
those people were actually put to death (Cruel 2). Supporters of the death penalty seem
to show no remorse for these deaths. One supporter said, In the medical profession almost
100,000 people were wrongly killed every year by errors, and we fix them and move on
(McLaughlin 2). These barbaric acts should not come as a shock, though. The United States
is one of only five countries in the world that execute minors. The U.S. joins Iran,
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen (Cruel 1). It seems that ironic that all four other
countries the U.S. condemns for human rights violations. Abma criticized the U.S. for
using a 'double standard' in human rights cases. He said a large gap exists 'between what
the U.S. is saying to others and what the U.S. is doing to its own citizens.' He cited
cases of police brutality and poor prison conditions, aside the obvious death penalty, as
examples (Yashiro). I have full sympathy for the families of murder and other crimes, but
I refuse to accept that one death justifies another (Reddal 1). Capital punishment is an
act from ages ago and should no longer be used. 
Although, the argument already seems logical there is still more that can be argued.
Contrary to popular belief, capital punishment is four to six times more expensive than
life imprisonment (McLaughlin 2). Most arguments for capital punishment are based on the
belief that it is less expensive. Supporters say counting the shelter, food, electricity,
water, and all other possible luxuries; life imprisonment would be more expensive. In
fact, due to all appeals the courts have from death penalty recipients, it would be less
costly to give an eight-teen year old life imprisonment without parole, rather than give
him the death penalty.
This brings us to the fourth reason. Many claim it is a deterrent. It is not. In recent
studies it has been shown that the states with the death penalty have a higher murder
rate than the states that already abolished it. (McLaughlin 1). It may not seem logical,
but then again people with an illness do not think logically. The death penalty is not a
deterrent; it cannot be. Lawes believed that the death penalty's defects made it a
useless punishment too seldom applied by a judge and a jury to be warning (Hughes 1). The
death penalty is not used as a deterrent; it's used as revenge. Retribution is just
another word for revenge (Alexander 1). Revenge should not be the reason to kill another
person. Revenge is the number one reason murders are committed in the first place. If we
collectively kill for revenge, we, in fact, give the green light for murder(Alexander 1).
Alexander made several good points, killing someone for correcting a wrong with a wrong
is never right it never was. Whether it be by the state, individual, or except in
self-defense killing of one person by another or others should simply not take place.
There is one final flaw in the death penalty, it is racially discriminative. Even where,
tried by a group of peers racial discrimination appears. Of the 4,016 people executed
between 1930 and 1990, 53 percent were black, yet black people comprised only 12 percent
of the American population. And the death sentences are 4.3 times more likely imposed on
convicted murders if their victims were white rather than being black(Cruel 2). When 12
percent of the population can declare ownership to 53 percent of the death row inmates a
statement is being made. This is not a statement claiming black people commit more
malicious crimes than whites, it is saying that there is discrimination in the legal
system.
Capital punishment is not something Americans should support or be proud of. Capital
punishment is a barbaric act that has drawn the U.S. back into the medieval ages. It is
quite evident that capital punishment has flaws. Of those flaws the worst is the
violation that the person maybe or was innocent. Capital punishment is a final say in our
legal system and it may wrong, and if it's wrong two families suffer. The death penalty
is an ineffective deterrent, morally violating, and goes against the basic human rights.

Bibliography
WORKS CITED
McLaughlin, Abraham.98 Executions in '99 Re-ignites a capital debate. The Christian
science monitor. 27 December 1999.
Redall, Braden. Europe, U.N. condemns Tucker execution. Reuters. 4 February 1998.
Alexander, C.C. Death Penalty is Wrong For Revenge or Any Reason. Capital times. 28 March
1996: 15A.
Yashiro, Mitch. Dartmouth College Speakers Criticize U.S. for use of Death Penalty.
University Wire. 5 May 1999.