Essay about Ban The Death Penalty

Submitted By Jbritter
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Put An End to Death Row

Everybody makes mistakes. Some people choose to make more significant mistakes than others, but at the end of the day, no one in this deranged world is perfect, not a single person. An annual average of around 2.3 million American citizens are incarcerated each year in the United states. Of those 2.3 million citizens, since year 2000, an annual average of 3,350 prisoners are sentenced to death row(Source H). These people who were at some point in their life, probably just an average person, and the next thing you know, their mistake lead them to death row. In most areas of the world this tactic of punishment is considered cruel and a very inhumane way to punish the actions of a criminal. I would also have to agree, and state that I think the death penalty is a cruel thing and should completely be outlawed in the United States, along with every other country that has it in the world. The death penalty should be outlawed because it goes against a constitutional amendment, and by doing so, it takes away from the freedoms of others, and causes inhumane punishment to continue year after year.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. In the eighth amendment of the United States constitution it clearly states that the act of cruel and unusual punishments shall not be inflicted in America. If the death penalty is not a large violation of this amendment than I don’t know what is, and as citizens of the United States, I feel as though we should follow the document set in place to guide our country in the direction of success from our founding fathers. Not only does the constitution state we should not inflict any cruel punishment among the citizens of America, but puts so much emphasis on treating people as equals, and I think it makes a great connection to the people in prison. Sure, all of the people that get put onto death row are usually put on there for a very extreme cause, but every single inmate inside of the prison are guilty of at least one action against the law. A death penalty is just an excessive punishment, that isn’t eat all effective and kills the innocent more than the guilty for a large percentage of it anyways(Source C). If this were the case, then not only would it not be singling out certain prisoners above all others, but it would also allow for innocent people to not die from accidents in court of law. After the court case of Atkins v. Virginia, the supreme court even outlawed the use of the death penalty on criminals that are mentally retarded(Source A). That in itself violates the whole entire idea of all people being treated as equals, and that even if a mentally challenged person committed the same crime as a perfectly healthy individual, they would not get put on death penalty, just because they were born with dysfunctions. Annually more than 50% of the executed victims are found to be white, and over 70% of the death row victims are white as well(Source B). This process deprives many prisoners a year of their freedoms in America, even ones that could be considered unalienable rights.
Freedom could single handedly be one of the most important rights in the entire world, not only in the United States. Most all prisoners that are sentenced to a long time already lose most of their freedoms. However it is fair to say that they have deserved their freedoms to be taken away because of their previous actions leading up to their time in prison. On the flip side of that statement, the average of 3,350 prisoners a year are sentenced to the death penalty, and not only have their freedoms taken away but their lives taken away as well. Our own prison keepers are killing thousands of prisoners a year(Source G). These people don’t even get looked down upon in our society today, which in itself is messed up that because they are killing a criminal it is okay for them to do. In research leading up to writing this
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