Running header Whats wrong with the death penalty in America?

Whats Wrong with the Death Penalty in America?

Michael K. Taylor
American Intercontinental University Online
May 15, 2016

Abstract
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Running header Whats wrong with the death penalty in America?

The United Sates leads the world in executions by government hands than any non-terrorist
country by far. Is this acceptable given the high costs of these types of cases. It could cost some
states millions more than it would to just lock the offender up for life, and yet we allow this to
happen. A couple of other reasons that the death penalty should be stopped is the fact that it does
not deter crimes from happening, and the innocent lives that it takes. If you stop to think about
the victims in these cases then you must also consider the high cost to them if they are made to
sit through the trial and listen to the details of the crime itself, why dont we just use the
resources we have to help them heal from this and move on. I understand the desire to get even
among the families because I have been there, and I believe that the only true path to healing is
by mercy. So I call to you in America to write your representatives and get them to stop the act of
government sanctioned murder. `

Whats Wrong with the Death Penalty in America?

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Running header Whats wrong with the death penalty in America?

Many people believe that the death penalty is more cost-effective than housing and
feeding someone in prison for life. In reality, the death penaltys complexity, length, and finality
drive costs through the roof, making it much more expensive. It is a bloated government program
that has bogged down law enforcement, delayed justice for victims families, and devoured
millions of crime-fighting dollars that could save lives and protect the public. (Justice, N.D.)
California Gov. Edmund Brown said, The longer I live, the larger loom those decisions I had to
make as governor. Looking back over their names and files now, I realize that each decision took
something out of me that nothing not family or work or hope for the future has ever been able
to replace. (Nelson, 2015) Do we really need to put that kind of burden on the citizens of this
great country? Is it really necessary to justify homicide if its for the sake of revenge? Thats
what the death penalty essentially is. Rarely does the thought of being executed stopped a crime
from happening, in fact it costs states more for the entire trial process than it would to house him
on death row for the rest of his life. In reality the loss of life costs both the states and tax payers
more than just putting a person away for the rest of their natural life. Its time America, the death
penalty should be abolished in all fifty states and its territories.
The number one reason that the death penalty should be eliminated is the costs; states pay
approximately the same amount to keep an inmate in a cell 24 hours a day than to try him for a
capital crime. Financial costs to taxpayers of capital punishment is several times that of keeping
someone in prison for life. Most people don't realize that carrying out one death sentence costs 25 times more than keeping that same criminal in prison for the rest of his life. (Messerli, N.D.)
That is alarming considering all the cost of housing inmates in a maximum security prison. They
must be escorted by two or three guards at all times, medical costs, food, electricity used,
clothes, beds, sheets and blankets, and any other costs that may be incurred. The burden is even

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Running header Whats wrong with the death penalty in America?

higher on smaller counties. Jasper County, Texas, raised property taxes by nearly 7% just to pay
for a single death penalty case. (Gold 2002) How many hungry people can be fed with that extra
money, or homes built for the homeless, and better yet how many other crimes could be
prevented with the extra costs of trying just one capital crime? Then multiply that by the number
of death penalty cases that are tried each year, and there is your budget for the country, aid for
other countries, and if we are lucky enough to feed the hungry in our own country. The list of
things that could be done with that money is endless, but lives are not.
Figure 1 from the Death Penalty Information Center website. ( Center, N. D.)

Secondly, the death penalty is not a true crime deterrent in any of the fifty states; moreover,
the death count is usually higher in states that do carry the death penalty. It seems to me that
since the year 1990 the gap has grown between these two sets of numbers, but is that enough to
say that it would lesson the death rate in America? Who knows?
"It is very clear that deterrents are not effective in the area of capital punishment," said Dr.
(Center,
N.D.)
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Jonathan Groner, an associate professor of surgery at Ohio State University

College of Medicine and Public Health who researches the deterrent effect
of capital punishment. "The psychological mind-set of the criminal is such
that they are not able to consider consequences at the time of the crime.
Most crimes are crimes of passion that are done in situations involving

