By: Caitlin KellyThompson

Introduction
There are 32 states in America that preform the death penalty, New Mexico, Maryland and Connecticut have abolished it but still have inmates waiting on death row. The death penalty is a law that is plaguing America. This law is outdated and should be thrown out of the justice system.

Money and resources being consumed

Families not getting closer Innocent peoples lives being lost Crime not being effected

For all reasons stated above the law should be thrown out.

States with and without the death penalty

DEATH PENALTY STATES (32)
Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Delaware Florida Georgia Idaho Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi Missouri Nevada New Hampshire North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Washington Wyoming Alaska Connecticut* Hawaii Illinois Iowa Maine Maryland* Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota New Jersey New Mexico* New York North Dakota Rhode Island Vermont West Virginia Wisconsin District of Columbia

NON-DEATH PENALTY STATES (18)

Montana
Nebraska

U.S. Govt
U.S. Military

*Inmates remain on death row.

Information from DeathPenaltyInfo.org

Harm 1:
The cost and effects of the death penalty.
DeathPenaltyInfo.org informs us that When comparisons are made between states with the death penalty and states without, the majority of death penalty states show murder rates higher than non-death penalty states. The average of murder rates per 100,000 population in 1999 among death penalty states was 5.5, whereas the average of murder rates among non-death penalty states was only 3.6. A look at neighboring death penalty and non-death penalty states show similar trends. Death penalty states usually have a higher murder rate than their neighboring non-death penalty states.

This consequence of death for death doesnt deter crime in the country no matter what state you live in, so we still choose to sentence people to this way for effectively no reason if it does not have any effect on the public country wide.

The cost

Harm 2:
The families of victims are being hurt
The common understanding of families when it comes to murder trails is that they want revenge and find the case as a helpful healing process. On the contrary, Dr. Gail Canzano, a clinical psychologist whose brother-in-law was murdered, speaks to this problem: I have many years of experience treating individuals suffering from the effects of trauma. From a professional standpoint, there is simply no doubt that the death penalty is injurious to the family members of murder victims. It forces people to continually re-live the murder of their loved one for years. In keeping the traumatic event front and center the judicial system re-traumatizes and re-victimizes the very people it seeks to assist.

There are many organizations to help traumatized families. I think MVFR is a good representation of all these sites that are clearly needed.

MVFR states on their website, The death penalty delays justice and it delays the healing process. Capital cases often take 25 years or more to reach completion, all the while keeping victims families stuck in the system much longer than is the case with non-capital trials.
For all the suffering the family goes through and the many family organizations and facts pointing to death penalty being a bad idea, the government still doesnt do anything about it.

Harm 3:
Innocent people are sentenced
It is rare to see people go free once they are on death row and for people to see them innocent if they have confessed to the murder before their trial, but this doesnt mean they are guilty. There have been many cases that people have confessed to the police under many hours of question just to leave them alone. The police believe this is cracking a confession out of them when really they just got an innocent (sometimes) person to confess wrongfully.

The website International Commission states that There have been and always will be cases of executions of innocent people. No matter how developed a justice system is, it will always remain susceptible to human failure. Unlike prison sentences, the death penalty is irreversible and irreparable.

Bill Mears reported on CNN online December 19, 2013 about a case that happened recently that proves innocence, In Missouri, Reginald Griffin was freed in October and his sentence thrown out after the state high court found the trial prosecution withheld critical evidence that may have implicated another prisoner in a jailhouse murder. He became the 143rd person exonerated from death row in the past 40 years.

Inherencies
-The economy is tanking by state because it's taking too much money for every case. -This so called "penalty" is not stopping people from committing crimes.

How to Change Them

-Stop sentencing people with the death penalty. -Resort to life in prison without parole instead. -Life in Prison will solve the families being traumatized by the trail and also save innocent people from dying.

-The families of the victims arent healing and being able to move on because every time they go to court for the trial their family members murder is being brought up.
-The risk of executing the innocent is very high.

Life in prison without parole will solve all the harms. Costs for the states that have the death penalty will go down, the families will not have to go to trial other then the one time, and the innocent can be sentence but let go, unlike in death sentences.

The death penalty needs to be thought of as a thing of the past, not a punishment that still prevents anything. This punishment has stuck around too long without someone really looking at the issues. Now, when America is practically going bankrupt and crime is going up (not down), is the time to stop this law from bleeding our country dry and implement a better and more humane alternative, life in prison without parole.