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Savannah Burton

Mrs. Jankowski

English 12

28 February 2017

The Abolishment of the Death Penalty

Ever since I was little, I have known about the death penalty from close family

encounters with such. Before I was born, a man named John Stephenson killed three people in a

battle over drugs. You wonder how he is connected to me? Well before he committed these

heinous crimes, he ruined my fathers life. My dad was cleaning up a bar in Newburgh one night,

when Stephenson came in and mistook him for someone else and hit him upside the head with a

metal shovel. This broke my fathers neck, knocked his eye out of socket and put a bruise on his

brain, making him disabled for the rest of his short-lived life. My dad spent the rest of his life

going under countless surgeries just to try and fix himself enough to be able to ride a bike with

his kids. Along with the insane amount of surgeries my dad had, came a very strong attachment

to pain medications. Four years ago, my dad passed away from a drug overdose. John

Stephenson ruined my fathers life along with ending three other humans, and he is on death

row for his cruel crimes. I do not think that the death penalty should be abolished because I think

that the punishment should fit the crime, it deters from possible criminals committing serious

crimes, and it contributes to overpopulation in prisons.

Many people oppose this claim, but I believe that the punishment should match the crime.

A lot of people believe that killing someone for killing someone isnt a real punishment, but if

someone can take another persons life, they do not get the luxury to walk as if nothing

happened. As soon as someone kills another person, that doesnt automatically mean that they
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get put on death row. In most cases, multiple charges have to be committed before someone is to

be executed. The justice system doesnt just give someone the death penalty just to do so; the

crime specified must be serious enough to deserve it. Many factors in a case are evaluated before

someone is put on death row, such as an offender's intent in the crime and the seriousness of the

crime.

Have your fears ever deterred you from doing something? Think about that from a

criminals perspective. If they knew that committing that major crime could result in losing their

life, they may be more apt to not take place in that. Each execution that occurs deters in 3-18

murders in the following year. Coincidence or direct link? It has been proven that in states that

have the death penalty, serious crime rates are lower because of the fear that this consequence

puts in people.

Prisons around the world are filled to the brim with criminals. They are literally

overflowing and have no where to put the offenders that they house. Approximately 22 prisons

across the nation hold over double their intended capacity. Many people say that we could just

build other facilities, but why waste more money doing that, when we could just stop assigning

life in prison without parole. Think about this, all prisons are given a minimum amount of space

for each inmate, and almost none of them reach this requirement because they are having to

double or even triple up inmates in each cell. It has been proven that a lack of privacy can result

in mental illnesses, violence, or even attempted suicides.

Many opponents to the death penalty think that the eye for an eye idea is barbaric and

unnecessary in todays society, but when someone takes someone elses life, the balance of

society and justice is disturbed, and balance needs to be found once again. Killing off an offender

is seen as balancing. It also gives major closure to a victims family. Knowing that a criminal got
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what they deserved must be very satisfying. On the other hand of that though, what if a family

starts to feel guilty later in life for taking THAT persons life? They need to realize that for a

crime that is cruel and heinous, the punishment must match.

A lot of people see the death penalty as unconstitutional because it goes against 2 of the

10 Bill of Rights. Opponents will argue that it goes against the 5th Amendment which protects

you from being held for committing a crime unless you have been indicted correctly by the

police because people can be falsely accused and then executed when they didnt actually

commit a crime. This is true, but for someone to be put on death row they most likely committed

more than one crime, and most of the time, people arent falsely accused multiple times. People

also claim that it goes against the 8th Amendment, which states that 'excessive bail shall not be

required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. People

claim that execution is cruel and unusual. While it may be unusual it is not cruel. Cruel usually

means painful or mean, and executions nowadays are not painful. One of the main reasons that

the death penalty is not unconstitutional is that societys norms and values have tremendously

changed since the Bill of Rights was written.

All in all, I believe that the death penalty should be in place for people who repeatedly

commit unimaginable crimes. If a persons mind cant deter them from right and wrong, then

they dont belong in everyday society or they will continue to do what they have done. This

capital punishment will continue to be a very debatable topic for citizens for a very long time,

until we can all learn to listen and agree.

Savannah Burton

Mrs. Jankowski

English 12
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28 February 2017

Works Cited

Anonymous. Sentence Must Be Proportional or Fit the Crime. Lawyers.com, 9 April

2015,http://criminal.lawyers.com/criminal-law-basics/sentence-must-be-proportional-

or-fit-the-crime.html. Accessed 28 Feb. 2017.

Does the Death Penalty Deter Crime?-Death Penalty-ProCon.org. Should the Death Penalty be

Allowed?, http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001004.

Accessed 28 Feb. 2017.

Mott, Ph.D. Jonathan D. Is the Death Penalty Unconstitutional? ThisNation.com-Is the Death

Penalty Constitutional? www.thisnation.com/question/018.html. Accessed 28 Feb.

2017.

Prison Overloading. Penal Reform International,

www.penalreform.org/priorities/prison-conditions/key-facts/overcrowding/. Accessed 28 Feb.

2017.

Retribution (Support of the Death Penalty). Retribution (Support of the Death

Penalty),http://deathpenaltycurriculum.org/student/c/about/arguments/argument2a.htm.

Accessed 28 Feb. 2017.

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