Running header Whats wrong with the death penalty in America?

intense excitement or concern. People who commit these crimes are not in a normal state of
mind -- they do not consider the consequences in a logical way," Groner observed.
Deterrents may work in instances where the punishment is obvious and immediate, neither
of which are true for the death penalty. (Elliot, 2007)
One thing that I am certain of is that it is time to give this a shot. If it doesnt lower the death
rate, then there is something seriously flawed in our country. We have been killing people for a
long time now and that hasnt worked; lets try locking them away for life and see is that changes
how things are done in this country. If you stop to consider what the doctor is saying here, then
these people that are not in their right mind would be insane right? We dont kill insane people or
people that clearly couldnt tell right from wrong at the time of the offense; so we need to take
this option off the table and start by incarceration and rehabilitation.
Finally, the third reason that the death penalty should be eradicated is the fact that
innocent people are killed for crimes they didnt commit and this is irreversible for the victims
and their loved ones. At least 4.1% of all defendants sentenced to death in the US in the modern
era are innocent, according to the first major study to attempt to calculate how often states get it
wrong in their wielding of the ultimate punishment. (Piklkington, 2014) It seems like every year
there are more and more people that are released from prisons all across the country due to
wrongful convictions or improper representation, but that still doesnt bother anyone. Since
1973, 151 people have been released from death rows throughout the country due to evidence of
their wrongful convictions. In 2003 alone, 10 wrongfully convicted defendants were released
from death row. (Center, N.D.) One thing that is certain is that we should not be willing to
accept the death penalty as an option due to this. Its the same as killing these people ourselves if
we sit back and do nothing.

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Some people would say that this is not for us to decide, but it is. The victims families
deserve to be left alone to grieve and move on because their pain is real too. They deserve to be
heard, but they dont have a right to use the state to carry out their vengeance. We need to use the
resources that we have available to help them move on and cope with the pain not sit through a
trial that makes them relive every aspect of the loved ones last moments on earth. Let them be in
peace. So many people say the death penalty is a crime deterrent, and that innocent people arent
locked away but all of that is false. If we just stopped trying people for capital crimes and
wasting the valuable resources that we need to stop other crimes, then maybe we could stop all
murders and heinous crimes from happening in the future. Then again maybe we cant, but we
need to try something different if things are going to go forward. The death penalty has been
used for states to exact revenge on people for far too long, and I say its time that we let God be
the judge and not a panel of twelve.

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References
Center, D. P. (N.D.). Deterrence: States Without the Death Penalty Have Had
Consistently Lower Murder Rates | Death Penalty Information Center:.
Retrieved from deathpenaltyinfo.org:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penaltyhave-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates#stateswithvwithout
Gold, R. (2002, January 9). Counties Struggle With High Cost Of Prosecuting DeathPenalty Cases. Retrieved from www.wsj.com:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1010527927506582520
International, A. (N.D.). Death Penalty and Innocence. Retrieved from
www.amnestyusa.org: http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/deathpenalty/us-death-penalty-facts/death-penalty-and-innocence
Justice, E. (N.D.). Equal Justice USA Wasteful and Inefficient:. Retrieved May 16,
2016, from ejusa.org: http://ejusa.org/learn/cost/
Messerli, J. (N.D.). BalancedPolitics.org - Death Penalty (Pros & Cons, Arguments For
and Against, Advantages & Disadvantages):. Retrieved from
www.balancedpolitics.org: http://www.balancedpolitics.org/death_penalty.htm
Nelson, S. (2015, October 8). I executed 62 people. Im sorry: An executioner
turned death-penalty opponent tells all - Salon.com:. Retrieved from
www.salon.com:
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/08/i_executed_62_people_im_sorry_an_executi
oner_turned_death_penalty_opponent_tells_all/
Piklkington, E. (2014, April 28). The Gaurdian. Retrieved from
www.theguardian.com:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/death-penalty-study-4percent-defendants-innocent

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