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Capital Punishment Is Dead Wrong MAG
Murder is wrong. Since childhood we have been taught this indisputable truth. Ask yourself, then, what is capital punishment? In its simplest form, capital punishment is defined as one person taking the life of another. Coincidentally, that is the definition of murder. There are 36 states with the death penalty, and they must change. These states need to abolish it on the grounds that it carries a dangerous risk of punishing the innocent, is unethical and barbaric, and is an ineffective deterrent of crime versus the alternative of life in prison without parole.
Capital punishment is the most irreparable crime governments perpetrate without consequence, and it must be abolished. “We’re only human, we all make mistakes,” is a commonly used phrase, but it is tried and true. Humans, as a species, are famous for their mistakes. However, in the case of the death penalty, error becomes too dangerous a risk. The innocent lives that have been taken with the approval of our own government should be enough to abolish capital punishment.
According to Amnesty International, “The death penalty legitimizes an irreversible act of violence by the state and will inevitably claim innocent victims.” If there is any chance that error is possible (which there always is), the drastic measure of capital punishment should not be taken. Also, it is too final, meaning it does not allow opportunity for th accused to be proven innocent, a violation of the Fifth Amendment which guarantees due process of law.
District Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan argued against the death penalty: “In brief, the Court found that the best available evidence indicates that, on the one hand, innocent people are sentenced to death with materially greater frequency than was previously supposed and that, on the other hand, convincing proof of their innocence often does not emerge until long after their convictions. It is therefore fully foreseeable that in enforcing the death penalty a meaningful number of innocent people will be executed who otherwise would eventually be able to prove their innocence.”
As humans, we are an inevitable force of error. However, when a life is at stake, error is not an option. The death penalty is murder by the government. As a nation, we have prided ourselves in our government, its justice and truth. However, can we continue to call our government fair if we do not hold it to the same rules we do its people? Murder by a citizen will have consequences, yet a government-approved murder is not only acceptable, but enforceable. What message do we send the American people, and other countries, for that matter, if we continue to be a nation that kills its citizens, a nation that enforces the most barbaric form of punishment?
The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty states, “We don’t cut off the hands of thieves to protect property; we do not stone adulterers to stop adultery. We consider that barbaric. Yet we continue to take life as a means of protecting life.” No person, government-affiliated or not, has the right to decide if another human is worthy or unworthy of life. Our natural rights as humans, which cannot be taken away by the government, include the right to life. Humans are not cold metal coins that lose value; no act, no matter how heinous, can make a person less of a human being. However, for most it is easy to forget that each of the 1,099 executed since 1977 are fellow humans, not just numbers.
According to Amnesty International, “The death penalty violates the right to life.” Capital punishment contradicts our moral beliefs and claims of a fair and just government. The U.S. must join its political allies – including Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, South Africa, and most of Latin America – that have abolished the death penalty.
The death penalty is favored by some as an effective deterrent of crime; however, it is proven that states with the death penalty actually have higher murder rates than those without. It is proven that our nation does not need this extreme threat of punishment to prevent crime. In 2006, the FBI Uniform Crime Report revealed that the area of the U.S. that was responsible for the most executions (the South with 80 percent) also had the highest murder rate, whereas the Northern areas that had the fewest executions (less than one percent), had the lowest murder rates.
It can be said that the death penalty is the most overlooked form of government hypocrisy; we murder people who murder people to show that murder is wrong. It is this contradiction in policy that confuses criminals and undermines any crime deterrence capital punishment was intended to have.
Many people favor the death penalty as reparation for the wrong done to a victim’s family; however, in most cases, closure is not the result. Losing a loved one, no matter how that person is lost, is unbearable, irrevocable, and shattering. Pain like this is shocking and the victim’s family holds onto the hope that the execution of the murderer will bring relief and closure. Nevertheless, when execution day arrives, the pain is not eased. No relief can be gained, for their pain is an unavoidable, natural process of life. Victims’ families have founded such groups as the Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation and The Journey of Hope, which oppose the death penalty. They believe that they are different from those who have taken their loved ones and they demonstrate their difference by refusing to sink to a murderer’s level.
