Currently, the death penalty is legal in 31 of the 50 states in America. This means that each year, hundreds of people, including some who are innocent and have been unjustly sentenced, are destined to be put to death in a cruel and unusual way. By getting rid of the death penalty, and reinforcing life without parole instead, not only would we not have to murder these criminals, but it would be a decision that would give the government a lot of benefits.

Firstly, abolishing the death penalty would give mentally-ill or emotionally unstable people space for rehabilitation. It is estimated that about 10% of all people sentenced to death are mentally ill (Oadp). Even though they may have committed horrible crimes, people who suffer from mental instability still are part of our society, and as such deserve the proper treatment and rehabilitation in jail rather than being killed. Moreover, removing the death penalty in these 31 remaining states would save dozens of innocent lives who have been unjustly put in Death Row. Within the last 30 years, 138 men and women have been released from Death Row after they were proven innocent, some of which came within minutes of execution  (Oadp). Several others have not been so fortunate, and their lives have been unjustly cut short, and can’t be brought back. Reinforcing life without Parole, or in other words being punished to die in jail, would give these people more

time to prove their innocence and enjoy a free life.
Another benefit to abolishing the death penalty is that it is a far better alternative economically for the government. The death sentence is costly, with one Sacramento Bee cost study showing that its average cost during a case is $3 million (Dye, Tracy). This comes from the time consuming and expensive process of evidence being collected for the crime and jury selection, given that life is at stake. Moreover, the cost of simply maintaining and feeding each criminal in death row annually costs $90,000 more each year than it would for a jail sentence (Deathpenaltyinfo.org). A 2013 estimate concluded that in fact, just the state of California would save $90 million per year if it were to completely eliminate the death penalty (Dye, Tracy). These are numbers that should not be ignored, and which prove that removing the death penalty would not only be an ethical and moral decision, but would also leave huge economic benefits on the country. After all, by receiving a life sentence without the option to parole, a criminal would not be a danger anyways, and there is no need to spend millions of dollars to kill him.

However, there are still many sides to this argument, and many people who are pro the death penalty claim that it lowers the number of crimes. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that there is any reduction in the homicide rates between a state with the death penalty and a state without it. The North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty stated that the number of murders actually declined when the state stopped using the the capital punishment. In the same statement, the Coalition pointed out that “most people on death row committed their crimes in the heat of passion, while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or while suffering from mental illness. They represent a group that is highly unlikely to make rational decisions based on a fear of future consequences for their actions” (Dye, Tracy). In other words, they claim that most of the time someone who kills does not properly think about his actions’ consequences, and therefore whether the punishment waiting for him is the death penalty or a life sentence in jail does not even cross his mind at that moment.                                                               

Another commonly mentioned argument for the keeping of the death penalty is the moral side to it, and how by killing those who killed others, we get revenge for the families who have suffered the loss of a loved one. However, these is a decision based on emotion and passion, while our criminal justice system should be based on facts and evidence (Dye, Tracy). In the words of the great Mahatma Ghandi, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Killing the convicted criminal will not bring satisfaction to the victim’s family, and it will most certainly not bring the victim back. In fact, many such families have eventually come out against the death penalty. Whereas it is normal to fall under the heat of emotions, what has happened has happened, and we need to keep looking forward. Killing even more people will not solve anything.

The death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment, which not only does not lower crime at any rate, but also leaves a lot of room for mistake and the taking of innocent lives which can’t be brought back. Murdering a killer for pure revenge and satisfaction will not help with anything in the lives of family members who have lost loved ones. It is a punishment which should be removed throughout all of the United States and replaced with the much more ethical and economically benefiting alternative of life without parole.