Capital punishment is immoral and a violation of natural rights. It is wrong for everyone involved: the prosecuted innocent, criminals, victims’ families, and our nation. We need to replace the death penalty and capital punishment with life without parole, a safer and more inexpensive option. The death penalty does not guarantee safety for innocent victims, it does not follow the goals and promises of our nation, it does not effectively deter crime, and it does not give closure to victims’ families. Nothing good comes of hate, and nothing good can ever come from capital punishment. It cannot continue to be accepted by a nation that claims to have liberty and justice for all. The death penalty is murder on the sly and it’s dead wrong.
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This article has 473 comments.
Its actually the opposite. Look anywhere, and you'll see that the cost for the death penalty are higher. "the death penalty costs an average of $2.3 million per execution, three times more expensive than imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years."
https://www.msu.edu/~millettf/DeathPenalty/6.html
wow! i had a whole seminar discussion on this with my classmates and the majority of them said that criminals that commit heinous acts should have a death penalty!
i tottaly agree because we are not going to make justice by killing a person! We should seek for a diffrent tactic where they will learn their lesson. Killing a living person is inhuman, wrong and it won't get us anywhere!
Take note that I am not commenting on the content of this essay, nor on your individual opinion. Thus, my comments are purely feedback on the layout of the essay. Because of your forward opinion, stated in the first paragraph, it is obviously an opinion piece. This opinion is restated over and over, not just again in the conclusion, but also in the body paragraphs. Henceforth, it feels to me, as the reader, as if I am reading a reiteration of an introductory and conclusion paragraph, rather than ever experiencing the "meat" of the essay. You also get off topic, suggesting that totally nonequivalent subjects give more reason for the reader to agree with the opinion of the writer, you. Also, you try to switch from an opinion piece to an argumentative. Either state the facts, or your opinion. Either make happy the logic thinkers, or those who already agree with you; otherwise you leave us all bored by the first sentence, and standing on the line as far as our opinions go, by the last. Other than these minor mechanical errors, I found it fine.
The death penalty is not wrong. First of all, not all killing is murder. for example, if you kill someone in self-defense, that's not murder. For the same reason, putting someone to death because of the horrific crime he or she has committed is not murder.
Second, the death penalty is for people who have committed a gruesome crime. Why should taxpayers have to pay to support a serial killer's lilfe in prison?
Third, the way criminals are put to death is by lethal injection. They feel nothing. The same cannot be said for their victims. The people who receive the death penalty have no concern for human life. Most of the time they would kill again, if released. And as for the innocent people put to death, that rarely, if ever, happens. Also, people spend decades on death row, plenty of time to be aquitted. And with new technology, innocent people are less likely to be found guilty.
I ocmpletely agree with this article. The death penalty is wrong and it is hypocritical. Plus, it is just illogical. If you want a crime to stop, then wouldn't the best way to that is punish the perpatrators in a way that teahes them a lesson or allows them to think about what tey have done? But with capital punishment, the perp is dead. They can't learn any lesson, and they can't teach any others that lesson. Thus crime continues.
I also have a problem with capital punishment because the innocent victims you mentioned are mostly African-American. Capital punishment is usually dealt out to black people, many of them who could've been proved innocent if they had had a fair jury or a good lawyer. And it has been proven that if you have a black man an d a white man that have committed basically the same crime (details aside), the black man will get capital punishment whiel the white man will get only jail. This is not right. I don't think capital punishment is right at all.
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1. The death penalty costs almost three times as much life in prison: https://www.msu.edu/~millettf/DeathPenalty/6.html
2. There are plenty of cases where the lethal injection has been botched and caused plenty of pain. Google Angel Diaz. And this study by Lancet shows that many more are like him "A team of medical doctors reported in the British medical journal The Lancet that in 43 of 49 executed inmates (88%) studied, the anaesthetic administered during lethal injections was lower than that required for surgery."